My Skin: Song Challenge Fanfiction

[ansketil_rose]

Title: The Wages of Honour
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Wars characters, they belong to George Lucas.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 9,000
Pairings: Anakin/Padmé and Anakin/Palpatine (obviously)
Summary: A general campaigning on the edge of winter is recalled by his emperor - only to be shocked into remembering the past they both share.
Author’s Note:

Comments

[ansketil_rose]

Thank you! Just looking over it I see that many of my italics are still missing (I am an italics whore) and I have many typos. *sigh*

I wanted to take the characters out of their own context and put them in a context where their behaviour is not only acceptable, but admirable. Where "the Dark Side" is not marginalised and selling your life to your liege is the height of honour. That made for some interesting character developments.

I didn't want to go the whole way with this one. I didn't really have time and the setting is in some ways the opposite of Star Wars: the "dark side" is acceptable, but homosexuality is not, so because Anakin was educated in a seminary he shies away from it and cloaks sexual attraction as something else. I absolutely agree with you about sex scenes, many have become utterly dull and without any kind of power. I love writing good spontaneous erotica, but sadly it wasn't appropriate here. I tried to keep that idea of longing on Vader's part because Palpatine doesn't dare go so far either. I never said why, but I think it's there between the lines. ;)

Thank you so much for commenting on the ending! In some ways, I wanted to prove to myself I could actually kill off Palpatine. And... I admit that I have been reading Pasternak. So I was trying to recreate that atmospheric tragedy. No fucking fireworks! ^_^

[veronicaprof]

It all worked very well, and I hadn't even thought of Dr. Zhivago when I read this... but you're right! Shades of Camille or La Boheme, too, although perhaps that's stretching things a bit far....

In fact, consumption is such a lovely literary device for those of us who no longer have to worry about the disease, and I really appreciate your parallel between that kind of slow withering (of Palpatine) versus the sudden, annoying kind Lucas chose to foist off upon us instead. I still cling to the first explanation since I was using it long before he even thought of making the prequels, and I adamantly refuse to budge on that issue, no matter what. :)

I will try to re-read soon and give more thoughts and see if I can identify more literary and historical allusions!

I quite liked the part where P is telling Vader about all the people he will have to kill quickly when he takes the throne -- I did something similar in "Chains of Command," and totally believe such a conversation would take place!

BTW, do you plan a follow-up to the short one you just did with P being commanded to rest on the pleasure planet and Vader's "bull in a china shop" situation? I know it stands on its own very nicely, but I'd dearly love to read more. In fact, in a totally selfish maneuver, I'll let you know if I have any specific ideas for more. Heh.... :)

[ansketil_rose]

My main influences for this tale were Napoleon, the Austrian Empire, Doctor Zhivago and The Iliad, book 19. The classicist in me won't let go of the Virgilian system of revelation by references - it's terrible, since the the Homeric reference is the biggest clue to why Father Jinn was killed, although I'm sure you worked that one out without it.

Oh god, don't even start on how Lucas had Palpatine disfigured, if with you all the way. A more pointless scene there never was. You could cut it out of the film and the story line would not alter one whit. The only thing it does is make Palpatine look incompetent. I have fantasies where, if that's the effect of Force Lightning, Luke is horribly disfigured in RotJ.

Of course they would have that discussion! I wrote this partly as a protest against the immortality Palpatine is said to desire in the EU, so they had to have that talk - I do vaguely remember something similar in the cave. I love that tale of yours. :)

Oh, that? That was just this thing that randomly came to me in the middle of the night to cure my depression after writing such a stark ending to this story. Certainly, please do let me know if you have ideas for more! I had vague notions but nothing substantial, so I ended it where I did.

[veronicaprof]

What time *is* it there, anyway? We seem to both be up at the same time, although for me it is in the wee hours. :)

[ansketil_rose]

I posted the above comment at 7pm on Friday the 15th. I'm ludicrously ahead of everyone else I know online!

[veronicaprof]

I will see if I can come up with something specific for ideas. I'm sometimes plagued by the desire to write, and even phrases and scenes in my head, but they don't always gel into anything concrete. So please, if there's anything *you* would like me to write, let me know.... I can't promise anything, of course, but it might help me. I do remember Ziggy asking me to write a comedy a few months back, but so far the muse isn't cooperating on that one. Sith and comedy are such a hard combination.

I quite liked the "middle of the night" story. Let's see...does Vader spend the night? :)

[ansketil_rose]

I don't know... I suppose I always wanted to find out what happened with catamite!Luke and youthful!Palpatine and their meeting with rebel!Vader. Probably because I had thoughts in that direction myself with Alexis, that story has fascinated me. I generally find that Sith comedy has to be situational - otherwise it's just Palpatine's cynical and often hilarious inner-monologue to fall back on.

Does Vader...? You just want me to write some erotica, don't you? ;)

[veronicaprof]

Yes, sadly, that story died stillborn a long time ago. The problem was that without co-authors urging me on (Z.P.'s health prevented her from continuing to help, and Cara Loup lost interest in SW and moved on to Frodo/Sam fic, and M. J. Mink and I couldn't reach a consensus on where/what the story should go/be/do), I just couldn't do it alone.

For one thing, it seemed too much -- figuring out how to save the parallel universe Luke and Palpatine, and restore P and Vader, etc. without a co-author to offer ideas and criticism and to write some scenes from that Luke's pov. I never invented that character, so was never comfortable writing him or being in his head. And it is next to impossible to write a character without a sense of individual ego, and I made some progress in ideas of getting P to help give him one, but that was very hard as well.

And then the world lost all interest, with the exception of about 3 people.:)

But I keep thinking about the story from time to time, and wonder if I could start over, edit "Winter King" heavily and then proceed from there, with Luke being a bit less ego-less... Not sure.

You're so right about the inner monologues!

And as for your last question -- of course I do!

Let me know if you'd care to co-write something in that vein. :) After all, I think the amenities of a pleasure-planet should not be wasted!

[veronicaprof]

I'm tired, too, obviously, as I'm writing in fragments. Sorry about the numerous replies! How annoying....

Anyway -- immortality is all very well as a goal and even an obsession, but until one has achieved it, one had better damned well have a back-up plan for one's chosen and, yes, at least occasionally beloved, successor!

The disfiguration scene makes me curse and cringe every time -- and I thought nothing could be much worse than the Special Edition changes to the OT.... The only scene I hate as much or more is the damned Frankenstein homage at the end of ROTS, and Padme's labor -- is it surgery, or is it labor, damn it?!?!?! It's insane, is what it is....

[ansketil_rose]

Exactly. Of course Palpatine would have a back up plan - he's Palpatine! And he knows that if he dies without a strong successor his empire will crumble like Alexander's.

Ah yes - Frankenstein; it's disgusting and cheapens the entire film. Absolutely. But I still hate the disambiguation scene more. *sigh*

[ansketil_rose]

Um, hello there spell check! If only it were a disambiguation scene rather than a disfiguration scene! *facepalm*

[ansketil_rose]

Second paragraph: for "if" read "I'm"

I'm tired, lol.

[veronicaprof]

I received this at around 3:15 in the morning here. What time did you write it? I'm trying to figure out the time difference, LOL.

[veronicaprof]

And no, I don't know what UTC stands for.....ugh.

[ansketil_rose]

7.03pm for me. :)