fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, January 6, 2nd period]

Anakin walked into his classroom precisely on time and gave the students assembled there an appraising glance as the door clicked shut behind him. If you were late, you weren't getting in. "I'm Master Skywalker," he said in a voice that was intended to carry, "this is Ethics, and we're going to skip the introductions--I'll figure out who you are--and move straight to our first discussion."

He paced around the room, cloak flaring out behind him, as he handed out the syllabus. "Today's topic," he said. "Self sacrifice: knowing the difference between saving people and being a pretentious twit."

"Any time I ask a a group of people what they would do to save someone they love, they all blither on about how they would set the world on fire, lie, cheat, steal, kill, die, et cetera, et cetera. I've been at this school too long to believe that half of you haven't already been put into this situation and I'm in no mood to hear adolescent ramblings about how wonderful you were or might hypothetically be. We're going to ground it in reality.

"Last summer there was a woman who was in charge of this school. She had been placed in power legitimately, was allowed to punish in accordance with that power, and began pushing the boundaries of her authority almost immediately. She called students to her office, punished them for slights genuine or imagined, and began escalating the severity and frequency of her punishments, going over the line into what was no longer acceptable."

Anakin crossed his arms over his chest, the scars across his face very evident in the light coming through the window. "It eventually took a team of highly qualified adults to take her out. Today's topic: when do you draw the line? When do you admit to yourself that a problem cannot be solved, that to sacrifice yourself isn't a statement, it's merely pointless? How long does it take for you to realize you can't fix everything by yourself?"

He would hear the replies and choose his TAs from there.

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"From when they graduate the academy. The normal age is around twelve."

Anakin nodded. "That's the traditional age for Padawans as well," he said. "How long do you train them?"

"Until they pass to the next level through tests that are the same for all villages." There was a pause before she added. "I was 14 when I was promoted. From there on is in the hands of your leaders."

"We differ there," Anakin said. "I moved unusually quickly through the information Jedi need to learn and it still took me almost a decade."

"Time is a luxury we lack. Only the very good live past their forties."

"War?" Anakin guessed.

"If not one enemy, it's another," Temari replied. "But even if we didn't... the desert claims lives every day. You have to be good to live in my village."

"There's a desert too?" Anakin sounded surprised. "I grew up on a desert world."

Which did a lot to explain his complete lack of a sense of humor.

"I'm from Sunagakure, the Hidden Village of the Sand." She nodded in the direction the other students had gone. "Yamanaka is from Konohagakure. The Village of the Leaf. As far as I can tell, it's like a large continent. There are countries and within each of those we have villages like mine and hers. But we're all independent."

And there in came the wars.

"Which is what keeps warriors in business," Anakin assumed. "Interesting."

"It's the life we lead." And the only one she could ever be satisfied with at this point.

"I know that attitude very, very well," he said with a small smile. "My family's been fighting for our galaxy for generations now."

"Then you understand it," She said with a smile. "It's hard to explain to people here sometimes why it's not like what they expect."

He nodded. "The looks I got when I told people I wasn't going to college," he said with a light chuckle.

Temari snorted. "I thought I was done with school when I graduated the academy."

Childhoods were things that happened to other people.

"I've been with Madrox since the summer and I don't think he understands why I would pick my life back home over peace and stability here."

Anakin had Opinions about Madrox, but he wasn't going to share them.

"People who don't understand that sense of duty can never have it explained," he said.

Ethics [Tuesday, January 6, 2nd period]

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