The FanLit Project - "Thirteen Steps to the End of the World" (Part Two)
So continuing from the last post:
Five: highlights not just Anakin's tendency toward anger, but the fact that his rage is tied into his protective instincts, which become almost a compulsion for him as the situation deteriorates (in Attack of the Clones, he declares to Padmé, "I promise you, I will even learn to stop people from dying!" - a promise he attempts to fulfill in Revenge of the Sith, with disastrous results). selonbrody also uses this step to point up both his unrealistic expectations regarding Padmé (more than human, still an angel, somehow flawless, on a pedestal that both heightens his desire for her and makes her ultimately inaccessible, a problem that will always haunt their relationship) and his failure to pay close attention to Obi-Wan's instruction:
"'Padawan, are you even listening to me?'
'Yes, of course, master.'
But he wasn't [...]."
Curiously, the author undermines the surface of her text here by also creating the impression that Anakin doesn't really need to be paying attention in this instance; while Obi-Wan is still expounding on the problem (Senator Amidala is under fire from assassination attempts, and the Jedi are being assigned to protect her), Anakin is already working on a solution (seek out Jocasta Nu, investigate likely suspects). The scene therefore becomes a microcosm of Anakin's ambiguous, conflicted, never-resolving character.
Six: This step reconstructs Anakin's relationship with Padmé in terms of need; "and finally he remembers that this is what home feels like." Padmé is still on a pedestal, still "the angel that moves within him," but his desire for her - not so much physical as emotional - is beginning to outstrip his admiration here, a process that appears to be complete in the final scenes of Revenge of the Sith, so that selonbrody 's fic seems to catch at Anakin at moments during his slide down the slippery slope toward darkness, and then lose him again as he tumbles faster toward the bottom.
Seven: Ties Anakin's desire to protect his loved ones into an overwhelming guilt at failure and a growing obsession with failing again, a determination to do better next time that culminates in an untenable choice years later.
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Pausing again because, er, Real Life calls in the form of GTF obligations. Still more to come ...
Five: highlights not just Anakin's tendency toward anger, but the fact that his rage is tied into his protective instincts, which become almost a compulsion for him as the situation deteriorates (in Attack of the Clones, he declares to Padmé, "I promise you, I will even learn to stop people from dying!" - a promise he attempts to fulfill in Revenge of the Sith, with disastrous results). selonbrody also uses this step to point up both his unrealistic expectations regarding Padmé (more than human, still an angel, somehow flawless, on a pedestal that both heightens his desire for her and makes her ultimately inaccessible, a problem that will always haunt their relationship) and his failure to pay close attention to Obi-Wan's instruction:
"'Padawan, are you even listening to me?'
'Yes, of course, master.'
But he wasn't [...]."
Curiously, the author undermines the surface of her text here by also creating the impression that Anakin doesn't really need to be paying attention in this instance; while Obi-Wan is still expounding on the problem (Senator Amidala is under fire from assassination attempts, and the Jedi are being assigned to protect her), Anakin is already working on a solution (seek out Jocasta Nu, investigate likely suspects). The scene therefore becomes a microcosm of Anakin's ambiguous, conflicted, never-resolving character.
Six: This step reconstructs Anakin's relationship with Padmé in terms of need; "and finally he remembers that this is what home feels like." Padmé is still on a pedestal, still "the angel that moves within him," but his desire for her - not so much physical as emotional - is beginning to outstrip his admiration here, a process that appears to be complete in the final scenes of Revenge of the Sith, so that selonbrody 's fic seems to catch at Anakin at moments during his slide down the slippery slope toward darkness, and then lose him again as he tumbles faster toward the bottom.
Seven: Ties Anakin's desire to protect his loved ones into an overwhelming guilt at failure and a growing obsession with failing again, a determination to do better next time that culminates in an untenable choice years later.
----
Pausing again because, er, Real Life calls in the form of GTF obligations. Still more to come ...