Starting with the last part first, because so much love. The last three paragraphs are perfect! (Also I am curious about your 70-year-old Vader: is that when he died? Or is he still aging in the Force somehow?) But OMG LOVE. And I love that he's the best storyteller in the family and also always willing to own up to what he did as Vader.
And I love Luke's freaking out over compassion! The phrase I want to feed him is "unconditional positive regard". Because, yeah.
The only thing I twitched about has to do with an Unpopular Fandom Opinion that I think I may have mentioned to you, which is that while I think the regular election of teenage monarchs on Naboo is over-the-top (because I can't imagine that they are turning out political prodigies by the gross in that genepool unless they're near-Human rather than human; Padme should have been a once-in-several-generations thing), I also think that... fandom goes kind of overboard the other way? As in, I feel like a lot of writers take for granted that the level of... frivolity... that we see in a lot of teenagers today is a natural part of being a teenager, rather than a consequence of how teenagers in America/the Western world generally are socialized? And that if they were actually being presented with the opportunity to think more deeply and to be responsible, they probably would, at least in a lot of cases. So, e.g., Padme Organa might not have been ready to be a monarch, but she probably would have been thinking seriously about her own place in the Force and wrangling with Jedi ethics and stuff, and that could be the place that her doubts comes from--- "I was still figuring out my own personal morals, how could I have served as a leader for more people than myself?" kind of thing. (Sorry, this is one of my head-explodey Unpopular Fandom Opinions that gets loose every so often.)
But OMG, the rest of this fic! The communion among Anakin, Leia, Luke, and Lyra! And Padme's sense of herself--- not the best Jedi evar but a great diplomat! And I have to say again how much I love ghost!Anakin! And also Luke coping with paperwork by playing around in the Force, and the Skywalker-Organa-Solo family dynamics and Leia becoming a Jedi because someone had to wrangle paperwork and Lyra being in a bad headspace and Anakin being about to talk her around and oh, just about all of it!!!! SQUEE!!!!
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And I love Luke's freaking out over compassion! The phrase I want to feed him is "unconditional positive regard". Because, yeah.
The only thing I twitched about has to do with an Unpopular Fandom Opinion that I think I may have mentioned to you, which is that while I think the regular election of teenage monarchs on Naboo is over-the-top (because I can't imagine that they are turning out political prodigies by the gross in that genepool unless they're near-Human rather than human; Padme should have been a once-in-several-generations thing), I also think that... fandom goes kind of overboard the other way? As in, I feel like a lot of writers take for granted that the level of... frivolity... that we see in a lot of teenagers today is a natural part of being a teenager, rather than a consequence of how teenagers in America/the Western world generally are socialized? And that if they were actually being presented with the opportunity to think more deeply and to be responsible, they probably would, at least in a lot of cases. So, e.g., Padme Organa might not have been ready to be a monarch, but she probably would have been thinking seriously about her own place in the Force and wrangling with Jedi ethics and stuff, and that could be the place that her doubts comes from--- "I was still figuring out my own personal morals, how could I have served as a leader for more people than myself?" kind of thing. (Sorry, this is one of my head-explodey Unpopular Fandom Opinions that gets loose every so often.)
But OMG, the rest of this fic! The communion among Anakin, Leia, Luke, and Lyra! And Padme's sense of herself--- not the best Jedi evar but a great diplomat! And I have to say again how much I love ghost!Anakin! And also Luke coping with paperwork by playing around in the Force, and the Skywalker-Organa-Solo family dynamics and Leia becoming a Jedi because someone had to wrangle paperwork and Lyra being in a bad headspace and Anakin being about to talk her around and oh, just about all of it!!!! SQUEE!!!!