Long Shadows [Prompt 020A: Monster]

[lumiosecity]

Title: Long Shadows
Prompt: Monster
Author: lumiosecity
Rating: G
Characters: Anakin Skywalker
Pairing: N/A
Star Wars Media Property: The Phantom Menace
Word count: 200
Warnings/Spoilers: No spoilers for anything ongoing.
Summary: No one is born a monster.
Author Notes: Largely inspired by this teaser poster for TPM, which is probably one of my favorite pieces of Star Wars media. It's so good.

What, exactly, makes someone cross the threshold into becoming a monster?

It’s an important question to ask, if not one that’s easy to answer— and the difficulty is exactly why it’s so important to ask.

Some would say that he was a monster from the start. And isn’t that such a clean, perfect answer? It’s not true, of course, but it’s easy.

There’s nothing easy about this boy— because right now, he’s just a boy, with clear blue eyes and sand in his hair and a long shadow he’s yet to cast.

Stars above, what a terribly long shadow.

But that is in his future, and right now, in the present, he’s just a boy. The galaxy waits with bated breath, the Force hums and aches and worries with the knowledge of what will become of him, but—

But that is in his future, and no one is born a monster. Not even this boy with destiny stretching before him endless and epic as it is, and that shadow long and ominous behind him.

He couldn’t have been a monster from the start, written in the stars as it may have been.

No child ever is.

Not even Anakin Skywalker.

Comments

[elrhiarhodan]

That is very painful.

And Luke would definitely agree. Even at his worst, he still had good in him.

[imhilien]

Nicely written and bittersweet. I think if his mother had been freed too, a lot of bad things could have been avoided. 😑