Saga In Sickness and In Health--A Vader/Padme AU--Nommed for Best AU, drama, angst

Wonderful! Absolutley wonderful. I really did not want this to end. I hope to read more of your V/P fics in the future...Hint, hint!

 

LOL, will let you know, but the next one will be post-redemption Vader and Padme.

 

no problem no problem at all.......

 

LOL...

 

Well, it's been almost a week since you finished this and I certainly missed several chapters along the way. But now I am finally getting around to replying and...I'm speechless.

It's incredibly hard to make me speechless, by the way. It usually turns out that I have too much to say. I'm not a quiet person in the least definition of the word.

And yet you have acheived it.

I think I'll come back later when I'm not speechless anymore and write a more in-depth review, because I frankly can't think of anything to write at the moment.

 

Thanks to you awesome people who have made this qualify for noms!

 

Wonderful story. Simply wonderful. You ended it dark, just like it should have been.

Sorry I couldn't read it earlier. ^^''

 

Hey, thanks for reading at all! I'm glad you liked the dark ending.

 

Upping for at least one person who went "Um...okay, should go read ISAIH now" when reading LYBJ.

 

Aaaaaaaaaaiiiieeee! Ish, I owe you so much feedback I don't know what to do.

Have mercy on me if I start briefly--

I usually don't like repeated SW lines, I even wanted to smack Timothy Zahn when he kept doing it, but Vader's "Are you an angel?" gave me chills. It was sick and horrible in a great way . . . any kind of connection between innocent li'l Ani and creepy Darth Vader is just disturbing, and it's meant to be. GL wants us to be horrified by his story--or at least the first part of it. I guess his redemption isn't supposed to be horrifying.

Anyway--I can actually imagine Vader saying the "angel" line, so it didn't come off as forced, as many such lines do.

Padmé's bitterness is indeed shocking when you look at it next to the rather naive, idealistic young woman we see in the films, but it's understandable how she got that way. Obi-Wan wasn't bitter at the end, what with being at "Force level 6" and all, but he wasn't about to invite Vader out for a beer and talk about old times either. (Very weird AU plot bunny there . . . ) I can also understand why Padmé would want to keep the truth of their children away from Vader, despite the fact that she still seems to have some residual feelings for him. She had no choice in having her identity "outed" to him, but she has a choice about the kids, and it makes sense that she'd rather keep them hidden. (They'd be what, ten here?)

Anyway, I remain fascinated by the conflicting interplay of emotions you show in Padmé. Love/hate is difficult to pull off . . . I'm not sure I could do it--at least not without alternating on and off between the two emotions. Doing both at the same time is no mean feat.

 

LOL, I never expected you to come around and read this, so I'll forgive you by default of having nothing to forgive. I was rather unsure of whether or not I should put in "Are you an angel," because I don't like Zahn's tactic of writing the entire book around previously used dialogue, but it did seem appropriately twisted to have him still have that sort of insane sentiment after 10 years of separation. His redemption isn't meant to be horrifying, but it is in a lot of ways because of what he does before getting instant redemption. Padme was certainly a different character to write as bitter, cynical, and overall mistrusting. A part of working out her characterization was based on Leia in ESB, where she trusts no one and has a lot of emotional conflict. Obi-Wan was snarked out in the end. And I like that odd plot bunny AU. Keeping the children from him was probably one of the few canon things I kept in there. They would be ten. I'm glad you like the conflicting interplay. Love/hate is very frikking difficult to even approach, much less drag out for an entire story. Thanks for the review.

 

Superb ending.

-The Scummy-

 

Thanks, scummy.

 

Madame Ishtar,

I am so glad I found this story. Aside from the fact I love Vader/Padme stories, this was brilliantly executed. Fantastic.

I think you really showed exactly what the definition of going down two different paths is. I think this is the most separation I've ever seen between them in a V/P story. The estrangement between them was palpable.

I really like the way you write Padme's character, I always do, but particularly in this. She is not totally dominated by the supposedly 'Grand Love' she and Anakin shared. Her existence extends beyond that, and I think that's an important demonstration of independence on her part. I'd make a terribly cynical romantic, I know .

Come to think of it, it would have been an interesting experiment to see what would have happened had she allowed him to die.

I'm glad you didn't set out clear and defined boundaries between Anakin and Vader. It makes his character that much more complicated to know the Vader is more a part of Anakin than just a split personality.

I liked the line about "leaving him to his Empire". They had both made peronsal choices, whether for good or bad, that could not be transcended. Furthermore, I really liked the fact that she couldn't change him. There's only so many redemption stories one can handle, and it was a refreshing change to see a Padme that wasn't attempting, or succeeding in, converting Vader. They were coming from two diametrically opposed perspectives and it would have been futile to try to resurrect something that better belonged in the past. Instead we were left with a pseudo-amnesic separation between them- very bittersweet.

I was reminded while reading this, of a divorced couple, that had some lingering unresolved issues (something A/P will always seem to have due to the sporadic, brief nature of their relationship), but had no realistic hope of reconcliation. You can't help but feel slightly lachrymose about it, but realism reminds the reader that the only sane option would have been to walk away.

My only criticism would be:

OMG! Someone should impose a ban against Phantom quotes in SW fanfic! Seriously, I have quite a love/hate relationship with Gothic fiction in general, and Andrew Lloyd Weber's libretto more specifically. It really kills the mood of the story when Christine quotes pop up! And as for that ban- the only reason I suggest it, is because you are, by far, not the first person to have done so...

Phantom and SW appropriation... . Argh.

But dont let my minor irritation of the Phantom incident detract from the very high opinion I have of this story and your writing caabilities in general. It really was great.

-eridani

 

I'm so glad you read this. FOr the record, all stories in this AU are now under "Rudur Chronicles" on this board. I'm glad the estrangement seemed to work out because that was, as I have expressed before, one of my more tenuous points, where if everyone started saying "You idiot, no way, no how!" to her being distant, I might have changed the plot. I also used it as a point of reference to the whole losing the will to live thing. I make a terrible cynical romantic as well, as my dear IrishEyedJedi can tell you. I like the idea of seeing what would have happened in the case of his death. I'm glad you liked the complication of Anakin/Vader and hope that you caught, therefore, the difference between when I referred to him as each. It's always been a rather crucial point for me in AUs. I, too, liked the "Leaving him to his empire" thing, especially because some of my favorite lines in ROTS are in that scene where Anakin's talking about his Empire. And no, Padme can't redeem him because it's not a third-person ability. The slight resolution will come through the continuation of this--Lest Ye Be Judged. Your criticism is justified. I once used a Lord of hte Rings quote in a story and no one seemed to notice, but I did use that line from Phantom with too much ease. When I revised this for submission to the archive, I cut out that quote entirely.