swiftsnowmane | Top 5 - Twilight of the Apprentice (Reply)

for @jedifest'16 Top Picks challenge

The s2 finale of Star Wars: Rebels was *the* Star Wars event of the year for me, the catalyst that sent me hurtling back into a fandom that I had distanced myself from for a long time. This episode single-handedly rekindled my love for Star Wars at a very dark time when I’d thought I had lost it forever.

Nothing can ever capture the tumult of emotion and the intensity of feeling I experienced while watching the now-iconic confrontation between Ahsoka Tano and Darth Vader. My heart exploded; my soul ascended. The moment Ahsoka slices open Vader’s mask is etched upon my memory forevermore: Vader, brought to his knees, and the voice of Anakin Skywalker, calling out the name of his beloved former apprentice.

Nothing can replicate it, and nothing can ever compare to it. But these five incredible fanworks sure come close.

1. Over Now by dyingsighs

Hands-down, this is the TotA fan art I reblogged more than any other this year. This piece makes me feel things I didn’t even know it was possible to feel. Even now, all these months later, all I have to do is look at it and I want to burst into tears. The lump in my throat forms as soon as I read the words “And there he was: the man beneath the mask, the flesh within the machine. Anakin, my master, you shall be avenged.” Just typing it out makes have to stifle a sob. Because this is such an incredibly important but often overlooked element of Ahsoka and Vader’s encounter – the fact that, all these years later, here in the midst of the Dark Times, in the depths of the Dark Side itself, Ahsoka Tano is declaring that she will avenge Anakin Skywalker. That Anakin Skywalker was, and still is, worth avenging.

2. Torn by lledra-fanstuffs

Another gorgeous and heart-wrenching piece that captures the overwhelming emotion of this episode. The composition is simple, yet incredibly moving. It feels almost like a look into Ahsoka immediately after her encounter with Vader. She stands in the darkness, clutching the shining Convor to her chest, a symbol so reminiscent of the Daughter of the Mortis arc—and of the moment when Anakin, via the Daughter and the power of the Force, brought Ahsoka back to life. And at her back, is a figure shrouded in almost complete Darkness, save for the hand that reaches out from the shadows and rests upon her shoulder. The pose is that of a master, reassuring his apprentice of a job well done. It is ambiguous whether it is Anakin’s hand, or Vader’s. Perhaps it is the part of him that is still Anakin, reaching out from the Darkness to thank her, for trying to free him. And for choosing to remain with him, in his prison, no matter what he might say.

3. Vader’s Mask in Twilight of the Apprentice by ncfan-1

“….when Ahsoka cut a hole in Vader’s life-support suit, she cut a hole in his heart that could not be sealed even with a new mask, just waiting for something to slip inside.”

Much has been written on this ep, but this is the meta that best captures my own thoughts and feelings on the significance of Ahsoka breaking into Vader’s mask. Far too many seem to interpret their entire encounter as something wholly angsty or tragic, but the OP manages to convey everything that I had felt while watching, and more. I often feel as though I hold a much less negative view of this entire episode, its symbolism and meaning, and on its eventual intended outcome than a large portion of the fandom, so it is lovely to know I’m not entirely alone. :)

4. Time by theredsoxfan18

Watch on YouTube

A fan vid that retells the tale of Ahsoka and Anakin/Vader in a devastatingly beautiful way. Somehow I manage to hold myself together most of the way through….until the part that says “and many possible futures”, where I completely lose it.

5. Ahsoka Tano by Darren Tan

Here, I leave you with a rare positive depiction of the Vader and Ahsoka encounter. I like to call it, ‘The Force Strikes Back’. It’s just such a beautiful interpretation of the moment when Ahsoka runs up behind Vader, just before she is about to slice open his mask. What I love is how it shows us the scene from his point of view. With the Convor flying behind her, she leaps through the air toward him, and he turns just a little too late (you can see the edge of his red blade just at the bottom of the composition). Ahsoka is coming for you, buddy. There is no escape. She is going to break into the prison made for the ‘Jedi who had lost his way’, and there she will stay, whether you will it or no.

"...the barest flicker of persistent light."