Just gotta re-read these and Wild Space every so often to fully ground myself in the Obi-Wan and Anakin Dynamic™.

This duology has everything. Obi-Wan and Anakin being so in sync that they're literally almost one person. Obi-Wan and Anakin being so at odds that they are mere inches from killing one another. Ahsoka having her own adventure. A continuation of the Bail Organa/Obi-Wan friendship from Wild Space. War crimes. Yoda being REAL shady.

Some highlights:

• The legendary Bail/Padme/Anakin/Obi-Wan dinner party. The charming domesticity is matched only by the intense awkwardness caused by the web of lies almost everyone knows about but can't acknowledge out loud. Also, it's VERY funny to think about how this occasion would have looked to Leia, had she known about it.

• All the post-Zigoola symptoms that Obi-Wan refuses to acknowledge.

• Honestly, I do really like Taria Damsin even though she's a little bit of a "cool Jedi," and her existence adds to the ever-growing ranks of Obi-Wan's many love interests.

• Anakin's mechanic skills JUMP out in this book, from him literally re-designing the Republic's line of Venator-class cruisers, to him flying a ground speeder that's not even built to fly.

• ALL THE USES OF THE FORCE! You really get to see how the Jedi live their lives submerged in it.

• Obi-Wan hurting himself by acting a whole lot more Slytherin than his true nature wants him to act.

• Outsider POV. Bant'ena Fhernan's evaluation of Anakin and Obi-Wan is SO interesting to me, both their personalities and their unearthly Jedi abilities. The way she sees both of them is fascinating.

• Anakin: The Jedi are a lot of things, but family isn't one of them.
Obi-Wan, neutrally: I see.
Anakin: WAIT NO that's not what I MEANT—

• Anakin Skywalker: Jedi Temple Distance Force-Leap Record Holder

• Obi-Wan's acting skills. Why is he so good at pretending to be a yokel, but when he goes to settle on Tatooine everybody within 100 miles knows that he's some kind of a fugitive stranger within 2 days?

• What I refer to as "The Bant'ena Fight" but what is really just Anakin and Obi-Wan's eternal, basic difference. They have been fighting this fight since the day Anakin became Obi-Wan's apprentice, and continue to fight it until Mustafar. Anakin is compassionate and right about the hypocrisy of the Jedi, Obi-Wan is pragmatic and right about the danger Anakin puts himself in by allowing his issues to run rampant over his self-control. It's a huge, vital expression of characterization, and it's just such a mess. They are both caught in a cycle of trying to reach out to each other and not being able to.

• "Working without Anakin was like working half-blind."