Fanfic / Precipice

Precipice is a Star Wars Alternate Universe Fic written by shadowsong26 and posted on Archive of Our Own.

The story follows what would happen if Anakin's fall to the Dark Side was successfully averted and if Padme had lived. The result? He now works alongside Obi-Wan and the many rebels they team up with while Padme works with her allies to undermine the Emperor from within the Imperial Court, all while they raise their twin children.

The story is the first in a series of stories the author is writing called the "Precipice Verse". The first story is completed with 83 chapters as of December 29th, 2020.

The second story in the series, released on July 31st of 2021, is called Preludes, which is a series of seven one-shots set between the end of Precipice and its sequel.

The sequel to Precipice, known as Protectors, was released on October 1st of 2021.

The series also has a side-story called Precipice Bonus Content, which encompasses some chapters or the events of said chapters from the POV of other characters, cut content that didn't go into the finale version of the chapters, small, non-spoiler filled glimpses of the future, or alternate versions of certain events.

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Precipice provides examples of:

• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Ahsoka's life after leaving the Jedi Order and Rex's life after leaving the Clone Army differ from the official canon due to the story long predating the release of Season 7 of The Clone Wars, which showed what happened to them.
• Adaptational Context Change: In the film proper, Kenobi's "You were my brother Anakin. I love you" line was said in a moment of grief, sadness, and disbelief over Anakin's Face–Heel Turn. Here, he gives this as a reason why he never came out about his suspicion about Anakin and Padmé's secret relationship, as he knows in some level that she makes him genuinely happy and doesn't want to take that happiness away.
• Adaptational Heroism: The diverging point is that Anakin doesn't follow Mace Windu to the Chancellor's office, never participates in his murder, and never falls to the dark side and becomes Darth Vader.
• Adaptational Name Change: Luke kept the Skywalker last name while Leia was adopted by Bail and given the last name Organa in both the official and Legends canons. Here, Luke is raised by Padme and gains the Naberrie last name while Leia has the Skywalker name from the start since she's raised by Anakin.
• Adaptational Origin Connection: In this series, Mara Jade was being trained as a member of the Inquisitors before becoming the Emperor's Hand.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Anakin and his step-family, Owen and Beru, never got to have a positive relationship due to past circumstances and Anakin becoming Darth Vader. Here, they're able to iron out their issues and are now a functional family. Beru in particular often helps Anakin sort out his issues and acts as kind of an adviser for him.
  • Since Anakin never has his full turn to the Dark Side, he never grows to despise Obi-Wan, with the two of them effectively being brothers here.
  • The separation of the Skywalker twins is handled differently here, with Anakin taking Leia to Tatooine, with Owen, Beru, and later Obi-Wan, Rex, and Ahsoka helping in her development in some form while Padme takes Luke to Naboo to raise him.
    • Bail's relationship with the twins also differs, as in addition to Leia being raised by Anakin, she only sees him as an uncle figure at most, a feeling that is shared by Luke, who doesn't even interacted with him in either the new canon or in Legends.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Padme calls Luke "Lulu". Anakin calls him "Sunshine" when they meet for the first time.
  • Anakin likes to call Leia "Princess" while Obi-Wan calls her "Little one". Rex calls her "ad’ika", which is Mando'a for "child", "kid", or "lad".
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Same-sex example. Sola bemoans that Ryoo's taste in women amounts to this trope and calls all her daughter's girlfriends "objectively awful". This is implied to be averted later when Padme's POV states that her newest girlfriend is a much better person.
• Almighty Janitor: Inverted. Despite Specter and Infernalis being official Sith Lords, their exact level of skill and power is more in-line with an Inquisitor or assassin than an actual Sith. Infernalis later averts this and grows in power and skill to the point where he's on the same level as a typical Sith Lord.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Besides Anakin never having his full turn to the Dark Side and Padme living, there are also a number of differences from the main Star Wars canon (Rex and Ahsoka's lives post-Order 66 for starters) and incorporates some elements of the Legends continuity, mostly because the author admits to having never seen things like Rebels at the time of writing the story and because the story as a whole long predates the seventh season of The Clone Wars.
• Always Second Best:
  • Specter is met with constant reminders that no matter how strong he becomes, he'll always be lesser the Sith Anakin would have been.
  • Played for Laughs, but Anakin just can't beat Artoo at dejarik no matter how hard he tries.
    Anakin (thoughts): You know, I was considered a tactical genius. Or at least halfway decent at it. I should be able to beat my kriffing droid at this stupid game.
• The Apprentice: Leia essentially becomes Ahsoka's Padawan when she starts her Jedi training. While Anakin and Obi-Wan also mentor her, Ahsoka mostly takes the helm over the years.
• An Arm and a Leg: Anakin ends up getting his left leg cut off by Darth Specter during their fight. He gets it replaced with a prosthetic limb after his recovery.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Palpatine still succeeds in wiping out most of the Jedi Order and taking over the galaxy as per the events of Revenge of the Sith. There's even an entire chapter dedicated to him relishing in his success.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Anakin is unwilling to not be at Leia's side on her birthday, even when he needs immediate medical attention (for reference, he just got his leg cut off and has multiple painkillers in his system). Seeing her father in such a state causes her much emotional distress.
• Black Market: While not seen directly as of yet, Obi-Wan has been building contacts within it in the years following Order 66 so as to cover the Rebellion's tracks and to buy supplies that the Senators and their staff may not able to get through more legal channels.
• Blatant Lies: Padmé considers Palpatine's justifications for activating Order 66 and reorganizing the Republic into the Empire as this, as she can tell that he's withholding certain information and how for any differences the Jedi had with the Senate and Palpatine in particular, she rightly guesses that Windu is justified in his arrest and attempting to kill Palpatine.
• Blood Knight:
  • Infernalis thrives off fighting and killing. This works in Sidious' favor, as his apprentice has no ambitions beyond satisfying his need for conflict and is loyal because of it.
  • Deconstructed with Anakin. He shows immense joy in fighting multiple assailants and even Sith Lords, but he's aware that his enjoyment of conflict flies in the face of Jedi philosophy and hates it.
• Bowdlerise: In-Universe example. When Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, and later Ahsoka tell Leia stories from their time during the Clone War, they need to censor out the more graphic details since she's still a child when she's hearing all this.
• Break the Haughty: His failure to protect anyone during the attack on the Jedi Temple was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for Anakin's arrogance and self-righteousness.
• Broken Pedestal: Palpatine to Anakin and Padme after his true colors are shown. The man Anakin once admired and looked up to he now has nothing but revulsion for and Padme loathes how she ever trusted him.
  Padme (thoughts): I trusted you. Not so long ago. You were my friend, my advisor...I trusted you. I put you in power. I ruined Valorum, on your advice. I didn’t suspect you until it was already too late.
• Canon Discontinuity: The main sources of canon for the story that the author is using are the prequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the original trilogy, the side story films such as Rogue One, and certain stories within the expanded universe as well as some from the Legends continuity that can be fit in. Anything else is mostly Adapted Out, but some elements are inserted later on.
• Call-Forward:
  • Rex and Jyn raid a warehouse as part of a mission and discover that it contains a half-constructed hyperdrive that takes up half the massive room it's contained in, making it clear that this is one of the components of the Death Star that will appear years later.
  • Anakin and Leia go to Jedha and meet with Chirrut and Baze and get help with retrieving a Khyber Crystal from the same Jedi temple that's being mined for crystals to power the Death Star laser.
  • The first base that the Rebel Alliance uses that is established in Part 7 is the base on Crait.
• Cassandra Truth: Discussed Trope when talking about a past event. Fives during The Clone Wars ultimately went unbelieved when he tried to tell Rex and Anakin about Order 66. They both acknowledge that they should've listened to him.
  Rex: I should’ve...I should’ve listened to Fives.
  Anakin: We all should have.
• Character Shilling: An In-Universe example. Whenever Anakin recounts his Clone Wars adventures to Leia, he likes to embellish and exaggerate Ahsoka's actions to make her seem more awesome. This is in large part because he likes to tell Leia these stories whenever he's in a really good mood and wants to stay that way.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In Specter's introductory scene in Part II, Palpatine mentions having interest in a Mirialan, a Twi'lek, and a human woman as potential apprentices in case if Specter does not work out. The Mirialan and the Twi'lek would in fact succeed Specter, later named Infernalis and Havac respectively, and the woman is implied to be chosen to become the mother of Palpatine's daughter Lavinia.
• Child Soldiers:
  • Jyn is the youngest member of Saw Gerrera's crew, being only a bit older than the then ten-year-old Leia. Rex, thanks to his experience in helping raise Leia, can't help but be put off with the idea of someone who's barely a teenager engaging in such high-stakes missions.
  • Leia also starts getting trained to go on missions at an early age. However, Anakin makes it a point to only train her and keeps her away from the fighting completely. It's not until she turns thirteen that they even consider taking her on missions, and they make it a point to only send her with help and on the least dangerous possible missions.
• Choosing Neutrality: When approached by Ahsoka about whether if he wants to join the Rebellion as part of its medical staff, Dr. Naar declines her offer mostly out of his belief that he shouldn't choose sides and that he should be willing to treat any sentient regardless of their beliefs.
• Combat Pragmatist: Despite Darth Infernalis coming off as The Brute and even Dumb Muscle to some, he's actually more cunning than he's given credit for. During his fight with Anakin, he knew he wouldn't win a one-on-one battle, so he used his opponent's bombs to collapse the factory they were fighting in while he escaped. He also makes use of the Sith Dun Moch technique to off-balance Anakin in their last encounter and even catches him by surprise to stab him with a knife.
• Complexity Addiction: Averted. What catches Padme off-guard about the Emperor sending her on a relief mission was that it's a trap, and an absurdly obvious one. Given how this is the guy who has plans within his plans, it really scares her with how straightforward he's being. It then gets zig-zagged with it being pointed out that her being sent is likely a trap for Anakin (who was in the area earlier) or that the trap is for her to get so caught up worrying about a potential trap that she's caught off-guard.
• Composite Character:
  • Rex ends up leading the attack on the Jedi Temple during Order 66, giving him elements of Darth Vader from canon.
  • Padme gets some elements of her daughter from canon, as she continues to serve as a senator for her home-world while providing intelligence and setting up the Rebel Alliance from behind the scenes.
  • Both Luke and Leia get each other's attributes and backstory elements. Leia being raised on Tatooine like Luke was in canon and Luke having a noble upbringing like Leia had.
• Consummate Liar:
  • Padme and her allies pretty much have to be this in the Imperial Senate to avoid arousing suspicion towards their hidden rebellion. In Padme's case, she's become good enough at this that Palpatine, while still suspicious of her, can't sense any immediate treachery from reading her surface thoughts or emotions.
  • Imperial Propaganda is apparently really good at this. This boils down to the fact that while they lie a lot, they also make it a point to be honest with the Empire's citizens on occasion. As Padme puts it, it's a matter of telling the truth just enough so that no one questions you when the time comes to tell lies.
• Creepy Child: Downplayed. Lavinia doesn't come across as outright creepy or scary, but she wears armored dresses and speaks in a manner as if every word she says has been rehearsed several times over to the point of desperately trying to get them right. As Luke thinks, this is all very not right for someone who's barely over four.
• Death Faked for You: To help hide Leia from Palpatine, Padme fakes her daughter's death by having it be reported as miscarried, even creating a false grave visible from her home on Naboo so as to keep anyone from discovering her daughter's existence.
• Death of a Child: Anakin tries so damn hard to avert this, but one-by-one, all the Jedi initiates are killed during the attack on the temple. This is made even worse by the fact that he both sensed and saw all of them as they happened.
• Downer Beginning: The story starts in the middle of the attack on the Jedi temple. Anakin tries and fails to protect the younglings, with each of them gunned down right in front of him. He's then attacked by clones led by Captain Rex, whom he desperately tries to reason with, only to be shot, knocked out of a window, and left almost dead had Bail Organa not arrived. The Republic becomes the Empire, and what's left of the Jedi Order is forced into hiding.
• Dramatic Irony: In Chapter 83 of Precipice, Palpatine senses that Luke is only slightly Force sensitive and muses that this negligible connection to the Force is evidence that he cannot be related to Anakin since he would never have a child that's so weak in Force potential. Little does he know that him being Anakin's biological son is the case and that they shielded off his Force potential to protect him.
• Dude, Not Funny!: After both of his encounters with Infernalis, Anakin jokes that, unlike his encounter with Specter, he made it without getting a limb cut off. Neither R2 nor Obi-Wan find this funny.
• Everyone Can See It: Rex brings up that Anakin's and Padme's feelings for each other were way too obvious to anyone in the same room as them. Anakin even makes fun of himself for how bad he was at hiding his and Padme's relationship.
• Everyone Has Standards: Saw is a Well-Intentioned Extremist and is willing to make hard choices to take on the Empire, but even he was disgusted with the attempted kidnapping of Lavinia, showing that kidnapping and threatening harm to children is a level even he wouldn't stoop to.
• Evil Counterpart: While Specter is a Shadow Archetype to Anakin, he's also this to Ahsoka due to being a young, eager-to-please Togruta that specializes in Jar'Kai lightsaber combat.
• Failure Hero: What's left of the Jedi Order and Padme see themselves as this at the start of the story for being blinded by their pride and basically letting Darth Sidious take control. Yoda acknowledges that the inherent flaws in the Order and it's rigidity paved the way for the Galactic Empire and Obi-Wan feels immense shame and guilt for his failings as a mentor, friend, and brother to Anakin during the Clone Wars, as well as being unable to see how Palpatine was manipulating him. Anakin in particular is so filled with self-loathing for his failings as both a Jedi and as The Chosen One that he has to put a lot of effort into not blaming himself often.
• Family of Choice: It's made clear throughout the story that Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Rex all consider each other to be family, with them even referring to themselves in familial terms on numerous occasions.
• Fighting from the Inside: It's implied in their encounter during Order 66 that Rex was actively trying to resist his orders to shoot Anakin. While he doesn't shoot, his programming has no issues getting him to order the rest of his men to open fire on his former General.
• Foil:
  • Discussed regarding Darth Specter to Darth Infernalis. Both are Sith Lords and apprentices to the Emperor, but Anakin and Obi-Wan note how the two contrast each other. Specter was an assassin who relied on hit-and-run tactics while his successor prefers the direct and brutal approach. Specter also hates his station as a tool of Sidious and wants to surpass expectations to move up in rank and please his master, while Infernalis is well aware of his station and doesn't care that he's a tool so long as he gets to fight and kill others.
  • Infernalis and Anakin. Both being warriors with a desire for battle and both are Form V specialists. However, Infernalis embraces the dark side and his thirst for conflict, while Anakin tries to keep his Blood Knight tendencies reigned in. It's even lampshaded by Infernalis that they're not so different, but Anakin fires back that he has his friends to keep him in check.
• Forgot About His Powers: Subverted. Ahsoka does know that she can easily get out of the hole when she falls in via a Force propelled jump, but she also reminds herself that the hole itself isn't big enough for both her and Leia to fit through. Not to mention that Ahsoka jumping out herself and using the Force to pull Leia out would be too risky since they could be seen, and the Empire would be notified as a result. Plus, she also decides to take the opportunity to teach Leia how to get out of situations like that.
• For Want Of A Nail: The major nail that caused the events to turn out as they did was that Anakin didn't follow Mace Windu to the Chancellor's office when he and the other masters went to arrest him. Because of this, Sidious was forced to start Order 66 without him and Anakin wound up protecting the temple instead of leading the attack on it.
• Freudian Trio: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka. Anakin is the Id, being the most emotionally volatile and humanistic of the three. Obi-Wan is the Superego as he's the most calm, rational, and often the one who thinks things through. Ahsoka is the Ego, given how she's considered and stated as being the in-between of the two.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Despite all his help with assisting the Rebellion, Hondo isn't really liked amongst them, mainly due to him being an unrepentant scoundrel as well as them finding him annoying.
• The Glomp: Ahsoka rushes up and hugs Anakin, Rex, and Obi-Wan when they first reunite for the first time in six years.
• Good Parents: Anakin and Padme, despite having to raise their children separate from each other for their own safety, are shown to be loving parents beyond question.
• Go Out with a Smile: Despite Anakin defeating and killing him, Infernalis dies satisfied, having had a good fight and getting the last hit in through a sneak attack with a knife. Obi-Wan notes that his corpse had an unnerving smile on it when he was rescuing Anakin.
• Happily Adopted: Invoked. To hide Luke's identity from the Empire, Padme poses him as her adopted son. In reality, he's her biological son, though he's still immensely happy living with her none-the-less.
• Hated Hometown: Anakin actually uses this to his advantage. It's pretty common knowledge among anyone who knows him that he despises Tatooine because of his past as a slave there. Because of this, Palpatine wouldn't think to look for him there, making it the perfect place for him and Leia to hide while he's between missions. Even Obi-Wan muses that this was a rather inspired and well thought out plan of hiding Leia.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: While it's mostly internalized, some characters fall into this, especially in the beginning of the story due to the fallout of Order 66.
  • For many of the earliest chapters, Anakin's practically a walking ball of self-loathing. He constantly beats himself up over his failure to protect the younglings during Order 66, his inability to see Palpatine for who he truly was, and how helpless he is to stop the Emperor from bringing ruin to the galaxy. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan need to remind him that he's legitimately not at fault for those things, and even Anakin has to actively put effort in not blaming himself. In later chapters, this gets toned down, but he still harbors a lot of guilt for his failings.
  • Padme has a lot of deep-rooted issues with how she trusted Palpatine and essentially made his rise to power possible and paved the way for him to become the Supreme Chancellor, ultimately causing the collapse of the Republic and the fall of the Jedi Order.
• He Who Fights Monsters: While Anakin and his allies do their best to avert this, it is acknowledged that it's very hard to not fall into this and that in a rebellion, there's a fine line between insurgency and terrorism.
• Honorary Uncle: Obi-Wan and Rex are this to Leia, with Ahsoka as her Honorary Aunt. On the other side, Bail is this to Luke and later becomes this to Leia as well.
• Honor Before Reason: Dr. Naar has one unbending policy that prevents him from joining the rebellion: "No one gets turned away." Whether they be rebel or imperial, he strives to provide medical aid to anyone he can and joining the rebellion would limit the people he can help to just one side.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Something that Anakin brings up with Obi-Wan is that they have to lie to Leia about her brother and mother, despite Anakin's immense hatred for being lied to. He makes it clear that he doesn't like doing so and questions whether it's the right thing to do.
• I Am Not Your Father: Inverted during Part 6, as Luke spent his life up until that point thinking that Padmé is his adoptive mother with no biological connection. Here, Padmé reveals that they're genuinely mother and son by blood and that his "adoption" was nothing more than a cover story.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Subverted. Anakin tries to reason with Rex when held at gunpoint during Order 66. At first, it seems to work, and Rex doesn't fire on him, only instead the clone Captain orders the rest of his men to fire on Anakin, blasting him out the Council spire windows.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: This is Specter's biggest issue. He's cocky and arrogant, but he's painfully aware that he's just a glorified Sith acolyte and not the apprentice his master wanted. This leads him to seek Anakin out and ambush him so he could prove himself superior. It ends up costing him his life.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite Anakin not going to Palpatine's office, Mace Windu is still defeated, the Galactic Empire is still created, Sidious gains absolute power, and the Jedi are nearly wiped out in Order 66.
  • Yoda and Palpatine's duel goes pretty much exactly the same as it did in Revenge of the Sith and Yoda still goes into hiding on Dagobah.
  • One of the twins end up being raised by the Lars, although it's Leia rather than Luke, and Anakin does his share in looking after her as well.
  • Despite not becoming Darth Vader or suffering the injuries he received on Mustafar, Anakin does end up losing one of his limbs against Darth Specter.
  • Palpatine ends up siring a child, but albeit via natural means and the context being an attempt to fill in the void caused by Anakin never falling to the Dark Side.
• Internal Reveal: For most of their lives growing up, Luke and Leia were unaware of the other's existence, with the former also being ignorant about Padme being his biological mother and that his adoption status is nothing more than a cover story to keep Palpatine as ignorant as possible. Their parents ultimately stopped keeping the secret from them during Part 6, where the twins learn about their relationship with one another.
• It's All My Fault: Anakin and Padme blame themselves a lot for Palpatine's rise to power and how they failed to stop it, among the many other travesties it caused. On some level, all the surviving Jedi blame themselves for the creation of the Empire but put it aside and remind themselves that Palpatine was the one pulling the strings and that moping about it won't solve anything.
• Kidfic: Downplayed. While there are chapters that focus on Anakin raising Leia and Padme raising Luke, there are also several that focus on the actions of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex as they fight against the Empire in different ways, such as aiding rebel cells and setting the groundwork for the Rebel Alliance. Some chapters also focus on Leia's Jedi training with Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka.
• Laser Blade: As usual, lightsabers. There's Anakin and Obi-Wan's canon lightsabers, Ahsoka and Specter's dual sabers, Infernalis' BFS saber, and later Leia creates her own turquoise lightsaber.
• Like Father, Like Son: Luke and Leia inherit aspects from both their parents. Luke is calm and passive like his mother, yet shows the same strong fascination with piloting that his father has. Leia is like Anakin in that she's quick to anger, but she's also quick to calm down like her mother. Obi-Wan also notes that while Leia is as hot-blooded as her father and more like how he was at an older age, Luke as a child behaves a lot like Anakin used to at the same age, though Luke is more carefree while Anakin is burdened by a need to meet high expectations.
• Like Parent, Unlike Child: Lavinia, while emotionally stunted due to her upbringing, is far more capable of empathy and forming attachments than her sociopathic father.
• Locked Out of the Loop: While Anakin tries to avert this with Leia as much as he can, he mostly has to play it straight since she's connected to Luke through her dreams, and she could accidentally convey information to him that could threaten both his and Padme's safety.
• Long-Distance Relationship: Anakin and Padme. While they were originally only able to be with each other a few months at a time due to her work in the Senate and him fighting on the front-lines of the Clone Wars, here, it takes ten years for them to finally see each other again due to the worse circumstances thanks to the Empire. They are able to establish contact three years after the fact as well, but only for five minutes.
• Long Game: After Bail and Padme spend time arguing how to rebel against Palpatine's reign and overthrow him, with Padme arguing that they need to fight against him now before his power can become too entrenched while Bail argues that they don't have the resources or people necessary to go against him. Yoda chimes in believing that both of their arguments are legit and thinks that this trope would be the best option they have at the time being.
• Made of Iron: Despite being human, Anakin manages to survive being shot by laser-fire over a couple dozen times, lacerations from shrapnel and glass, and getting blasted out of the Jedi Council spire, which is several hundred stories tall. He's barely clinging to life at the end of it, but that would have killed any other Jedi hundreds of times over.
• The Mentor: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka all become mentors to Leia in her Jedi training, though Ahsoka is the most active in this regard. This is due to Obi-Wan being the busiest in setting up the rebel network while Anakin is unsure of if he can be objective when it comes to training his daughter, so Ahsoka essentially becomes her master.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After he completes his attack on the Jedi Temple, this hits Rex hard. He immediately seeks ways to get the control chip removed and has lived with the guilt of his actions ever since.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Anakin tends to call Leia "princess", a very obvious reference to Leia being one in canon.
  • Infernalis muses to himself after dropping a factory on Anakin's head that he wouldn't bet on him dying even if he had all his limbs cut off and was set ablaze.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Not so much in Specter's case, but Infernalis is not a name that implies friendliness. Sure enough, unless there's no other option, the heroes' main strategy when it comes to him is to just get out of there as fast as possible.
• Nepotism: Discussed in Part 7 by Luke and Lavinia, as Luke mentions that he was approached by a couple of Naboo's Assembly Members about the possibility of him running for Queen, and he believes that it's partially motivated by him being Padmé's son.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Palpatine put a little too much faith in him being able to corrupt Anakin so he could gain his perfect apprentice. When that fails, it's made clear that he didn't really have any plans for if he couldn't turn Anakin to the Dark Side, so now he's stuck with lesser Sith apprentices that just can't measure up to the Sith Lord Anakin would have been.
• Odd Friendship: Despite being a well-known pirate and scoundrel, Hondo and the honorable Obi-Wan are close friends due to their history from the Clone Wars.
• Oh, My Gods!: Characters usually say "By the Force" when things go awry or when something big happens. Padme at one point says "Hells".
• Only in It for the Money: It wouldn't be Hondo if his main motivation wasn't centered around profit, which for better or worse tends to benefit the Rebellion, as his friendship with Kenobi allows them to gain access to goods that might be hard, if not impossible, to obtain through more legal channels.
• Original Character: Both Specter and Infernalis are original Sith Lords that take Darth Vader's place since Anakin never fully turned to the Dark Side.
• Patchwork Fic: Downplayed. While the fic does its best to adhere to material from the 2014 canon reboot, it incorporates elements from Legends continuity, such as Mara Jade and Jorus C'Baoth.
• Parents as People:
  • While Anakin is a loving father to Leia, he tends to prioritize her needs over his, including his physical well-being. Beru points out that, while touching in how much he cares about her, doing so isn't fair for him nor is it fair for Leia, as him potentially dying due to thoughtlessly putting something like Leia's birthday ahead of medical attention is a terrible thing to do.
  • Obi-Wan discusses this with Anakin in Chapter 81, pointing out that every good parent struggles to raise their children and will always need a helping hand in regards to them.
    Anakin: I couldn’t have done it without you. And Beru and Owen and Rex and Ahsoka and...everyone.
    Obi-Wan: And you think Padme doesn’t, at the very least, rely on her handmaidens to help her with Luke? In fact, I challenge you to find any parent who truly raises a child completely on their own, without any help. Without relatives or neighbors or friends or even hired babysitters…
• Plausible Deniability: While Breha, Bail's wife, is genuinely sympathetic towards his and the Rebellion's cause and wants to help them, she makes it openly clear in Part II that her only real demand for her support is having some of this given her status as Alderaan's queen.
• Point of No Return: Supplemental materials describe the attack on the Jedi Temple as Anakin's alignment lock moment. Whoever he sides with in that battle is the side he'll be on for the next twenty-five years.
• Positive Friend Influence: Padme and Bail hope that Luke's growing friendship with Lavinia will help her defy her father, Palpatine, and eventually leave him and the Empire behind.
• Pragmatic Hero: Calling him a hero is a stretch, but Hondo has no interest in turning Obi-Wan or his allies over to the Empire both because he knows it's not smart to make an enemy of the Jedi and because the Empire would just kill him and his crew after the transaction if he did so anyway.
• Putting the Band Back Together: It doesn't intentionally happen, but the old Clone Wars heroes of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, and Ahsoka eventually find their ways back to each other throughout the story and become the team they were during the events of the war.
• Rank Up: While it's unofficial, Anakin is considered by Yoda and Obi-Wan to be a Jedi Master at this point and Ahsoka a Jedi Knight. Of course, it's not like rankings mean much with the state of the Order since the rise of the Empire.
• Really Gets Around: Downplayed, but Sola notes that Ryoo seems to cycle through girlfriends very often and jokes that she'll have a new one over for her sister's birthday.
• Replacement Scrappy: An In-Universe example: Sidious makes abundantly clear that he considers Darth Specter an inferior replacement to his intended apprentice, Anakin. Unsurprisingly, this causes Specter to develop a murderous hatred of Anakin.
• Revenge: After Hondo and Obi-Wan got themselves into a bacta deal gone wrong, it's implied that part of the reason why it went wrong to begin with is because the person selling the bacta was very angry at Hondo over an incident or two in the past and wanted to get back.
• Revenge Before Reason: Leia is warned about this in the temple by a vision of a Sith version of herself (and in an alternate version of the events, a redeemed Darth Vader). While she may desire to end the Empire for the suffering they've caused her family and others to go through, she's warned that when she wants to burn something down, she'll burn it all down, and others who have nothing to do with her quest or the Empire may get caught in the flames.
• Secret Identity: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka tend to cycle through a few false identities so as to hide whenever they're on Imperial occupied planets. They also operate under code-names whenever working with other resistance movements.
• Shadow Archetype: Both Specter and Infernalis to Anakin represent the darker aspects of himself that could have taken over had he given in.
  • Specter embodies Anakin's need for the approval of others and his sense of self-importance. He desperately seeks to live up to impossible expectations while crumbling under the weight of trying to do so and acts high-and-mighty to cover his insecurities. All of these are flaws that Anakin possesses that he doesn't like to think about.
  • Infernalis embodies Anakin's Blood Knight tendencies. He's a murderous killing machine who lives for conflict, much like how Anakin is at his best in the heat of battle and thrives off fighting powerful opponents. Anakin isn't fond of how much he enjoys fighting and how it flies in the face of the pacifist Jedi philosophy that he's never been good at maintaining.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Anakin and Padme when they reunite for the first time in ten years. Even their own children can't help but roll their eyes at how overly mushy they're acting.
• Simultaneous Arcs: During the events of the Reunion arc, there are two stories that happen simultaneously. The first is the Skywalker family reuniting for the first time in 10 years, and the second is Ahsoka and Rex meeting with Saw Gerrera and teaming up to infiltrate an Imperial facility.
• Sketchy Successor: Rex sees the Stormtroopers as this, as he can't help but feel dismayed with how pathetic the successors to the Grand Army of the Republic are.
  Rex (thoughts as a stormtrooper tries to flank him): Idiot. Don’t they teach their shinies how to move quiet in armor anymore?
  
  Rex (thoughts as a stormtrooper tries to shoot him point-blank): Idiot. Blasters are distance weapons. What are they teaching you?
• Skewed Priorities: Heartwarming as it is for Anakin to put his daughter's birthday ahead of his physical health, it's also pretty idiotic when his state is "in extreme pain with his left leg cut off and in dire need of medical attention". He even acknowledges that doing so wasn't a good idea.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Padme ultimately lives in this story, having survived her pregnancy and avoiding death by heartbreak. It's also been stated by Word of God on tumblr that Padme is intended to survive all the way to the end of the rebellion.
• Stepford Smiler: When they first meet in the story, Anakin senses a hidden emptiness in Beru whenever she looks at Leia, hinting at her desire to be a mother yet being unable to have a child of her own.
• The Storyteller: Ahsoka spends a lot of her time with Leia telling her stories about her and Anakin's adventures during the Clone Wars when they aren't training.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Anakin notes that Leia takes a lot after Padme. By the time she's thirteen, she's nearly identical to how Padme looked during the blockade on Naboo when she was the same age. She also has some of her father's features, such as his chin and eyes.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Anakin's main specialty is making things explode. When he created a distraction for Obi-Wan, his master noted that the explosion he made was much larger than the yield of the bombs he was given. It frequently gets lampshaded, especially by Obi-Wan and Rex.
  Rex: You’re gonna go blow something up, aren’t you.
  Anakin: See? You know me.
• Switching P.O.V.: The main perspective of each chapter fluctuates between different people. The first chapter is from Anakin's POV, the second from Bail's, the third from Obi-Wan's, and so on.
• Time Skip: There are a number of time skips throughout the story that take place between the story arcs.
  • Part 2 begins almost 1 month after the events of Revenge of the Sith, where Part 1 is set.
  • Part 3 is set two years after the events of Part 2.
  • Part 4 takes place four years after Part 3.
  • Part 5's events occur one year after Part 4.
  • Part 6 is around three years after Part 5.
  • Part 7 happens three years after the end of Part 6.
  • The sequel, Protectors, is set around the time frame of A New Hope.
• Token Evil Teammate: Hondo serves as this relatively speaking within the growing Rebellion. While he is willing to help supply them with goods that might be otherwise unavailable or difficult to acquire through more legal channels, it's mainly through his Odd Friendship with Obi-Wan that he's willing to help and it's explicitly stated that he's not privy to certain key information such as the Rebellion's base at Crait.
• Took a Level in Badass: Between their first and last encounters, Infernalis becomes much stronger and puts up a better fight against Anakin, while there first fight had Anakin overwhelming him.
• True Companions: Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, Ahsoka, Artoo and Rex are this, as past experiences during the Clone Wars and close bonds formed over the years have effectively made them a family.
• Twin Telepathy: Luke and Leia have a special Force-bond that lets them communicate with each other even light-years away, which they make use of by the time they reach their teenage years. In their earlier years, they had this same connection, but could only project dreams to each other and not outright communicate.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Infernalis' fighting style revolves heavily on a brute strength application of Form V, which makes it easier for much more skilled fighters like Anakin to outmaneuver him. By their second encounter, Infernalis has overcome this issue and manages to hold out against Anakin for a long while.
• Villain Respect: Downplayed. Palpatine views Tarkin and Infernalis as useful assets and doesn't deride them like he does his other subordinates. It also helps that they're legitimately the most effective Imperials in his employ, though he mostly respects their ruthlessness.
• War Is Hell: The conflict against the Empire takes a heavy toll on many of the heroes. Rex is left with heavy PTSD as a result of Order 66 and what he did, Obi-Wan has to contend with the fact that their former Clone allies are now their enemies, Saw is slowly slipping into He Who Fights Monsters territory, and Anakin can't help but feel repulsed by how almost his entire life has been defined by war.
• What If?: What if Anakin didn't follow Mace Windu to Palpatine's office and was at the Jedi Temple when Order 66 was issued?
• Worf Had the Flu: The only reason Specter was able to cut off Anakin's leg was because the Jedi Knight was distracted by the revelation of what species Specter was (a Togruta) and was overwhelmed by his memories as a result.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Obi-Wan tells Anakin after the latter's fight against Infernalis in Part 7 that while what the Sith told him is true and, in hindsight, regrettable, he's more than that, reminding him that the good he's done outweighs the bad.
• You Are Not Ready: While he doesn't say this outright, Anakin indirectly gives this and For Your Own Good as the reasons why he is unwilling to take Leia out on his missions despite her desire to help him in Part 4, as she is still very young and untrained and he is risking her safety whenever she is taken off planet.

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