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Irrelevant

Summary:

A person’s soulmate is irrelevant. That’s the kindest thing that the Jedi Order has to say on the matter.

Notes:

Prompt #13: "Soulmates"

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

A person’s soulmate is irrelevant.  That’s the kindest thing that the Jedi Order has to say on the matter.  A handful of individual Jedi, here and there, murmur that maybe a soulmate is a person that they have some meaningful interaction with, and that’s it.  Some people have been known to have their Master or a frequent partner as a soulmate, and the Council doesn’t do much about that.  (If they don’t care about that, then why do they care about outside partners who might be soulmates?  About other kinds of relationships?  Anakin never does get a satisfactory answer on that.)

Considering that Anakin’s mother still had no idea who her soulmate was the last time that he saw her, it’s not much different than everything he grew up with.  And if he’d like for it to be, well, it’s far from the only thing that he wishes was different.

His mark doesn’t match Obi-Wan’s, and it doesn’t match Qui-Gon’s, either.  (He didn’t ask, but he didn’t have to; Obi-Wan easily told him that he’d never seen its match before.  He’d also given Anakin another lecture on why your soulmate is meaningless compared to your deep bond with the Force.  Anakin can recite the lectures word-for-word at this point.)

When he finally meets Padmé again, he’s quietly disappointed to find that her mark doesn’t match, either.  It doesn’t do anything to stop their feelings for each other from progressing, but it’s just one more point in favor of soulmates being meaningless.  (At this point, Anakin wonders if anyone ever actually finds their soulmate, or if that’s even what the marks mean.)

Sheev Palpatine reassures him that people often find their soulmate later in life, and also that while the Council is a little harsher than he might be, platonic soulmates are actually very common.

Cliegg Lars, when Anakin meets him, has a familiar mark on his wrist.  The one bright spot out of that trip to Tattooine is knowing that his mother met her soulmate and was happy with him.  It’s mostly overshadowed by the fact that they barely had any time together, by her terrible death and Anakin’s Dark revenge, but it’s still there.

Anakin finally, finally, meets his soulmate when he’s not quite twenty.  Well, that’s when he learns who his soulmate is.  Even a year or two after the fact, he’s still not sure whether Yoda knew it when he assigned Snips to Anakin.  But he’s glad of it.

--

A person’s soulmate is irrelevant.  The Emperor has reassured him of that.

Notes:

Ouch.

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