hadthehighground | Empatheias IC Inbox

[To Leia, Obi-Wan's attempts at discussing this in a more vague sense, talking about anyone being capable of great good or great evil, is just a stalling attempt. She wants an actual explanation, not a discussion about the complex natures of humans. And as far as she's concerned, even though he spared Luke, all Anakin is capable of is great evil.]

To be influenced by someone to that extent, there had to be something resembling those feelings there to begin with.

[which she's convinced of, and partially why she's uncomfortable with Anakin himself. Luke may have seen the light in his darkness, but looking at him here, all Leia sees is the looming darkness underneath whatever light he wants to pretend he has.]

[Leia was looking for a cut and dry response, when there really wasn't one.]

We all have those feelings to some extent. Anakin was certainly not born evil, no more than anyone else.

[While it might be stalling a bit, and its not entirely what she wants to hear. Obi-Wan felt the point needed to be made just the same.]

I can't say there weren't signs. There were. And I didn't act on them as I should have. But if you're looking for a reason or person to blame for the creation of Darth Vader, there isn't just one.

[she's frustrated by his lack of the sort of real response she wanted to hear. It's not as if she expected an easy answer for just what had created Darth Vader, but she expected more than this. For such a large disconnect between the Anakin Padme knew and the Sith Lord Leia knew, she had assumed there was something more than this to cause that change.]

I'm not looking to blame Darth Vader's existence on anyone other than himself. [Well, she blames Anakin, as expected, but she still sees them as the same, and likely would for a long time, despite everything.]

Tell me what you do know, then. What actually happened?

[Obi-Wan is uncomfortable, and those feelings, though muted, would come through the connection. He didn't like talking about this. It's difficult, and he would rather avoid it. But Leia is persistent, and she does have a right to know in a way. On his end, Obi-Wan is sighing and running a hand down his face. This was not how he intended to spend his day. There would be a few minutes of silence as he walked away from where he was to find a more secluded spot.]

From the beginning then?

[she feels his discomfort, however faintly it might come across, and even in her determination to find answers, she can understand why he feels that way. There's a faint twinge of guilt over the connection that Leia herself feels for causing him to feel this way. But Padme was gone, and there was really no one else here she could turn to for answers. She isn't quite sure where the beginning is for this story, and how much of it was left out in what little she knew from Padme, so, her tone still focused and businesslike, she supplies what she hopes is helpful.]

I'm aware he was born a slave on Tatooine, and that this is where the both of you first met him.

Yes, that's right.

[Leia's slight change in tone is helpful, but the answers would still come slowly. So she would have to bear with him. It's a deeply painful subject for this Jedi.]

My master discovered him actually. But at his passing, I was charged with training Anakin as a Jedi. He was too old really, full of fear, and having formed attachments.

[and he would have to bear with Leia for not totally understanding Jedi rules. It's not her original question, sure, but the whole situation here is something she just isn't getting.]

I don't see how he could be too old. Luke had to be 19 when you started his training.

Well, I won't pretend to know the circumstances that are 19 years in my future.

[He knew that Luke has been trained late and was a bit bewildered and disappointed in that. But it was likely out of his control.]

But during the time of the Order, Jedi were trained from a very young age. Anakin would have been refused if not for my Master's insistence and the prophecy.

Maybe he should have been.

[it's the first thought that came to her mind, and were they talking in person likely would not have been shared with Obi-Wan. But that was the danger of telepathy. It may make her sound more composed than she truthfully is, but it's harder to stop those thoughts from coming through.]

What do you mean "prophecy"?

Perhaps.

[There was a bit of sadness and guilt leaking through the connection at that. A lot of pain and suffering may have been spared if Anakin hadn't become a Jedi. For both Anakin and the galaxy.]

It was said that someone would come to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith. My Master strongly believed that Anakin was this Chosen One.

[well wasn't that ironic, the one that was believed to be destined to destroy the sith became Darth Vader. Hearing that on top of everything else she knew about Anakin really doesn't help his case much in her eyes. Leia can't help but scoff at that so-called prophecy. She might not really know much about what he did to the Jedi, but she's sure she has a good guess for it based on everything else she knows Darth Vader to have done.]

Clearly he was mistaken. [She knows this is Obi-Wan and that she should perhaps be nicer or more understanding of what he's going through sharing this story with her, but every one of Anakin's let downs, from his turnabout on slavery as the Emperor's right hand man to his clear letdown of the Jedi just piles on to her already poor image of him.]

[A few moments of contemplative and conflicted silence later and Obi-Wan replies.]

Maybe, and yet, I'm not so sure.

[This was something he's wrestled with since that battle on Mustafar.]

The signs were all there. The Force swirls around him like no one else I've known. I've seen him do incredible things. I don't believe that my Master was mistaken or the prophecy so much as we were. It may be that we simply... misinterpreted it.

[He paused again but continued before Leia could comment.]

Anakin was never completely happy in the Jedi Order. Much was expected of him as the Chosen One, and there were those who were critical of him. He picked up on this, and he became dangerously bitter. Add on top of that the influence of an unknown Sith Lord, and a fear of loss, well. It was a disaster waiting to happen I suppose.

[This is the first time he's really talked out his thoughts on the matter before to someone else. And yet there's something he's not yet mentioning that is still seeping through. A heavy guilt that he didn't do enough to stop it.]

[Leia is glad they've almost moved on from discussing that prophecy because it's a bit too heavy Force theory for her to feel comfortable discussing, knowing how little she knew about the Force, and Anakin being the chosen one of anything just sounds wrong.

Even if those feelings of guilt weren't seeping through, it's clear to Leia that there was more Obi-Wan wasn't mentioning, mostly because this part seems like it's finally touching upon what she wanted to know, and his explanation is sorely lacking.]

A fear of loss?

[This was difficult. Discussing someone's life behind their back felt wrong. Plus he didn't wish to speak ill of Anakin, but nor would he excuse his actions. Balancing all of that wasn't easy.]

His greatest flaw, I'm afraid. We all sensed it in him from the beginning.

Attachments were forbidden in the Jedi Order, and his mother was a great one for him. It wasn't much of a problem though until he began having dreams about her.

This eventually drove him back to Tatooine, where she perished. I don't really know the details.

[If only he had known.]

Anyway, some time after that he did what was forbidden and married your mother. They hid this from everyone. I believe it was ultimately this attachment and a fear of losing Padme that was his undoing.

Edited 2016-08-13 01:51 (UTC)

I was told some of what occurred on Tatooine by Padme, but she likely didn't know many of the details, either.

[Which she leaves at that, because she doesn't trust herself to say much more than that. She may only have Obi-Wan's word, and Obi-Wan himself might not have the full picture, but Leia is deeply offended by the idea that losing two people, Padme and his own mother, was somehow enough to push him over the edge and turn him into something as monstrous as Darth Vader. Obi-Wan would have to be deliberately ignoring it to not notice the extreme surge of emotion through their connection. As much as she feared how many similarities she might bear to Anakin and what her relation to him might mean for her own future, she can say for certain she never contemplated becoming like that. And she had lost far more than only two people.]

[He does feel the surge of emotion, but he doesn't comment on it. Instead he continues, further elaborating.]

That is, combined with the dark influences from Chancelor Palpatine. The leader of the Republic, orchestrator of the Clone Wars, and secretly a Sith Lord. Anakin was close to him, and I find it likely that he exploited and manipulated Anakin's weaknesses to turn him to the Dark Side.

I'm aware who the Emperor was.

[She'd even seen him, in the Senate, when it still existed and Alderaan still had a place to serve in it. He was dark and terrifying and intimidating, but he wasn't the figure that haunted her nightmares as often as Vader.]

I still don't see how only that is enough to make someone into Darth Vader.

To be honest, I'm not sure either.

[He could explain what happened from his point of view, but that was all. The rest was speculation that Obi-Wan still struggled with in moments that he's alone with his own thoughts.]

None of the Jedi foresaw this happening until it was too late. It practically happened overnight. And we paid dearly for it.

You said there were signs. How could it not have been foreseen?

[She knows the Jedi were wiped out, and that Luke really was likely the last of them to carry on their traditions, unless there were others in hiding. But she can't see how no one could have noticed something was wrong on this scale, given how many there must have been before they vanished.]

The dark side clouded our vision, and hindsight is always clearer. No one could have imagined it would go that far. ... Even if we should have.

[Or rather, he should have. Have another surge of guilt.]

[that is some serious guilt coming through there, mister calm Jedi master. Leia notices it, because how could she not, and it's because of that guilt that Leia doesn't quite reply right away. She doesn't know if it's her place to ask about it, but well, she'd already interrogated Obi-Wan about this much. If he didn't want to talk about whatever else there was, she wouldn't be offended. He'd already explained to her what he could about what was no doubt a difficult subject for him.]

Was there something else?

[Yes, yes it is. He blames himself for what happened. Probably more than he should. He doesn't like communicating this way for a reason though. He prefers to keep his feelings to himself. But it just goes to show that Mister Calm Jedi Master is just as human as anyone else.]

No, I don't think so.

[And watch him close up. Sorry Leia, he's not ready to talk about his feelings or the really heavy stuff.]

[Leia does know when not to push, and can tell this is one of those times. She's silent for a long time, thinking over what she had just learned, before one last thought she needs answers for comes to mind. Accompanying her question is a sharp cold undercurrent of fear, but it's fainter than the other emotions, partially because she's doing what she can to block that feeling from being shared.]

...Is he going to be a problem now? After all this. [this, meaning Padme leaving.]

[That's a good question, actually. And he wished he could give her a certain answer.]

I'm doing my best to prevent that. But... without Palpatine's influence here, I believe there is hope.

I hope you're right.

[because that's all there is to say there. She'd offer to help if she could but, well. She doesn't want to see Anakin at all when she can help it, and doesn't care enough to offer to comfort him in whatever way she could. The most she can promise is she'll stay out of his way and hope that Obi-Wan knew what he was doing.]

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hadthehighground - 2016-08-15 01:32 (UTC) - Expand