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Obi-Wan stood in front of a class of initiates who were ready to be padawans and young padawans under the age of fifteen. This was a class being done over call, unfortunately, as the war never stopped. He was pleased that Anakin allowed Ahsoka to join him for the duration of the class, because it meant that he had one in person. That could make things easier, but this was also an unusual class. The first of its kind.
He took a deep breath and smiled at all the initiates and padawans looking up at him in awe. “Welcome to public relations for the war. Unfortunately, this is not going to be a usual class, and since we are at war, I won't be able to conduct this in person. Many of the padawans won't even be able to be present for each lesson, which is why all lessons are recorded.” He did a quick roll call. “However it seems everyone was able to make this class. Good.”
“The reason we are holding this class is... The war will drive our reputation as Jedi to the ground. We are already getting detractors saying we are warmongers, that we are too violent. That the war is our fault. This class is about public relations throughout wars of the past, the aftermath, and what we can do about it in the present. You may notice that this is only a class for those under the age of fifteen. That there isn't even an equivalent for older padawans still taking classes. That is because... You are the future. The decisions we make now for public relations, are ones you will be living with, in the aftermath of the war. You might even be Knights by the time the war is over if it continues for several years like it seems it might.”
“But... the same can be true of older padawans, too, right? So why us?” Ahsoka asked.
“You have an advantage over them right now. Can anyone figure it out?”
Finally, a young nautolan (the youngest of the group) raised his hand. “Is it because we're so young we get sympathy more easily?”
“Precisely,” Obi-Wan nodded. “It is our duty as Jedi to serve the galaxy, to serve the Republic, all the way down to the youngest of us. Today we will brainstorm ways to show the galaxy that we are still people, that we are not just aloof Jedi, and each of you will then at the next class choose one of the ideas with which to create a project for you to submit for a grade later on. I will be open for questions, when I am not busy fighting, of course. The majority of our other classes will cover the history, as I mentioned, with time to work on projects. Your final grade will be equally determined by your project, and the test on the history. Now, let's brainstorm. No need for hand raising right now, just talking. No talking over each other mind, but I want this to be a discussion.”
“So... what if we made a blog?” was the first hesitant suggestion.
Obi-Wan marked down all suggestions in their class board that would show up on all of their datapads. He was particularly pleased by the idea of the initiates sending care packages and by the video ideas. He helped narrow down ideas on what the videos could entail. Those like Ahsoka, who actually were padawans and had interacted with clones before, brought in ideas to show how they could get along with clones by involving them in blogs and videos. Ideas for relief efforts and all that flew. It was a good brainstorming session.
He knew, by the time class was done, what most of the initiates would likely be choosing as their long term projects. Projects that would be live. Ahsoka for certain would be choosing to do videos with the clones. She was already badgering him about getting the right tools for recording and everything.
He laughed at her. “Now, Ahsoka, I will get you everything you need if you promise to prank Anakin for some of your videos, including his reactions. Bonuses for getting clones involved.”
The Force seemed particularly playful after his class, as it had when he suggested the class to the Council. Yes, this was the right course of action, or one of them at least. If it had the Force acting that way, then it had to be one of the better options, too. Logically, even without the Force, having the younglings run the main push for good public relations was a decent idea. The Force's support just meant that it would go better than they expected. Obi-Wan looked forward to the results.
.
Ahsoka got her end going faster than anyone. She was doing short videos of the clones daily life, particularly two new clones to the 501st- Echo and Fives. It seemed they were her co-conspirators, perfectly willing to let her appear innocent and taking the fall for her, all so she could prank Anakin. Poor Rex.
All of the videos and blogs were doing alright. They weren't bringing in the attention they had hoped for, but they were slowly gaining follows. The initiate who was doing the care packages had gone a different route than expected and gotten all the initiates from age two (old enough to be coloring) to those waiting to be chosen as a padawan assigned a different clone to exchange letters with.
Obi-Wan had to smile at the men who got the letters. Cody had gotten one too and was absolutely delighted by the two year old scribblings, and had a fun time sending little notes and drawings, and even knick-knacks back to the two year old. Obi-Wan knew knew for a fact that the commander had them hung up everywhere.
But the best was yet to come. The letters were just the initiate's way of ensuring that they knew what the clones wanted. Because they were all getting care packages. Obi-Wan and the rest of the Council had actually taken some of their free time to assign the clones. They had chosen some of their officers, medics, and the rest of the men to receive the first letters and care packages. The initiate had decided that for now only the battalions and legions facing the most fighting would be on the list, and of that, one medic, three officers, and five troopers from each would get the letters and care packages. They were hoping that eventually other younglings from around the galaxy would want to do the same, and they didn't want any one legion/battalion to get all the attention or to assign whole squads when they would be covered by other younglings.
For now though... Obi-Wan smiled as he clicked on Ahsoka's latest video. Someone else was clearly filming. Anakin was singing loudly (badly) to some pop song as he worked on something with one hand. The other arm was sitting on the table behind him, for some reason. Ahsoka looked at the camera with a big grin, clearly trying not to laugh. She took the arm. She started shaking with laughter as the camera shook as well. Then she booked it out of there.
Right then Anakin huffed. “Need two hands.” He turned to grab the arm and froze. “Where did it go? I left it right here... right?” He started searching his workspace, nearly tearing it apart. The person holding the camera turned to show Ahoska holding the arm on the ground in hysterics. Then turned back in time to see Anakin going for them.
“RUN!” the clone yelled and took off behind Ahsoka. It occasionally showed Anakin still hot on their tails as they weaved around other clones looking confused, then amused. It ended with the cameraclone tripping and falling.
Obi-Wan remembered getting the call from Anakin. Anakin had nearly been in tears. “I'm sorry for everything I did to you master! Ahsoka isn't even that bad how did you have the patience for me!” But it went on and on, Obi-Wan let him because he had gotten a message from Ahsoka right before that telling him she had seen him going to call him and wanted to try to record it if it were any good. So might as well give his grandpadawan more material for her channel. She planned to upload it the next day.
.
Then came the videos of the initiates creating care packages. Those quickly became popular among the clones, though they never showed what was in the packages, just the kids being adorable. Then one day... a video popped up.
It was Crys. “Hi, I'm Crys of the 212th Battalion. I received a care package from an initiate of the Jedi today, who has been my pen pal for a few months, and my squad told me I had to film myself opening it, so I decided I might as well. At least my pen pal can see what I think!” One of his squad came with the box. His eyes went wide.
“That's a bigger box than I was expecting... What's inside, I wonder?” He opened it up quickly and pulled out a blanket first. A nice, soft fluffy homemade blanket. His eyes appeared wet as he hugged it to him. He didn't say anything for a long minute.
“This is the nicest blanket I have ever seen.” He hesitated then wrapped it around himself before reaching in to grab another item out of the box. He held it up and looked closer. “A... collection of spice mixes from around the galaxy. That will be fun,” he decided, “tasting something other than the blandness of rations.”
He reached in again. He pulled out a collection of rocks, polished and on display, though the names and planets they were from were written in a childish hand. “Wow, so many pretty rocks and crystals...” He picked up the rocks and felt them looking at the pretty swirls, holding the crystals up to the light. He had to be reminded that he had some other items.
The next thing was a book on geology around the galaxy. “I could do with some reading.” He flipped through the book idly, stopping and grabbing a crystal to compare and smiling to himself. Once again he had to be reminded there was more. It was cute the way he startled at the reminder.
“What's this?” He frowned, looking at all the flat boxes. He looked at the titles on top and flipped it over, reading the back. His eyes widened as he went to look at the other three quickly, a look of glee spreading across his face. “Games! Actual games we can play besides card games! Finally!” he cheered. “Something new.”
The next thing was the second to last thing and he stared in amazement. “Candy... A supply of candy...” he whispered reverently. He looked over them before taking a chocolate out. He opened it up and popped it into his mouth. He hummed happily before tossing one each to his squad. “So... good...” He sighed happily. “Never had any candy before. Now I get to figure out what I even like!” He grinned, then eyed his squad. “But you can't have it til I know if I like it or not!” he warned. “And if I like it you better not take any without asking.” He hugged the candy to himself protectively. There were multiple bags of it. Then he reached in for the last item.
It turned out to be several drawings and paintings and even some craft projects of other sorts that the initiate had done. For Crys. Crys was even labeled as one of the people drawn with the Nautolan initiate that was his pen pal. He started crying without showing the pictures at all. His squad stared at him, dumbfounded, in the edges of the recording before one had the presence of mind to move the pictures so they could be shown.
“No one's ever done anything so nice for me...” Crys whispered, seemingly unaware that he was still being recorded as he examined the little pottery project meant for holding small items. It was decorated in gold and blue, the exact shades of Crys' favorite colors, one being the 212th gold, and the other being a nice light but not pale blue. It worked well together. He still had tears in his eyes as he looked up at the camera.
“Thank you for the care package. It's... it's more than I could've dreamed of.”
The video ended there.
Chaos erupted. Suddenly, Crys' channel, that he had only created to show the unboxing, blew up practically overnight. People were going nuts over how he cried over the things he had received. How he reacted in general. Suddenly, tons of messages were sent to the Temple, younglings begging to have their own clone penpal. A new holonet site had to be created just to apply, and the initiate in charge of the program had to get others to help organize it and assign the different younglings to other clones.
For Crys' part, he took the newfound popularity well. He started uploading videos of him and his squad, and others of the 212th (featuring Commander Cody and General Kenobi on more than one occasion) trying out the spice mixes, trying out the candy, and playing the games. He would read aloud the information to anyone who wanted to know, and show off the shiny rocks, and the new ones he had picked up to go with the collection.
There were several excited comments on those videos about how Crys had painted more than one of the drawings he had received on his armor in the same colors. Sometimes he replaced them with new drawings, other times he added one here and there, as he got more. The letters continued, sometimes accompanied by drawings, but he did receive one care package once a month or once every other month depending on timing.
The other clones who had penpals started uploading their unboxing videos too, and as more clones got penpals, more videos were added. Soon, they were doing other sorts of videos to accompany the ones Ahsoka and the others in the PR class had been making, which were now also growing in popularity to Ahsoka's delight.
The most popular types of videos were the 'insane Jedi' stunts. And the ones showing just how much the Jedi cared. Especially when it involved both. Like Mace Windu diving in front of a transport to rescue a pregnant Tooka. Or Plo Koon casually using his special brand of lightning to catch food when the 104th were running low on rations. Or Anakin and Obi-Wan and their insane bouncing off of things while flying and somehow saving the day with minimal injuries (the ones where they did get injured never were uploaded).
There were reactions by the clones, running commentary about the di'kut their general(s) were and how they had to protect them. There was laughter, and fun. There was padawan commanders being shown in training- often by their masters (generals) but sometimes being taught to use a blaster or other necessary things by the clones. There was chaos, and it was being immortalized on the holonet. There was rants from medics about the jedi and clones not staying still. There were competitions between units- with the 501st/212th rivalry reaching epic proportions. Starting with a dance competition, and somehow leading to an obstacle course when they had some downtime after a mission, starring three Jedi providing moving obstacles as needed.
There were videos of clones sparring with sticks making lightsaber noises, only to chase their brothers around when they realized they were caught. There were cuddle piles and stories. There were remembrances. There were veiled hints at the rough childhoods they had received.
And there were the serious ones, where clones were breaking down over their precious Jedi and how they weren't meant to be generals, they really weren't. How they could see their generals breaking down with each death. Serious videos about how the Jedi were working themselves to death, including videos of arguments (and not just Kenobi like many Jedi who knew him expected) about how they couldn't just live off the Force, they had to eat and sleep, only for them to point to mounds of paperwork, talk about the next campaign, talk about training.
There were videos showcasing the Jedi at their best, and some at their worst. There were videos where a whole squad, and their commander and Jedi stood there and explained that the clone, the person who's channel this was had died, and explaining the circumstances as best they could. Many times this featured breakdowns by all, including the Jedi, though they tried to hide it.
No one realized the true impact this had. The clones were having a grand time, the initiates and padawans in the PR class were having a great time with their projects as their channels and blogs blew up over night, even the more boring ones discussing Force theory, the Code, and the Jedi 'religion' (most viewed the Jedi as a religion, and it did in fact register itself as a religion, though the Jedi themselves didn't really consider themselves religious). And the generals, even the High Council, were starteing to relax and smile more. Interacted with their men more. Encouraged their exploration of self, even as every clone got a youngling. There was a waiting list, and as soon as a new shiny appeared, they had a youngling who would send a letter and a 'welcome to your new family' sort of care package, often including things like candy, games, and blankets. More tears were shed.
.
The true impact... There had been some who had been amused by the antics and attempts of the initiates and padawans of the PR class Obi-Wan taught, who found mild entertainment. Those were people who had already liked the Jedi and were content to watch the antics. Those who wanted to know more about the clones. A lot of Senators were included in that.
Then the first video of a clone- Crys- doing an unboxing. The tears had Senators (including Bail Organa, Riyo Chuchi, Mon Mothma, and Padme Amidala) sending the videos back home, telling their families and the ruling parties to watch it. The people watching because they wanted to know more about the clones, and liked the Jedi sent it on to friends, even friends who weren't as interested. It spread from there.
As more videos came out, the whispers started about how bad the clones had it. How horrible the Jedi were for bringing them into being but not doing a thing about it. How horrid they couldn't even always get good service on Coruscant.
Then other videos showed up that hinted towards a less than stellar upbringing on Kamino, and the Jedi having no clue about it. And then there were the videos showcasing Jedi being nice to the clones. The most popular recording was when Plo Koon caught Pong Krell treating the clones as little more than expendable droids and nearly killed him. Well, that was the popular phrasing. Plo Koon just wanted to electrocute him. A little. It wasn't his fault that Pong Krell had apparently fallen, and he and his men had to defend themselves until Pong Krell was able to be subdued.
The younglings around the galaxy were overjoyed by the clone pen pals, and shared the letters (but not all of the letters) with their friends. Many hoped to be able to meet their pen pal some day, if things turned out okay. Their love of the clones was contagious and their parents followed suit after reading some of the letters for themselves. They could see the care that the clones took to explain things at an age appropriate level- sometimes missing the mark, sure, but they were trying. Sometimes the parents took it upon themselves to include their own letters with their child's to apologize, clarify, or explain what the age limits to things were.
More and more people of the Republic started calling for Clone rights. More and more people started helping out the troops when they came to their planets. More and more people offered goods in return for their lives and livelihoods being saved. More and more stores and restaurants started serving clones. Even on Coruscant, the amount of people who despised the clones dropped to a minority almost overnight.
Sidious or Palpatine as he preferred when he wasn't doing outright Sith things, just galaxy domination things, was furious at the sudden popularity of the clones. It would make selling the aftermath of any of his orders, any of the ones that made them into shells of themselves, much more difficult. He could do it, but he would have to start working harder on it.
There was one thing he missed. Overshadowed by the clones, the Jedi's popularity was growing too, thanks to all the videos and blogs showcasing the good in the Jedi. Thanks to sneaky troopers catching their Jedi mid rant about some mission or another pushed by the Senate not the Council (while editing out sensitive information and blurring faces and making sure there was nothing identifying in the video), people all around the galaxy were finding that more and more of the things they blamed the Jedi on were due to the Senate. Even some of the more stubborn had to admit that the Jedi didn't seem like they were comfortable in the war after seeing one too many breakdowns on the holonet. After hearing and seeing too many breakdowns of the Jedi's strategies, well certain Jedi were exempt, and others were fast learners. Others... it was clear they were not suited to command, and thankfully many of those realized it and let their commanders and other officers do their thing.
The Jedi were growing and growing in popularity, quietly, but they were. More and more Knights and even Masters grew comfortable with uploading their own videos. Anakin did a whole series about the Outer Rim and how Republic policies didn't quite reach there, eventually working up to slavery, and rather than talking around it, he admitted to being a slave. He got help from Obi-Wan and other masters where he could to explain why the Jedi couldn't just free every slave they came across, though they did their best to at least give those in slavery the tools to free themselves when they could. It gave him a lot of closure getting better explanations than he had gotten as a kid before he gave up. It gave him closure having to explain it and realizing 'oh. Right, yeah this makes sense.'
Obi-Wan did a whole thing on teas around the galaxy, talking about flavors, and the best way to steep them- some did better cold, some hot, some were best at certain temps, and if you were a degree or two off or a minute or two off it could ruin the flavor. He would do tea parties with varying members of the 212th for their opinions. He talked about how this tea was better ground up, but this tea was better in leaf form. He talked about how even roots could be used in tea. He talked about how some teas were better if they steeped for hours or even days, showing off a collection of his favorites he had going in rotations for weeks and months.
Plo Koon had a whole thing on piloting. Mace Windu had a series attempting to explain shatterpoints, visions, and the migraines that came of them. It was popular among scientific types who liked multiverse theory. And among those who thought Mace Windu was one of the most memeable of the Order. Yoda would guest appear in almost every Jedi channel at least once. Sometimes just doing it out of nowhere, and sometimes planned. Ki-Adi Mundi did a brief series on his species and how endangered they were (which was not actually well known). Quinlan Vos did this whole thing on seeing how much he could get away with by flirting, though he also ran a series with Obi-Wan where they got together and told someone (sometimes initiates, sometimes their former padawans, sometimes even Council members) about all the pranks they had gotten away with, some of which they had never even been suspected to be behind it. And a final series about psychometry because people seemed interested in rare abilities of the Jedi.
There were series from padawans about their varied classes, comparing and contrasting before the war and after, some of them even added in curriculums from across the galaxy for comparison. There were cute videos of Initiates in their early lightsaber classes. There were Knights teaching basic self defense. There were videos on how to prevent and detect Sith manipulation for non-Force sensitives, just in case. Those were popular among the clones. Surprisingly, many of them had a drop in headaches and nightmares. Others reported to their Jedi (if they trusted them) that they detected something dark whenever they had headaches and nightmares. This naturally led to discovering biochips and quickly, quietly, and furiously getting them removed.
But that wasn't all. Underneath the Sith's nose, the citizens of the Republic, and even the Separatists, started putting together facts of the war. They noted how busy the Jedi were, noted the declining numbers and said to themselves. “If the Jedi can't do it, why can't we help them out?” So they laid out a timeline of facts. Investigating deeper and deeper, putting together one off lines.
They put together what led Jango Fett to become the template for the clones with surprising accuracy. They are able to put Obi-Wan in place at many events, especially as those who knew him eagerly offered up knowledge about his unfortunate luck. #Getthismansomevacation sprouts up overnight after the first mostly completed timeline of his luck appears.
They do the same with many other Jedi and padawans as they could. They tried to respect the origin stories of the Jedi unless they bring up how they got to the Temple themselves, which many did because it was easy enough to bring up in conversation, and few even remembered it because they were so young. They just knew what was on file.
As the fanatics of the holonet dug deeper, they noted patterns and came up with theories the Jedi would never think of. Thanks to the clones, the Jedi became aware of them and did what they could to look into them, and at minimum, meditated on the possibilities.
A lot of Separatist lines led back to Chancellor Palpatine. And people noted how odd it was that he became Chancellor because his planet was conveniently under blockade and being invaded. That he had gotten emergency powers and was extending his length of stay in the seat of Chancellor. He came under suspicion, though only a few fringe theories pointed to him being the Sith behind it all. Most saw him as a power hungry politician. They dug and saw that his words didn't match his policies.
Some of the more reasonable Senators had kept an eye on the progress. They had known for a while the uses of social media. With those conclusions, they set their people to investigating and releasing some knowledge they felt was safe. Others were passed onto the Jedi Council.
Thanks to the closeness that creating the videos caused, Anakin didn't actually spend as much time with the Chancellor as he could. Then there was the miscalculation the Chancellor made more than once about Obi-Wan and the Jedi that drove Anakin further away. Anakin had taken to checking social media and had learned more about the Jedi and realized he was being unfair. He wasn't perfect, and he still struggled, but he didn't want to keep taking it out on people. And he certainly didn't want to keep misunderstanding people when they talked to him.
When the theories about Palpatine being behind the whole war, behind the clones showed up... Well, Anakin wasn't as surprised and angry as he would've been before.
The Jedi attempted to arrest Palpatine, and ended up killing him. Some clones went berserk when he issued Order 66, as they hadn't gotten to all of the clones yet, but enough of the army had been dechipped that they were quickly subdued and sedated until the medics could get to them. There were a few injuries, and some deaths before that happened, but it could've been far worse.
The Senate... well, the galaxy found out how corrupt the Senate was when a minority supported the Jedi in the aftermath. There were revolts and anger on many worlds when they received word that their Senator did not vote for the Jedi, and instead condemned them for their actions. When they ordered the Jedi to leave.
The Jedi left, taking their army with them (they had never signed 'ownership' of the clones over to the Republic), and a number of important and unimportant worlds, including Naboo and Alderaan. A meeting with Dooku settled some disagreements, and soon a new government was forming for the worlds, who did not want to join the Separatists but were no longer interested in a Republic that did not want them, even if the people did. They spread out their new Temples, with the first two going on up on Naboo and Alderaan, the former mainly because of the relationship between Padme and Anakin.
.
From the time Obi-Wan started the class he knew would take a while to get through, since he was one of the teachers, to the Jedi exodus was just one year. It took less than a year to end the war once social media was involved. He had already administered their test, but had one last class, in person this time, for his students.
Obi-Wan stood in front of them in the classroom, rather smug at how well this worked out. “I am very proud of all of you. You all contributed in small ways to the outcome of this war. If it weren't for your projects, we wouldn't be here today. We might still be fighting an unwinnable war. You might not think your project did much, as it was overshadowed by others, but it still helped. The blogs about Force theory definitely helped a lot of people understand. It helped the clones understand the Jedi they were working with. The series on classes that eventually got compared to the galaxy gave many an appreciation for why the Jedi start young. Most importantly, it gave the rest of us the ideas to run our own series and blogs. It made us look normal, less out of touch. Thank you for succeeding so wonderfully in your projects.”
Initiate Zatt raised his hand. That Nautolan was one of Obi-Wan's favorites. “But this is your class, you're the one who pushed us to do these projects. Isn't this all your doing?”
Obi-Wan smiled at the class. “I was asked to do a course on public relations because padawans had been coming in closer contact with the media, and we had to be sure that you would do us proud if it came to it. Normally such lessons are done by your masters with most of it being covered by other classes in some capacity- cultures, negotiations, debate, those all cover aspects of public relations, and what's left gets covered by one's master. I started the call that first day, and saw potential. I decided to try something different, and gave you projects. You far surpassed my expectations just with your ideas. You were doing well, even before it all became popular and mainstream. You should all be proud of what you've accomplished. Your projects all have received top marks, so as long as you got even a quarter of the questions right on the test, you have passed the course. Any other questions?”
Another initiate raised her hand. “Initiate Katooni?” Obi-Wan prompted. He liked using their first names over their last, and they all seemed more comfortable with that.
“Did people on the Holonet really figure out who the Sith was before the Jedi? And how were they able to do so just because of our projects.”
“A single pebble causes ripples,” Obi-Wan replied. “By engaging interest into who the Jedi were, by getting them invested in the clones, they wanted to help end the war. They started by mapping out our history, getting accounts from people that worked with us- and I am still not amused that so much of my own history is known by the way- and once they mapped that out adequately alongside the timeline of the war, they saw things that we had missed. Things we were too close to see, things we did not have time to deduce. And here we are. Go ahead, Padawan Ahsoka.”
Ahsoka beamed at him. “Thank you for giving us the projects. I had a lot of fun doing them. I'm glad I don't need to fight battles anymore.”
“You're welcome, grandpadawan. If there's nothing else... I will finish grading your tests later today and let you know the results. You are dismissed.”
Everyone dashed out, chattering excitedly. Zatt was talking to his friends about maybe now that the war was over, they could start a pen pal program between the initiates (and the clone cadets) and the younglings of the rest of the galaxy, allowing them to be less distant from the galaxy in the future.
They had survived and would thrive. That was enough.