(1) I started shipping them when I read fialleril's Anabasis, which I actually read before AOTC and ROTS.
(2) Their challenge is ... lololololol. Okay, let's start pre-he's-a-Sith-Lord-and-she's-dead. He's a severely damaged teenager brought up in a monastic order that turns its adherents into soldiers for the government, and before that he was a slave and before that he was a slave in an even worse place. She's a career politician from the age of fourteen who, probably not coincidentally, seems to swing between personas with little continuity between them. She's apparently not supposed to get pregnant and he's not supposed to be in any relationship with anyone, which only adds another layer of trouble. And it gets worse from there.
(3) They make me happy because they actually seem to make each other happy. I mean, that's the thing. Everything that could possibly be wrong is wrong and they are *still happy* until he starts seeing the horrific future. Their relationship functions well for years.
But honestly, there is probably no force on earth that could keep me from squeeing over them and totally shipping them because they're Luke and Leia's parents and Skywalkers make me happy.
(4) What makes me sad about them: she dies, he becomes a supervillain and spends the next twenty years in a state of constant agony and misery. If she has any idea what's going on, she's probably agonized and miserable too. WELL THAT WAS FUN.
(5) The moment I wish had never happened: okay, so there are a LOT of options here, but it really has to be the Force-choke. There are plenty of ways to be a scary villain without going for domestic abuse, thanks.
(6) I'm honestly not that thrilled with Anakin ending up with anyone else thanks to the whole single-target-sexuality thing. If it had to be someone, I'd honestly prefer an OC to anyone we meet in canon. Anything with authority figures just squicks me out and pretty much everyone in his life is an authority figure or *he's* in considerable authority over them. Except Tarkin, I guess, and NO. So yeah, OC. Shockingly, I really like Padmé with Bail. Or maybe Palo in some freak meeting-up-again thing, just because fandom hates him so much.
(7) My happily-ever-after for them: I have several scenarios rattling around my brain, but I think my favourite actually-kind-of-happy-one (so sadly no Empress Amidala, too much self-revulsion on both parts to be happy) goes like this:
Anakin tells Padmé about his dreams on the way to Naboo and she decides to go to Tatooine and he doesn't need much convincing. Shmi isn't dead, though hurt, and he's too busy rescuing her to kill anyone except people who attack him, so he doesn't creep closer to the Dark Side. They stay there while Shmi recovers and so their courtship is there (and a bit less saccharine because Tatooine). Geonosis happens per canon and they get married and all. c. ROTS, Anakin is quite a bit more together and his relationship with Obi-Wan is probably better without Shmi's grisly death, and the most likely future isn't Padmé dying so he doesn't see it happening. *deep breath*
He doesn't end up becoming a Sith Lord and instead Padmé does convince him to get help from Obi-Wan, who's conflicted but ultimately keeps their secret, and gets Padmé out while Anakin, at the Temple, grabs as many of the children as he can and escapes. They all head to Tatooine, where Shmi has been grief-stricken, and they end up settling nearby and train all the children down to little Luke and Leia, and when the droids show up eighteen years later there's a ton of Jedi Knights there who wipe out the stromtroopers, but they know that will draw the attention of the Empire so they scatter and Anakin, Padmé, Luke, and Leia hitch a ride to Alderaan with Han and rescue Bail Organa and basically are a badass family.
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(1) I started shipping them when I read fialleril's Anabasis, which I actually read before AOTC and ROTS.
(2) Their challenge is ... lololololol. Okay, let's start pre-he's-a-Sith-Lord-and-she's-dead. He's a severely damaged teenager brought up in a monastic order that turns its adherents into soldiers for the government, and before that he was a slave and before that he was a slave in an even worse place. She's a career politician from the age of fourteen who, probably not coincidentally, seems to swing between personas with little continuity between them. She's apparently not supposed to get pregnant and he's not supposed to be in any relationship with anyone, which only adds another layer of trouble. And it gets worse from there.
(3) They make me happy because they actually seem to make each other happy. I mean, that's the thing. Everything that could possibly be wrong is wrong and they are *still happy* until he starts seeing the horrific future. Their relationship functions well for years.
But honestly, there is probably no force on earth that could keep me from squeeing over them and totally shipping them because they're Luke and Leia's parents and Skywalkers make me happy.
(4) What makes me sad about them: she dies, he becomes a supervillain and spends the next twenty years in a state of constant agony and misery. If she has any idea what's going on, she's probably agonized and miserable too. WELL THAT WAS FUN.
(5) The moment I wish had never happened: okay, so there are a LOT of options here, but it really has to be the Force-choke. There are plenty of ways to be a scary villain without going for domestic abuse, thanks.
(6) I'm honestly not that thrilled with Anakin ending up with anyone else thanks to the whole single-target-sexuality thing. If it had to be someone, I'd honestly prefer an OC to anyone we meet in canon. Anything with authority figures just squicks me out and pretty much everyone in his life is an authority figure or *he's* in considerable authority over them. Except Tarkin, I guess, and NO. So yeah, OC. Shockingly, I really like Padmé with Bail. Or maybe Palo in some freak meeting-up-again thing, just because fandom hates him so much.
(7) My happily-ever-after for them: I have several scenarios rattling around my brain, but I think my favourite actually-kind-of-happy-one (so sadly no Empress Amidala, too much self-revulsion on both parts to be happy) goes like this:
Anakin tells Padmé about his dreams on the way to Naboo and she decides to go to Tatooine and he doesn't need much convincing. Shmi isn't dead, though hurt, and he's too busy rescuing her to kill anyone except people who attack him, so he doesn't creep closer to the Dark Side. They stay there while Shmi recovers and so their courtship is there (and a bit less saccharine because Tatooine). Geonosis happens per canon and they get married and all. c. ROTS, Anakin is quite a bit more together and his relationship with Obi-Wan is probably better without Shmi's grisly death, and the most likely future isn't Padmé dying so he doesn't see it happening. *deep breath*
He doesn't end up becoming a Sith Lord and instead Padmé does convince him to get help from Obi-Wan, who's conflicted but ultimately keeps their secret, and gets Padmé out while Anakin, at the Temple, grabs as many of the children as he can and escapes. They all head to Tatooine, where Shmi has been grief-stricken, and they end up settling nearby and train all the children down to little Luke and Leia, and when the droids show up eighteen years later there's a ton of Jedi Knights there who wipe out the stromtroopers, but they know that will draw the attention of the Empire so they scatter and Anakin, Padmé, Luke, and Leia hitch a ride to Alderaan with Han and rescue Bail Organa and basically are a badass family.