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licenseartistic October Prompt #6
Nov. 1st, 2006 12:33 pmPrompt:“ Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” C. S. Lewis.
Character: Anakin Skywalker
Fandom: Star Wars
Wordcount: 432
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Anakin doesn't belong to me, he belongs to George Lucas and Lucasfilm. Just borrowing. No money made or intended to be made off of this, ever.
When he was a slave on Tatooine, he learned by doing. There were no schools for slaves, and Watto had neither the time nor the inclination to show the young boy how to do something more than once. After that, it was up to Anakin to figure out how to get it done, and getting it wrong would not end well. He learned quickly, as a result. He learned how to build machines and droids and other mechanicals by tinkering with them. Try putting this here and see if it works. If it didn't, he might only end up with a lungful of smoke and a coughing fit, but he might end up with a ruined machine and all sorts of consequences from Watto he didn't dare think too much about. If it did work, it often worked well, and young Anakin was understandably proud of this.
Podracing was the same way. No one told you how brutal it was, they didn't need to. But nor did anyone really understand what it was like until they sat behind the stick of their own pod. And for a young boy, it was even harder to understand. But the first time he saw someone's pod go crashing into the side of a canyon wall, the first time he felt just how close he'd come to doing the same thing, the first time another racer sent Anakin's pod careening out of control with a well-timed push, Anakin learned. He had to. It was that, or dying.
Later, at the Temple, Anakin still learned by doing. By feeling it, having it happen. He hated waiting for something to be shown to him several times, it made him feel slow and stupid, as if his teacher had no faith in his abilities to pick it up the first time, as if he still heard the echo of Watto's grating voice in his ears that he was a stupid human who couldn't understand something shown to him. He didn't care if trying a new manuever in lightsaber training resulted in bruises and burns after he'd only seen it once. He'd remember those bruises and burns. He learned from them. The next try was better and the third, almost perfect.
The hardest lesson of all to learn though, came much later, and lasted for decades. It began with two simple words, "I'm pregnant." and it didn't end until he did, years and years later, staring up into the blue eyes of a boy, his boy, his son. "You already have, Luke. You were right about me. Tell your sister...you were right...."
Character: Anakin Skywalker
Fandom: Star Wars
Wordcount: 432
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Anakin doesn't belong to me, he belongs to George Lucas and Lucasfilm. Just borrowing. No money made or intended to be made off of this, ever.
When he was a slave on Tatooine, he learned by doing. There were no schools for slaves, and Watto had neither the time nor the inclination to show the young boy how to do something more than once. After that, it was up to Anakin to figure out how to get it done, and getting it wrong would not end well. He learned quickly, as a result. He learned how to build machines and droids and other mechanicals by tinkering with them. Try putting this here and see if it works. If it didn't, he might only end up with a lungful of smoke and a coughing fit, but he might end up with a ruined machine and all sorts of consequences from Watto he didn't dare think too much about. If it did work, it often worked well, and young Anakin was understandably proud of this.
Podracing was the same way. No one told you how brutal it was, they didn't need to. But nor did anyone really understand what it was like until they sat behind the stick of their own pod. And for a young boy, it was even harder to understand. But the first time he saw someone's pod go crashing into the side of a canyon wall, the first time he felt just how close he'd come to doing the same thing, the first time another racer sent Anakin's pod careening out of control with a well-timed push, Anakin learned. He had to. It was that, or dying.
Later, at the Temple, Anakin still learned by doing. By feeling it, having it happen. He hated waiting for something to be shown to him several times, it made him feel slow and stupid, as if his teacher had no faith in his abilities to pick it up the first time, as if he still heard the echo of Watto's grating voice in his ears that he was a stupid human who couldn't understand something shown to him. He didn't care if trying a new manuever in lightsaber training resulted in bruises and burns after he'd only seen it once. He'd remember those bruises and burns. He learned from them. The next try was better and the third, almost perfect.
The hardest lesson of all to learn though, came much later, and lasted for decades. It began with two simple words, "I'm pregnant." and it didn't end until he did, years and years later, staring up into the blue eyes of a boy, his boy, his son. "You already have, Luke. You were right about me. Tell your sister...you were right...."
