New users feel free to interact here, long time user happy to provide helpful advice :)
Some post-battle smooching
self-indulgent post-geonosis doodle
he makes the sound, the sound the sea makes to calm me down
"First names were intimate."
I started re-reading Stealth and the brainrot continues.
+ Time of Death
Hey Will!
You seem to be very well-versed in the Star Wars books, and I was wondering if you could recommend essential reading as regards Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship (or character studies of them in general)? We all know about the ROTS novelization, but I was wondering what else you would recommend?
Any other prequel era book recs would be welcomed as well!
Apologies if you’ve already posted about this!
Obi-Wan and/or Anakin:
- Legacy of the Jedi 📖🔰📙
- Jedi Apprentice series 📖🔰📙
- The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi 📖🔰📙
- Padawan 📖🔰📗💙
- Star Wars: Republic: The Stark Hyperspace War 💥📙
- Master & Apprentice 📖📗
- Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: The Aurorient Express 💥📙
- Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: Last Stand on Ord Mantell 💥📙
- Cloak of Deception 📖📙
- Star Wars: Obi-Wan 💥📗
- Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace novelization 📖📕
- Rogue Planet 📖📙💙
- Jedi Quest series 📖🔰📙
- Star Wars: Obi-Wan and Anakin 💥📗💙
- The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader 📖🔰📙
- Age of Republic - Obi-Wan Kenobi 1 💥📗
- The Approaching Storm 📖📙
- Star Wars (2020) #25: "the Lesson (Obi-Wan & Anakin)*"💥📗
- Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones novelization 📖📕
- Star Wars: Republic: The Battle of Jabiim 💥📙💙
- Brotherhood 📖📗
- Age of Republic - Anakin Skywalker 1 💥📗
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars novelization 📖📙
- The Clone Wars: Wild Space 📖📙💙
- Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth 📖📙
- Clone Wars Gambit: Siege 📖📙
- Star Wars: Republic: Dreadnaughts of Rendili 💥📙
- Secrets of the Jedi 📖🔰📙
- Jedi Trial 📖📙
- Labyrinth of Evil 📖📙
- Dark Disciple 📖📗
- Star Wars: Obsession💥📙💙
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novelization 📖📕💙
- Star Wars: Darth Vader (2017) 💥📗💙
- Kenobi 📖📙
- Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader 📖📙
- Lords of the Sith 📖📗
- Thrawn: Alliances 📖📗
- Star Wars: A New Hope novelization 📖📕
- Star Wars (2015) 💥📗
- Star Wars: Darth Vader (2015) 💥📗💙
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization 📖📕
- Star Wars (2020) 💥📗
- Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020) 💥📗
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novelization 📖📕
📖 = book 💥 = comic 🔰 = YA 📙 = legends 📕 = quasi-canon (novelizations only canon when they line up with the films) 📗 = canon 💙 = favorite or essential imho
this list is not at all comprehensive, but merely the ones that i have found to be good sources for both/either characters as i've explored the lore over time!! they are not all of equal credibility, with legends and YA novels being less vivid in the mind than the canon ones. i'm listing so many because i like so many, but this is hopefully not intimidating as much as it is a full buffet for you to choose from!!!
also: 💙 Darth Plagueis 💙 it's not about the Team, but it is a phenomenal worldbuilding book for the prequels in general
<!--also also: the tv shows and movies are the most important sources for the characters, more important than the written word: the prequel films and the original trilogy, the clone wars movie, the kenobi show, the 2008 clone wars tv show, some rebels, (and then the legends 2003 clone wars tv show) are best sources for them. it’s a lot to watch but it's the most accurate representation of who they are!--->
Dex Reseacher Meowth
comic that makes you say poipole out loud in meowth voice
Ilia fucking Malinin’s world record breaking free skate
Top 5 Mustafar Quotes That Make Me Insane
1.After choking Padmé, fully high on the dark side, Anakin still offers Obi-Wan a chance to walk away. [+at the beginning of the book it's explicitly stated that Obi-Wan "frankly prefers to sit alone in a quiet cave and meditate" so... yes, anakin, it IS what he likes]
2.The iconic "identical, better than brothers, more intimately than lovers, complementary halves" quote, which is followed by Obi-Wan's inability to actually attack the man he came to the planet to kill.
3.Obi-Wan sensing death and deciding they should go there together
4. The repeated emphasis on how close they were and why this hurts so much more. It's personal.
5.The fact that "despite it all... Obi-Wan still loved him."
there's really no words for the cumulative impact of the 11 or so pages of the mustafar fight in the novel. it appears after about 400 pages setting the stage, and only 12 pages follow it before the end of the book. the fight stretches out on film as one of the longest of all time, but in the novel it's a harsh punctuation mark that pierces the paper and bleeds ink through the page. it stabs you, twists the knife, and fades away. i will never really get over it, i think.
All right, so maybe I went haring off to another fandom for awhile, but I will never fully let go of my STAR WARS fic reading roots because there's just so much incredible fic here and I have such intense feelings about these characters, like how can I possibly truly leave when this fandom knows how to scratch my id just right or make me cry over fictional characters or hyena laugh because you people are very funny? There's just so much fic that is so good that of course I keep coming back! Especially when it comes to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, there are just so many incredible people making incredible fics for them that feed right back into my love for their twisty, turny, complicated, beautiful, awful relationship. So here's a bunch of Obikin fic because the fandom is amazing and you should go love them as much as I love them, since you can hopefully completely sate yourself on a bunch of fantastic fic to read! Or idk send yourself into a grief coma because sometimes fic writers are almost as mean as canon was, but in the best way, the way that really hits you in the feelings place. Or idk idk just gorge on all the porn because DANG Obikin fandom brings the porn! WHAT KIND OF FIC YOU’LL FIND HERE:
- FICS THAT PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE WITH HOW GOOD THEY WERE
- CANON-COMPLIANT (-ISH, WHATEVER) AT LEAST UP UNTIL THE GALAXY GOES PEAR-SHAPED
- FUCK THE NOISE OUT OF ANAKIN SKYWALKER’S HEAD
- DARTH ASSHOLE CAT SHOULD BE GRABBED BY THE SCRUFF OF THE NECK AND SCOLDED BACK TO THE LIGHT
- FUCK YOU, CANON, THINGS GO A LITTLE NICER IN THIS UNIVERSE
- WORLD IS HARD AND COLD, OBIKIN FLUFF IS SOFT AND WARM
- MODERN AUS CAN BE FUN AND CHARMING AS HELL AND A GREAT CHANCE TO MAP CANON DYNAMICS ONTO A WORLD WHERE THEY CAN HAVE A HAPPIER LIFE, IT’S A WIN ALL THE WAY AROUND
- WHAT DID CANON EVER DO BUT BREAK OUR HEARTS ANYWAY? TIME TO TELL CANON TO FUCK OFF AND WRITE AN AU
- TIME TO CRY ABOUT SOME FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
I know you know a ton more about this stuff than I do, but I'm taking a course on Greek history and this one portion is talking about the Illiad and the speech Andromache gives to Hector about him being her father, mother, brother, and husband bc he's the only family she has. And it just makes me think about just how literally everyone takes the "you're like a father to me" line when we should be playing around with it so much more to make it hit that hard
Ἕκτορ ἀτὰρ σύ μοί ἐσσι πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ / ἠδὲ κασίγνητος, σὺ δέ μοι θαλερὸς παρακοίτης: / ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε νῦν ἐλέαιρε καὶ αὐτοῦ μίμν᾽ ἐπὶ πύργῳ, / μὴ παῖδ᾽ ὀρφανικὸν θήῃς χήρην τε γυναῖκα:
Nay - Hektor - you who to me are father, mother, brother, and dear husband - have mercy upon me; stay here upon this wall; make not your child fatherless, and your wife a widow (Il. 6.429-32)
Ahhhh this is a very moving parallel you bring up anon, thank you for reminding me of it!! You are right that the implications of it are under explored (the superficial reading of the father line can be.. distracting.. to many of us lol). Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship is variously described by each as father and brother, and I think you’re right that it’s not really about claiming literal nuclear family relation.
It’s more like how Andromache isn’t literally calling Hector her mother, but rather is grasping for words emphasize the magnitude of the importance of that person in their life. It’s maybe more like: You’re like a father because I love you. I care about you above others, I need you and want to make you proud. You are dear and essential to me in a way I can never safely put into words, but ‘father’ is close enough to get away with, close enough for you to understand the seriousness of our relationship.
In the Iliad, Andromache is fully dependent on Hector because he is everything she has left after her family died, and she needs him to know that. Using this constellation of family words, emphasizing the bond, it’s beautiful and moving in its original context. In Star Wars, it’s partially due to Qui-Gon dying and leaving Shmi, but really by choice that obikin is so codependent. Obi-Wan dedicated his life to a promise and in the process became too many things to Anakin, and I think he kinda filled too many roles in his life, but left emptiness and confusion too.
The categories of obikin’s relationship all merged and blended and became difficult to keep appropriate, even in canon. The shifting of generation lines, the shifting of boundaries between calling someone father, brother, best friend. You’re family, you’re not family, you’re closer than that, closer than friends, closer than family…It’s too much to put into one person, they’re way too important and have too many contradictory obligations. Like, a father guides and controls, a friend encourages and a brother variously abets and antagonizes.
Because of this role ambiguity, no rebuke from Obi-Wan was therefore fully authoritative, but also no camaraderie existed without a hint of instruction either. It was a recipe for disaster, and it hurt so much because there’s so much love there, love beyond description and classification, but it couldn’t save Anakin from himself, and Obi-Wan was the one left in the role of widow, holding the baby, left behind because of Anakin’s loss to violence, and it’s just…. ugh.
Master, I don't like sand...
hey what about an au where obi-wan raises luke on tatooine and for the first year or so he'd would just talk to the baby about every memory and even every nightmare because those are all rooted in love too and he knows when luke's older he'll need to mind his words and not say much more than a few things about luke's father to the boy for security's sake, but when he's a baby, he can say anything so he does. he says everything he can think of and most of it is about anakin, his padawan then his partner then his ....
it's a rough year. lots of tears from both of them. but so many late night talks too, broken man to orphaned baby. obi-wan doesn't know if he'll ever be able to teach luke to swim on a place like tatooine, but he has twelve different stories about teaching anakin. and if anyone's going to teach this skywalker to fly, it will be kenobi this time, alright, and it's going to be by the kriffing book. and luke's going to learn how to sit up straight with good posture....but oh, anakin used to sling his body upside down on the couch, head hanging off, just to annoy obi-wan. that was when he was still young and relaxed and he didn't have the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders, of course. and luke doesn't have to like boonaberries, obi-wan promises, but he'll save some credits to buy some anyway just to test, because once anakin ate a whole gallon jug of them after a twenty day siege and obi-wan and his men told him he'd turn blue from it, but it was aayla overhearing the joke and telling anakin that that's what happened to her that really made them laugh. and---and---and---
and then luke's grown up and at a cantina with his friends and they get on the subject of fathers, and biggs asks him if he knows anything about his dad, and luke's like 'well i know he fought in the clone wars! and he was a good pilot! and. i think i look like him....'
and biggs is like come on, old ben's never said anything else??? it's been 19 years!!
and luke thinks about it and he doesn't really remember anything but he remembers the sound of words like a waterfall and a warm feeling so deep it's almost like an ache, and he's like 'ben loved him. i know that. ben really loved him. i think he told me once, but i must have forgotten.'
"Glad you came"
commission for the fanfic Moonlight Serenade by @renlyslittlerose <3
please reblog, I paint for the # comments