The Slave Who Makes Free: An Anakin Skywalker Quest

>She glances away for a moment, too disgusted, it seems, to even look at you. "All the blood on your hands and you still won't own up to the choices you made. I've known you to be a lot of things, Anakin…but I never imagined that you could be such a coward."
"Ahsoka—" you say, but she is on you in a whirlwind of vengeful blue, and there is no more time for talk.

Oh yeah, this got me to cackle. I'm a sucker for dramatic showdowns between people who used to trust each other. And Ashoka seeming to take Obi-Wans place on Mustafar? Absolutely lovely. Though I doubt she'd be walking out of there alive.

>The snap-hiss of an igniting lightsaber echoes off the walls, and you look up to see a redheaded woman staring you down from across the salle. The blade in her hand glows pure white, a hue that can only emerge from kyber bled and then cleansed.
"Starkiller," you say in a mechanical baritone.
"My name," she hisses as she raises her saber into a fighting stance, "is Mara."

…alright this is a Starkiller I can accept. The Force Unleashed is a game where the Force feels more like some bland superpower than the mystical energy field I usually prefer to see it as, and Starkiller himself always read like some dudes super special OC. Mara Jade as Starkiller, however, does feel like it has some potential.

>"For a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Republic."

I don't think I'll ever get tired of this line.

>You are watching hyperspace crack and tear itself open to rain hell down on a peaceful planet, dooming billions to die for reasons they cannot understand and do not deserve…and you are watching as the Jedi listen to the Force, move the heavens and the earth, and burn their own lives like candle flames against the darkness to turn it aside.

I'll fully admit that I never liked that hyperspace explosion scene from the Last Jedi, and I still don't. But this scene from Light of the Jedi was pretty damn cool in the book itself, and it did well to show the spirit of the Jedi. Not a surprise to see here, though I am interested in how some of the High Republic stuff might be incorporated into this story, if at all.

>You are watching Obi-Wan Kenobi, not so much older than you are now, limp through blood-soaked mud with a blonde girl of an age with him, whose ironclad bearing reminds you more than a little of Padmé. Like those who will follow him, he is too young to go to war; but at the end of the crucible he and his companion are going through there is a brighter future that awaits.

I love Satine, and I find the attempt to turn the perpetually losing Mandalorians into something other than warriors to be an interesting change. Plus the relationship between her and Obi-Wan was rather amusing to watch, and contrasted nicely with Anakins whole mess.

>You are watching a young man in black do what you have always dreamed of doing: tearing down the empire of Jabba the Hutt with a lightsaber in hand. He has earned this moment with courage and guile, and soon he will fly away, and Depur will wake (although not in the person of Jabba, who will never wake again) to find all his slaves gone.

Luv Luke.

>R2-D2 beeps out a phrase that to you needs no translation, but because C-3PO has been delivering his best friend's words to the rest of the galaxy for so long, conveying it to Basic is second nature for him. And he needs to make this understood to as many people as he can, so that it will continue to echo on through the ages:

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…"



>"I would very much appreciate it," says the surgeon, her smile widening. "Just tell them to ask for Mill Alibeth."

This whole bit was cool, pretty neat to see Force healing in action, alongside Han & Chewie. But I'll admit I don't really know who this lady is. Definitely getting Glup Shitto vibes from this scene though.

>As you reach out in search of understanding, the life of Qymaen jai Sheelal unfolds before you, and you quickly come to understand that he has been defined by one thing: the bone-deep knowledge that no one is coming to save him.

This look into Grievous' head is honestly very illuminating. I much preferred this version of him and the whole tragic aspect of it compared to Filonis attempt to bland down the character.


>And so, given the choice between fighting and dying—or worse than dying—she takes up her lightsaber and does what you would be ever so tempted to do in her place. She kills and kills and kills and tries not to notice that nothing is getting better.

Ventress…

For what was probably just a one off character when first cooked up, she's gotten developed in a lot of interesting ways over the years. The prequel era would be a little less interesting without her.

>As he stands over the body of a woman who still calls herself his friend and brings his blade down with finality, he thinks to himself, If you can't beat them, join them.

Thats the spirit, Dooku.

>Tortured hero.
Forbidden love.
Tragic fall.
Hope rekindled.
Skywalker.

Well…maybe it's less of a song and more of a poem. A long and flourishing one. You might even call it a saga.

Perhaps a…Skywalker Saga? Eh? Eh?

>"The Infinite Empire," adds the gentle voice, "is founded upon the belief that the Force can be shackled. And because of that belief—no matter how long it has stood, how powerful its technology, or how numerous its fleets and armies—it rests, in the end, on a foundation of sand."

Took me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out how far back this segment is. Hell, is that Tatooine before it got all fucked up? Fuck if this is how the Jedi got their start…then thats very cool. I never put much thought into this era of star wars history, but this sure is a neat glimpse into it.

>You are Anakin Ekkreth, and you are in the desert again.

But you realize after a moment that this is not your desert.

For one thing, there is only one sun burning in the sky. For another, it is currently being blocked out by the towering wreck of the largest starship you have ever seen.

Jakuu!

>Sliding down the dunes on a makeshift sled is a girl no older than you, her skin tanned by the harsh suns—sun, you mentally correct yourself, that will take some getting used to—and her dark hair pulled back into three buns that crest behind her head. In a single motion, she hops off the "sled" as it slows to a halt and sweeps it up over her shoulder. Inside, you can hear the metallic clatter of spare parts, a sound you haven't heard since you were a slave in Watto's junk shop.

Rey!

>"Me?" The scavenger blinks in surprise. "I don't really have one. I'm no one important."

No one, from nowhere.

>In the dim light of the old walker, the kyber crystal shines the brightest of anything in the room.

This is such a kickass way to get a kyber crystal.

>"I really shouldn't believe you," she says, "but somehow I do. Life's tough. Hope's tough. Give them a couple millimeters and they'll figure out the rest."

Blessed. Reys really is a character with such potential, and I'm glad she got a spotlight here.