Author's Notes & Thoughts

The only thing left I have to add to this are some of my own thoughts regarding this story. If it sounds self-indulgent, it probably is, and you're free to skip this if you wish, but ultimately I want to outline a bit what I wanted to accomplish.

I suppose my initial inspiration in this is from reading a lot of the other great time-travel fics written in the same vein. I think what inspires so many to write (and read) these types of films is because of the great separation between the two trilogies, leaving of us wanting over how these great characters, OT and PT, would converse with each other on equal footing.

A minor frustration I've had with some of the stories is how long it takes for the characters (usually OT crew) to reveal their true identities. I don't mean to bash any authors; it's their stories and their prerogative to take it where they wish. For me, however, it seemed like some of it was purely a plot device to drag things along. I wondered what would happen if all identities were revealed immediately, and with no secrets between them, how the interactions between the characters of this family would go, each of them bringing along their own experiences and baggage.

Part of what's interesting about the OT/PT time travel fics too is that oftentimes Luke and Leia are much more mature and advanced mentally than the PT characters, especially Anakin. That, obviously, is how they were portrayed in the movies, or else Anakin would not have fallen, and Luke/Leia wouldn't have been able to fix their mistakes; additionally, Luke/Leia obviously have the hindsight of what happened to Galaxy, giving them a leg up on their parent. By moving the ages of Anakin and Padme up a decade, I wanted to give the parents a chance to act more genuinely as parents and potential mentors, rather as peers.

One of the things I realized this go-round at ff is how well the films were able to establish Anakin and Padme as literal star-crossed lovers, doomed to tragedy and doomed to bring the universe down with them. Their wedding scene especially, which I think NP nailed, with her eyes so scared and sad, as if she knows by this act of marriage, she was dooming the lives of both herself and her husband, and yet she still chooses to go on with it, really captured the entire essence of their story. Part of my story here was pretty much just another take on the AOTC/ROTS fix-it, but my intention was for A&P to become self-aware of their own mythos, and make the conscious decision, both of them, to fight their way to break out of it; basically, Romeo and Juliet become aware of their own script and rather to play out the rest of the tragedy, decide to knock down the walls the playwright built for them.

One of the guest reviewers actually hit the nail on the head when he/she said how Anakin has a gravitas here that he rarely seems to get in a lot of other treatments. That was my intent, to show what the Chosen One could be, free of all constraints, and allowed to mature and grow out of his youth and his fears. A lot of fics portray him as a bit clueless, which is very enjoyable to read, especially for humorous purposes, and those portrayals obviously extrapolate from what Lucas himself did with the character in AOTC and ROTS. Obviously, the film Anakin's cluelessness is due his circumstances, that everything around him, Jedi/Sith/war, has not allowed him to grow out of his youth. I think that if he had been allowed to mature without all those encumbrances, Anakin would be more astute than many give him credit for...he would eventually learn to master and control his visions, understand his own weaknesses, and from a practical point of view, and even surprise with his grasp of politics (since there is very little separating war and politics, and many of the greatest generals are masters of both); while Vader is often portrayed as a mindless Sith who just wants to stab and choke, the films seem to hint at someone who has to survive and at least hold his own within the politics of the Empire. Here, I hoped to portray Anakin at his full potential not just as a mindless warrior, but as a human being.

To allow him to reach that point, Padme had to fall, and really, I think, this story is just as much about the Fall of Padme. Even if he were allowed to have a family within the Jedi Order, or if he and Padme were to retire from everything and settle down on Naboo, or if Padme were to become Supreme Chancellor as she is in many fics...they would still be subject to circumstance (the Jedi, the Republic, the Senate, the Constitution). With his wife as an Empress and a partner, he is truly free to discover himself...and to be honest, I've always liked the idea of Empress Padme (having touched upon it in a previous fic). So in a way this falls right into the role reversal trope...Padme is the one betraying everything she stands for, rather than Anakin, and just as in canon, she's doing so out of love. I tried my best to bring her to this decision point while staying as true as I could to her character, manipulating the events around them in a cruel way because it's necessary, even more so for Padme than for Anakin turning into Vader. I'm still not sure how well I succeeded, but the story was written as I envisioned so there's not much more I can do at this point.

What I realized as the plot and the characters fleshed themselves out was how much had to be sacrificed in order for the doomed lovers to break out of their fable and become masters of their own fairy tale. Such were the parameters of their defined roles and their constrictions within the SW universe that both would have to abandon their duty in order to find happiness. And if they weren't willing to pay the price of sacrifice, as they did in the films, then someone else would have to do it in their place...and it ended up being the twins, Luke twice essentially. And in the end, while only Luke went back, both twins had been willing to do their duty, and both parents had chosen not to.

When the concept and the title of the story first came to me, I initially imagined Luke and/or Leia to be the title characters, the "heirs" to the Empire. I quickly realized that neither one could do that and still be true to their characters, and at that point I knew that the twins would have to be separated in the end. Luke seemed much more the natural fit in the AU/Empress universe, which makes his sacrifice more tragic and heavy. I kept the title because I liked the way it sounded, but it was only midway through writing this when I realized that the true "heirs" were Anakin and Padme as, by abandoning their duty, they had ended up inheriting Palpatine's legacy.

I try my best to stay faithful with Lucas's characters and story, but this story does differ in that it does not deal in absolutes. Rather than good or evil, it's up to the readers to judge the characters on the decisions they choose to make (or not make) given their circumstances.

I don't know why, after over 10 years out of SW and FF in general, that I felt compelled to revisit this world and write and share this story, a need, even, to get it out there, so here we are. This was the story I wanted to tell, and I enjoyed writing this as much as I've written anything. For those of you who stuck with it, I hope you enjoyed it as well.