just your local aaaa

he'd wear some kind of krayt dragon inspired mask. probably dark and broody vis à vis anakin skywalker, so probably black and matte, but still. i'm talking wavy horns and shit, super dope. it also makes him intimidating for the other senators so they're assuming he's some high and mighty rebel/warlord (and not all of 19 years of hormonal and generational rage)

rivals to friends to lovers anidala. that one political debate scene in the field from attack of the clones but turned up to 100. that is all

palpatine would definitely see the tension between padmé and anakin and use it to try to isolate the guy by having them spend plenty of time around each other. he's probably anticipating that they'll butt heads too much and that the "lovely and welcoming senator from naboo" will set a poor example for the rest of the senate and have him come to palpatine for support or just leave entirely - palpy's plans have thus far relied on this absolute unit in the force to have stayed in the outer rim >:( - but it ends up being a major backfire because then they fall in love.

on that note, since anakin's shadowing padmé, he's also shadowing her jedi protectors. them being one obi-wan kenobi and his new padawan ahsoka tano. one would think that obi-wan would be wary of this bizarre stranger and ahsoka would love his forthright and brazen nature, but it ended up being the opposite. obi-wan was endeared to him, finding the bluntness (which would come across as rude) as refreshing among politicians. it helps that obi-wan defended anakin from an assassination attempt in the dead of night and was the first person on coruscant to see him without his mask. Ahsoka finds him abbrasive and annoying, but will eventually come around.

anakin has some seriously awesome power in this au, probably more than shown in canon purely because he doesn't have the safety precautions as in canon. he practiced his power in the dead tatooine desert and exercised it on slavers, so when he yoinks another would-be assassin's ship out of the sky with the force, lets just say the jedi were surprised.

Anyway updated version (it’s really just that small addition)