Beautiful

This is a wonderful story, masterfully written and I realy enjoyed reading it. Your characterisation was spot on.

Very well done, loved the last couple paragraphs where they stated what they are.

My favorite part was where Sidious said that Obi Wan told Anakin what he needed to hear, whereas he told him what he wanted to hear. As I am a major Obi Wan-lover, I totally feel for Obi Wan in all the movies. He was a just-knighted padawan, and now he has to train "the Chosen One". He did the best he could, and after Anakin turned, he spent most of his life feeling as though he failed.

Great chapter!

-Warring Queen

Perfect ending. It's kind of scary how well the song fits...

I'm not much for songfics either, but your strategy of picking only the best lyrics worked well. :)

wow! i loved all the 'masks'. i never really thought of it before!

This is so awesome! I was listening to the "Masquerade" song on my ipod as I read this story. So neat. Palpatine is a lot like the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera, don't you think? Vader too.

The phantom menace of the opera! (terrible pun) Now that I got that out of the way, nice story! The "unmasking" of the characters was very well integrated with the lyrics. I don't think most people can find the beauty in the overlap between the stories, fortunately you are quite keen to these things.

One word: Awesome!

I never really thought about it, but everyone in the saga wears a mask at one point or another, to differing degrees. The Bespin part was especially true, particularly the part about the best deceptions being the ones you aren't aware of putting on yourself. A masquerade indeed.

And thanks for the dedication! That was sweet of you. :)

Phantom Jedi

Wow! I love this story. I never realized quite how many masks the Star Wars characters wear. Padme, Anakin, and Palpatine are all so many different people wrapped up into one. Its no wonder that all three of them became so tangled up in this web of lies and masks. Such a good job, I love the whole idea behind this story. Oh, and the Phantom of the Opera rocks lol.

Nice work!

Are those really the words? I guess I never caught them all.

Wow, the ending made the story. It was a good story, but it wasn't exceptional until the "I am" paragraph. Great job!

Great story! Strange how even Star Wars characters wear masks. Thanks for writing this. God bless!

Lovely imagery!