Saga A Form of Genius (unsuited Vader/Palpatine AU) response to quotations roulette

Title: A Form of Genius
Author: Anakins_Force
Timeline: Saga AU
Characters: unsuited Vader/Palpatine
Summary: Vader killed Obi-Wan on Mustafar, winning the duel and avoiding the suit. Padme has remained his wife.
Notes: This is my response to vader_incarnate?s quotation roulette challenge. My assigned quote is below.

Thank you Souderwan for the beta work!



A Form of Genius

?And beauty is a form of genius -- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.?
-Oscar Wilde

The durasteel was cold on my knee as I knelt before my Master.

?Rise Lord Vader.? He stared down at me from his throne, narrowing his haughty yellow eyes. ?You will visit Irem?alone.?

As the Empire had risen over the last few months, Irem, ruled only by females, had established itself as a new power. My Master despised the idea of a government run only by females, but was willing to permit this anomaly to continue as long as the planet was relatively insignificant. Now that credits from exports were pouring in, the Emperor was no longer content to ignore Irem?s potential influence in the galaxy.

But the leaders, having always done things their own way, were refusing Imperial guidance.

I knew little of Irem other than the rumors of their rising power.

Tru wrinkled his nose as we loaded the transport with supplies. ?I wish we were going to Irem instead of Radnor.?

?Why??

?Anakin, you?ve never heard of Irem??

?Only that Jedi have never been needed there?it?s a peaceful world.?

Tru grew animated as he explained, his eyes wide. ?That?s what the Masters tell you. The women are said to be beautiful, so beautiful that you can hardly bear to look at them. Your eyes water and your heart beats fast enough to explode! Hardly anyone has ever seen them.?

?Are they angels?? I was skeptical?I doubted anyone was as beautiful as Padmé and even she wasn?t an angel.

?I don?t think so?the men who are lucky enough to see them are killed before they can leave, but once you see them?leaving won?t cross your mind.?

?I don?t believe you.?

Tru shrugged. ?Your loss.?

I shook my head. Tru was just a boy then?what did a fourteen-year-old know?

?Your memory serves you well, Lord Vader.? I recoiled slightly as my Master sifted through my thoughts, yet I did not block him. Letting him see my thoughts had earned me his trust.

He smiled at me warmly. ?The Irem are obsessed with beauty. They don?t allow off-worlders to visit unless they meet their extremely high standards.?

He sighed and touched the sagging gray skin on his cheek. ?I?m afraid I?d likely have caused a stir even before Mace?s little stunt. And we don?t need to make too much noise in our negotiations, now do we??

I nodded to show my acceptance of his reasoning. ?So the legends are true??

?Indeed. Even the ones that say no man leaves if they do not wish it. And beware, Lord Vader, for they are Force sensitive.? His face turned sour. ?A group this powerful in the Force must not be allowed to flourish unchecked in my Empire.?

My Master straightened on his throne. ?Any man would succumb to their charms. That?s why I?m sending you. You?re more than a man. You, my apprentice, cannot be touched.?

As always, he was right. Since meeting Padmé, I never thought of another woman. Never had another woman aroused me or even caught my eye?even after all these years, only thoughts of Padmé kindled my excitement. The Emperor was well aware of my obsession, having fueled it himself.

The Emperor continued his rambling, enamored of his own voice as Obi-Wan had been. I breathed deeply and desperately tried to focus on his prattling words. ?The females on Irem are, shall we say, passionate. Th

 

I surveyed my work from the door. Six women lay lifeless on the floor, all of them clutching their throats. Sith do not need weapons to kill?Sith are weapons.

I smiled at the bodies?six at once. A record.




Yikes! That's some dark stuff you got there!! Great job!!

I'd say more but I've gushed over this so many times betaing that you've heard it all before.

 

Clearly, the genius of your beauty is not to be underestimated.

Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhh! I'll say!

It's scary how Padme's affect on him actually makes him perfectly suited to doing Sith work.

 

WHOA! The words creepy and chilling spring to mind. But excellently well done. Just... YIKES!

 

I love this!! Very original, and powerful. Thanks for taking the time to write and post this story, it's a fabulous answer to the challenge!

?Any man would succumb to their charms. That?s why I?m sending you. You?re more than a man. You, my apprentice, cannot be touched.?
Brilliant

 

Anakin's Force, a piece of dark beauty like this deserves more than a smiley face.

I loved the darkness that shadowed this - death is the mother of beauty - and in a twisted sense, death becomes beauty, killing becomes art. It's a very masculine concept - anti-woman, anti-life.

I love the almost - homoerotic - interaction between Anakin/Vader and Palpatine - a twisted relationship which incorporates jealousy, ownership and power (I'm not implying the relationship is actually sexual).

The side of my Master?s hand brushed the edge of my cheek and came to rest under my chin. ?And you, my friend, are quite?striking.? He held my gaze with a broad smile.

I swallowed hard and stared at the floor.

The Emperor had never mentioned the way I looked before.

?Look at me, Anakin.? I jerked when I heard his chilly voice say that name.

?Surely you must know how impressive you look. And beauty is a form of genius--it cannot be questioned. You know this because you find your wife beautiful. It gives Padme a power over you.? His voice cracked--what was that tone? Could it be jealousy?

Afterall SW is a world of men, in which the primary relationships occur between men. The women in canon SW are stereotypes - Padme becomes a passive womb, and then an idealised image (as you show her here) and dead at that. Here in your story the only other women are femme fatales - seductresses and sirens who must be destroyed least they rob a man of his life-force (semen - or literally kill him).

This story deserves more than my cursory analysis, but forgive me, I'm low on time.

I really enjoyed this - a wonderful exploration of the issues around masculinity in SW.

You should write dark more often. This was chilling - and kind of heart warming at the same time. If, you know, you're a bit twisted too.

Congratulations!

 

I loved this. The way you showed how, unsuited, even Anakin's one universal plus - his good looks - can become a channel for destruction, was fantastic. The depiction of Irem (your own planet, no?) was beautifully done and fitted beautifully with the sense of the quote. Very nice.

Also loved how you portrayed Vader's relationship with Sidious - one line got me:
I knelt in front of the Emperor, for what felt like the thousandth time. I was starting to feel as though I?d been kneeling in front of him my whole life.

^ Simple but extremely revealing description of the Emperor's hold over Vader. I liked it very much. Well, I liked the whole story very much. Great work!

Nem

 

Holy Cats! Wow, A_F when you decide to do evil you don't play around! That's one powerful Lord of the Sith you got there!

And man did you use that quote well!

Well done!

 

I'll worship him if he wants to come visit me! Loved it!

 

Chilling. I enjoyed it very much.

 

*BOWS*

THAT WAS THE MOST EXCEPTIONAL PIECE OF WORK I HAVE READ HERE!!! GREAT JOB!

You completely surprised me with this, and I am just SOOOO impressed. I don't even know what to say. Good job, great ending!@

 

Wow, that was really great. You really crammed alot of information into that short amount of text- the world building was done really well, and I liked the manner in which you looked at the multiple levels of Anakin's relationships with those around him. His obsessive devotion to Padme was almost (I stress almost) innocent in comparison to the Master/Apprentice bond.

I thought you developed the Wilde quote very well- it was well integrated. In retrospect, it's ironic to think just how natural Wilde's words sounded coming from the Emperor's mouth.

BTW: Mithrissa- I thought that was a great analysis; couldn't have said it better myself.

-eridani

 

Souderwan: Thank you again for the beta work. I'm so glad you liked it.

JadeSolo: Thank you. You're right, other women just don't have the desired effect on him.

VadersMistress: Thanks for saying it was creepy--that's exactly what I wanted.

wendynat: Thank you for saying it's powerful--that means a lot!

mithrissa: I appreciate your review--stunning as always. I love it that you called it 'dark beauty.' And yes, Palpatine's actions are disturbing--he's like a vulture with its prey.

JediNemesis: Thanks so much! Thank you for pointing out that line--I wanted to portray his growing resentment for his 'Master.'

Shadowolf: Thank you--it was a great quote to work with.

VaderLVR: Thank you!

Elana: Thank you for reading!

ISenseAPlot: Thank you so much--I appreciate that!

eridani: Thank you for the comments on the word building--no one has ever told me that before. And I agree about the quote fitting Palpatine quite well--his words were often haunting and had a double meaning.

 

Deadly and handsome! The most chilling part of this viggie was the six at once comment... Gave me the goosebumps..Freaking unbelievable, Anakins_Force!

 

Wow. Everyone seems to have already commented on the aspects of the story I wanted to comment on - beauty as a weapon; the Sith not needing a weapon but being a weapon; the fact that it's Anakin's love for Padme that made him so suitable to do Sith's work.... Scart stuff. So I'll try to be a little original and comment on these lines:

The Emperor continued his rambling, enamored of his own voice as Obi-Wan had been. I breathed deeply and desperately tried to focus on his prattling words.

I knelt in front of the Emperor, for what felt like the thousandth time. I was starting to feel as though I?d been kneeling in front of him my whole life.

I love this. Because they show how (in their own way) Palpatine is not unlike Obi-Wan - another failed 'father' in Anakin's eyes; and that like Obi-Wan, Palpatine is losing his enchantment for Anakin... I have a feeling that in this AU, Anakin would not wait for 20 years before throwing his Lord down that reactor shaft.

Brilliant story. Just brilliant.

 

This is my 'Laura is a bad, evil lurker' day. Although I do believe I said how much I love this to you before, I'll go ahead and immortalize it.

Love it. Beautiful. What's that phrase I like to use - Creepy gorgeous, in the 'stare at the pretty cobra' and 'Tyger, Tyger burning bright' sort of way.

I would almost kill to know what was going on Palpatine's head while he was talking to Anakin there. That was just brilliant. *shivers* in that twisted way that I am fond of, it was brilliant.

And the arrival and deed... I felt like I was watching a performance. Well, that and admittedly agree with the Irem's poetic flattery. All sorts of steamy, I'll have to remember the 'I want to worship you' line.

The entire thing felt surreal, and for reasons I haven't been able to verbalize yet, Greek.

I love it.

 

Wow...keep writing dark. I'll keep an eye on you!

 

Woah, that was awesome! There was something about it that made it feel like something out of Star Gate, I don't know. Very dark, cool.