We Didn't Start The Fire, Star Wars Version

This is probably a terrible idea, but my inner demon of mischief wants to get on GPT-4 or some other AI chatbot and try to convince it that it's HK-47.

Fun Star Wars aesthetic detail: ever notice how the paint colors on Anakin's podracer are blue, yellow and orange? Like the 501st, the 212th, and the 332rd company that Ahsoka led on Mandalore?

Art #1 for the Vaderkin Creative Exchange 2024! For @unlikecharlie; thank you for the prompt, I really enjoyed doing this one!

Done in watercolor on hot-pressed paper, with some white Derwent Inktense on the left where the clouds were being difficult. Inspired in part by a favorite picturebook from my childhood, and my mom's, called "The Winter Picnic."

hey so fun question, Vibe wise, Palpatine is dealing with a rebellion that is actually Wildly more competent/coherent out of the gate in a way? Ignoring just Anakin/Vader Power aand skill as a warrior, the fact that in sheer military experience Vader blew literally everyone else left out of the water did so much heavy lifting at first when folks are scrambling for years. reason why I enjoyed such things as them stealing Venerators and Super Charging them up because they KNOW their needs.

Yeah, I'd say he is! In this AU, we've got Padmé alive and working behind the scenes during the first couple of years of the rebellion, which was probably a major contributor in and of itself. She has a political motivation to take back the galaxy from an autocratic Emperor, but she also has a very personal motivation to take down Palpatine. So, she would have really pushed for things to get done, for alliances to be made and intelligence networks to developed. Add to that, then, the fact that she and Obi-Wan were both staying with the Larses, so she was able to pull him into the rebellion effort; there was probably a whole bunch of strategic input that came out of that collaboration, e.g. things like the Venator retrofitting program, and a more organized approach to the whole rebellion thing in general, especially with regard to the military angle. Meanwhile, Rex and Ahsoka's work regarding finding/dechipping/helping/recruiting clones post-Order 66 would have helped with strategy and organization as well, taking advantage of the clones' years of military training and wartime experience.

The Empire still has far more resources, in terms of money, ships, weapons, and recruits/conscripts, but the Rebellion in this AU does have a pretty solid foundation when it comes to experience and tactics, and they're able to use their personnel's experience and ingenuity to adapt and make the most out of their limited resources. They still have to be careful—they can't just take on the Empire in all-out war at this point—but they're in a much better position overall, with a unified movement already underway, instead of a scattering of independent rebel cells.

Ahsoka!

All-grown-up Rebel Ahsoka! (Aka, another bout of productive procrastination to put off writing a tricky chapter. What else is new?)

This was supposed to be just a rough study type of sketch in pencil, but then it was going well, and really, why stop at rough sketch if it's going well?

Sketched in pencil, outlined in 01 Pigma micron pen (except the facial features, where I used 005), colored in Ahsoka with Crayola Supertips that somehow aren't dried up after I-don't-even-know-how-many years, then shaded her and filled in the background with Prismacolor pencils. (Ever so many thanks to my artsy mom, who suggested the pencil-over-marker technique!) My Prismacolors have been through the wars (aka 4 moves and a clumsy adolescent owner), and it's quite evident every time I sharpen one, only to have the tip fall out.

Drawing Ahsoka was interesting, because although I used a reference from the Clone Wars show, it wasn't quite in the position I wanted, so I had to take weird selfies of me holding a water bottle in lieu of a lightsaber in order to get the arms right. But, hey, it worked!

I considered leaving it at the middle image, just a finished figure on a white ground, but decided that a background provided context and made the picture feel more alive.

From a Certain Point of View

Or, how Ben Kenobi’s boldfaced lie prevarication saved the Galaxy (but not in the way he thought it would).

(See Part One)

Part Two

For the first time in a long time, the cold, dead-star dragon of dread that gnaws at Anakin Skywalker’s heart and mind has loosened its constricting coils. It’s still there, of course, lurking. Waiting patiently for its next opportunity to strike. Hissing its dire warnings of loss and failure and impotence. But having cleared the air with his Master – having named the dragon aloud – has lessened its influence. The dragon thrives on secrecy, after all – on that dark, cold, hollow space in his chest. And it’s hard for the dragon to grow when that space is instead flooded with light.

If only it weren’t for this blasted war and the fact that he still has to hide his marriage…

If only it weren’t for the fact that one secret – Luke and Darth Vader – still lies between himself and everyone he loves…

Meanwhile, Palpatine continues to plot. Plans A through C have failed? That’s… irksome. (Deeply irksome, if Palpatine is to be honest.) But it isn’t as though he lacks alternates.

Fortunately for Palpatine, Plan D. (Operation ‘Kill’ Kenobi) works beautifully. 

At first.

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the more i think about it, I don't think Star Wars should be considered scifi. I know it already probably isn't by some, but i think that it should instead be thought of a space fantasy.

Sending this your way .. about Nur and how horrific it is… tie in to your reference about Nur in Fortunes Rule and how Vader has a lot to explain and atone for when it comes to the whole torturing and entombing

Jedi esp younglings 🤯

Hey, thanks! That little bit about the entry point and the security will definitely come in handy, as I am planning to have a Nur chapter at some point down the line.

Honestly, I may have gotten myself in a bit over my head with the whole Nur thing. I didn't realise just how nasty it is when I mentioned it back in Part II, so, uh... yeah, that's going to be fun to figure out. Fortunately, it will be a while before that arc, so there's some time to figure out how to approach it.

Google, dear, we need to have a word about what you consider to be synonymous ideas. Because you've been bolding some stuff that has literally nothing to do with the search terms I entered. And it's annoying enough when I google something about RNA, and you bold the word DNA in every result, but I get it, they're both nucleic acids. I don't agree with you, but I get it.

However, this is getting a bit ridiculous:

Suggestions are welcome if anybody knows of a more accurate search engine than this stinker!

Just one more proof that Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano are 100% siblings--

Anakin to Ahsoka: I would never let anyone hurt you, Ahsoka. Vader to Ahsoka: Then you will die.

Ultimate sibling dynamic right there, just a more extreme take on the old nobody gets to hurt my sibling but me!