darth-jess

[darth-jess]

Sorry I’ve been MIA guys, life’s been a little crazy and I’ve been in the ER and the hospital. I’m fine, just a health scare but long story short—apparently turmeric can seriously mess with your liver, especially if your ancestors don’t come from a place where turmeric is used in everything.

Should be back soon 💕

[darth-jess]

Yeah when George Lucas said Anakin & Padmé were “doomed from the start” he meant in a tragic fated, star-crossed-lovers sort of way, not in the “they’re toxic for each other” kind of way. Hope this helps.

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Show me an instance where Anidala is toxic or abusive without:

mentioning disagreements, fights, or arguments, as this is something ALL married couples experience. Having an argument or disagreement is not TOXIC.

mentioning the Clovis incident, because yeah Anakin shouldn't have beaten him half to death but also last time Padmé was alone with Clovis she almost died. Anakin knew Clovis was very into her, and the dude was literally working with the Separatists--who also had tried to have Padmé assassinated on many occasions–not to mention, in the Revenge of the Sith novelization Palpatine LITERALLY ADMITS that he knew about Anakin and Padmé's secret ceremony on Naboo, he admits he knew they were married to Anakin's face, and he intentionally assigned Padmé to Clovis in that second TCW Clovis arc because he wanted to drive a wedge between them which ended up failing in the long run. "The Clovis Incident" is literally part of a manipulation and not a natural progression of their relationship.

mentioning the "choking incident" on Mustafar because at that point, he was Vader. Yes, he's still Anakin Skywalker, but he's been so corrupted by the Dark Side that this doesn't exactly count toward Anakin– him doing this and turning to the Dark Side is literally so out of character, so UNLIKE Anakin that Padmé loses the will to live because she feels like she's lost Anakin because Anakin would NEVER do this. (In the Legends EU, so many characters act EXTREMELY out of character once they give in to the Dark Side. Take Ulic Qel-Droma, or Exar Kun, both Jedi who wanted to forward the cause of the Jedi and then inexplicably support the Sith after experimenting with the Dark Side.)

These are the top instances people use to try to claim that Anidala is toxic/abusive and I just don't consider them to be valid arguments. Anakin is unstable and terrified of losing the people he cares about, but he literally NEVER HURTS PADME until he isn't Anakin anymore.

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Happy Star Wars Day! I’ve decided to make my Skywalker comic into one easily rebloggable post.

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YESSSS also the AOTC deleted scenes add so much more context to Padmé Falling in Love with Anakin, I really wish they'd kept those scenes. The one where Anakin goes to meet her family? Ugh, was so cute. And Sola, Padmé's sister, teasing her about Anakin, and Padmé very obviously getting flustered about it… that context would've been nice!

I think a beautiful little detail in AotC is how Padme, in the beginning, is shown to be kind of on a knife's edge. She survived an explosion, lost two handmaidens, fought the Senate and lost, got brushed off by Palpatine, and forced into a protection agreement she didn't want. She's internally foaming at the mouth, I think, wanting to prevent the war and get to the bottom of what is going on, but Palpatine has pushed her into the role of "inspirational senator we can't bear to lose" and the Jedi have -- benevolently, I think -- fallen into treating her that way, to the point where her concerns aren't being addressed, even by Obi-Wan.

The person who DOES try to address them, who does listen to her, who does try to help her get to the bottom of things and re-exert some kind of control over her situation (which is probably a huge coping mechanism for Padme) is Anakin. In part, he obviously does this because he is Deeply In Love, but I think it also stems from the deep respect and regard he has for her, and Padme, probably used to being pushed aside in various ways because of her age and ideals, really appreciates that.

So that's something that contextualizes why she does fall for him -- hard -- over the course of the film. He listens to her, and he listens to her because she's Padme, not because she's a senator or a former queen or because it is politically expedient for him to do so. It's been said before but it bears repeating: Anakin gives Padme space to be herself. He knows her position, but he treats her like a peer in many ways, letting her be herself with her family, teasing her, and getting into arguments with her over their course of action.

Padme believes in Anakin. Anakin listens to Padme. Padme lets Anakin protect her. Anakin gives her a soft place to fall. They both give each other space to be young and stupid and in love.

Attack of the Clones has its faults, and a lot of these ideas aren't related in the best way and thus come off as creepy, but I swear it becomes so very sweet and deep when you watch it with forgiving, fanfic writer eyes.

[darth-jess]

Absolutely love this 👏🏻

When it comes to Jedi discourse I think a lot depends on the amount of sympathy behind a statement there is. For example, "The Jedi have been corrupted by this war." is something Lucas has said, but it's in the context of how they were drawn into a trap, they were forced into roles that they were never meant to be, there's sympathy there for how the only choices here are shitty ones. "Do they compromise their morals (to fight in this war) or does everyone die and it's pointless anyway?" is basically what he said. I agree with that! But I have seen many people say, "The Jedi became corrupted by the war." and they mean it as the Jedi no longer cared about people, only themselves, they were only looking out for themselves, they were making selfish choices. There's no sympathy for the rock-and-a-hard-place situation the Jedi were in, and I disagree with that and I think that's what a lot of people are arguing back against. "They allied themselves with a corrupt government!" is another one--like, yeah, the Republic government wasn't great! But, when I say that the Separatists were worse, it's not because I'm refusing to admit the Republic had any fault, I'm saying it because that's basically the choice laid out in front of them--either you help the Republic or you let the Separatists take over, who were committing war crimes on screen. I do think the Jedi were hamstrung by their connection to the Republic! I just also think the alternative was worse, that the whole structure of Star Wars as a story was designed to hem them into this impossible choice (in as much as Star Wars is about the Jedi, when they're very much not the core of the story), that they couldn't find better options because the story wasn't set up to allow that. Could the Jedi have handled Anakin better? Ehhh, I think that's hard to say because the story itself doesn't present that, so making hard proclamations about what they did/didn't do wrong is reading into something the story didn't address. The story is about Anakin refusing to emotionally accept Jedi teachings--can we read beyond that and say there were ways the Jedi failed him? I think you can and some of them are fair (and some of them aren't), that it's a fun conversation to have, but that it's not what the narrative intention is, if we're talking about actual narrative intention. The narrative intention is that Anakin, though very human in his failings and Lucas clearly has so much affection for his Blorbo, failed to learn what he needed to learn. But there, too, I think a lot depends so much on how much sympathy comes across for the choices being made. I don't think we're meant to see Anakin as someone we can't relate to, Lucas even says that Anakin is a victim in TPM (of the Hutts and Watto, to be clear), I don't think criticism of Anakin can come without that he was trying, that he did genuinely love people. The ending of ROTJ doesn't work without us wanting for Anakin to find the good in himself! That we knew had to be there all along. So much comes down to how much sympathy there is in the criticism, how much sympathy there is for the reasons why any given character chooses the paths they do, and that's where a lot of disconnect comes from. So much Jedi criticism is done in the vein of saying, "They failed." and meaning it as an accusation of how a better choice was super obvious. But if you say, "They failed." in the sense that there was no way out of the trap that they could have possibly forseen, given the circumstances, that they did their best and they shouldn't have to be perfect to be good, then I'm all the way onboard! It's about how much sympathy there is for the context around a given character's choices and what the story allowed for them. I have no issue with saying the Jedi failed in the war, that they became corrupted by it, that their connection to the Republic led to their genocide, because I don't think the Jedi were bad for it, I think they made the best choices they could in the worst situation.

[darth-jess]

Yep. Also I think we have proof he was good with children because look at how he was with Ahsoka. She was a teen and he was amazing with her, he was an older brother to her.

I do think Anakin would be good with children. Mainly because it makes every thing so much more awful and tragic :)

[darth-jess]

This is so cute!

And no wonder he wouldn’t let little Luke play with Han! Han’s probably 18

[darth-jess]

Goodbye (Sad Beeps) by scadarts

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Need for fans to understand that George Lucas shoots his movies like an old school documentarist on purpose. They're never purely that way, but it's the thing that most influences his style.

And that's why a lot of critiques leveled at his directorial style are baseless, because he's doing it deliberately. He knows a lot of his shots are static. It's the point.

He doesn't do a whole lot of moving with the camera (in non action sequences), at least compared to other directors. He lets the actors walk in and out of the frame. He even does this with CGI characters. He doesn't construct a frame around their movements (or thats how its meant to appear, because everything is obviously planned). So you get a lot of static shots that allow for us to take in the cultural context of this universe. This is also why a lot of Star Wars world building can be done without exposition. It all plays out within the static wide shots. All the information is on your screen. Including characterization and theme through the mise en scene.

Why does he do this? Because tracking shots and the like are highly choreographed and he doesn't like when it appears to be overly engineered or manufactured. It's the influence of cinema verite, where the point of the film is to portray the truth. It's the same reason he uses delayed exposition and doesn't infodump unless a story is being told by the characters (C3PO in RotJ and Palpatine in RotS). He wants it to play out and for you to observe it without too much manufactured framing.

He's not worried because he knows what he's going to say in each act of the story and what the resolution will be. He doesn't need to bombard you with all the information at once.

Sometimes the camera will track the actors, and of course there's occasionally a pan up or down. But very few times will you see him move the camera through a scene. It rarely follows the action from one set to another, and he rarely uses the camera to push in towards an actor for dramatic effect. When it does happen, it's a point of reference and meant to inform you on what that character represents at the moment. And it adds another layer of meaning. It's just more rare in his movies.

That's his thing, I'm not saying it's good or bad. It's a choice. You have to get it. I mean, he talked about this, but I feel like people forget.

[darth-jess]

cryingggggg

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (2008-2020) 6.04 • "Orders"

[darth-jess]

Stuff That Came Back From the Dead (or Could-Reasonably-Be-Presumed-To-Be-Dead/Fatally Wounded) Unexpectedly and Without Much, If Any, Elaboration in The Sequel Trilogy: 

Poe, after being in a giant fiery crash (TFA)

Phasma, after being presumably tossed into a trash compactor (TLJ)

Anakin’s Lightsaber, after falling into an endless void with Luke’s severed hand (TFA)

Anakin’s Lightsaber, again, after being shattered into pieces (TROS)

The Empire (TFA)

The Rebellion (TFA)

Actual physical pieces of Death Star II, after it was blown to teeny tiny smithereens out in space (TROS)

Luke’s X-Wing, after being underwater for a number of years (TROS)

Sidious, after being thrown into a reactor shaft and then exploding (TROS)

Rey*, after blasting Sidious in the face with his own lightning (TROS)

Ben Solo, figuratively, once he returns to the Light Side (TROS)

Ben Solo*, literally, after being stabbed by Rey (TROS) 

Ben Solo, literally, again, after having his life force sucked out of him and then being hurled into a pit by Sidious (TROS) (This is even funnier considering that he then proceeds to die AGAIN 2 whole seconds later, making him possibly the winner of Most Deaths in the canon if you count his figurative “death”/fall to the Dark Side)  

Honorable Mentions and Near-Deaths/Comas That People Sure Seemed To Shake Off Easily: 

Snoke, who it turns out was maybe multiple clones of himself and therefore was still “alive”, in a sense? (TROS)

Han Solo, who is dead but can apparently be conjured to dole out fatherly advice via Memory Hallucinations which may or may not just be Kylo talking to himself** (TROS)

Chewbacca, who sure LOOKED like he was on a ship that blew up but then wasn’t (TROS)

Threepio, kind of, when he got his memory wiped (I love that this exact thing was played for laughs in ROTS and treated like a literal Death Sentence in TROS)

Finn, who was in a coma after fighting Kylo Ren for what canonically was like an hour and half before he was up and running down a hallway (TLJ)

Leia, who was hurled out into the vacuum of space and then subsequently in a coma but then still got it together quick enough to get out of bed, be with it enough to figure out what was going on, and pull a gun on Poe before he carried out a mutiny a short while later (TLJ)

* I get that technically we know these two were because of “Force healing”, but I kinda feel like if you’re gonna allow for people to survive mortal wounds with it, you’ve gotta elaborate a smidge more than just “this is a thing people can do and also maybe it’s a dyad thing” 

** This one’s extra funny if you take away the whole “Leia was probably pulling the strings” part of this, because then it’s basically that Kylo talked himself out of the Dark Side by imagining that his dad randomly showed up to forgive him for murdering him 

(Look, obviously we’ve had plenty of Unreasonable Survivals/Bounce-Backs in Star Wars before – TCW, Rebels, The Mandalorian, I mean hell, Vader survived getting chopped up and set on fire – but this trilogy REALLY took things to new lengths, hahaha)

[darth-jess]

First attempt at drawing a young Sheev Palpatine! Took me 7 hours, I think I did an okay job but I wish it looked more like him. I'm definitely more of a writer than an artist! Still, this was fun! The curly hair was the hardest part.

[darth-jess]

Just now made just now this while playing a prequels drinking game

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I knew about the 5 day weekday!! But the rest is new information, and I LOVE it!!!

do we know the names of any months in star wars i need one for a fake tweet

[darth-jess]

"Meus heróis nunca viraram estátua, morreram lutando contra quem virou." - Uma História de Amor e Fúria (2013).

[darth-jess]

Hello! After seeing your Palpatine headcanon, I wanted to share my own cursed Palpatine headcanons

So, in my mind Palpatine is happy or at least very content with his life. He isn't the wicked villain inflicting his own pain onto the world, alone and pitiable. That's Vader. He is a career politician ( it is his dream job) as much as he is a Sith Lord and he enjoys the thrill of politics, the challenges they present and manipulating people as much as he enjoys using the Force. He does of course have moments of frustration and worry and even fear ( especially after Luke appears) , but every person has a bad day once in a while. All in all , he is living the good life as Senator, Chancellor, Emperor, enjoying luxuries, power, respect while scheming to destroy the lives of everyone who love and respect him ( Padme , Anakin, Senators and others who trust hi

Umm this is so embarrassing that it's taken me this long to respond to this!

The Palpatine headcanon @anidala-for-ever is referencing my headcanon that Palpatine does actually sort of love Anakin in whatever small capacity he is capable of love. I also don't think he'd ever admit that, though.

I love your headcanon that he's pretty happy, and I have to agree with that, though I don't think he's happy in a traditional sense, and I don't quite think he's content.

I think when he's Chancellor, and then Emperor, he's probably the happiest he's ever been, and I think he probably felt really good about himself. But he still feared death, and was trying very hard to figure out some way to escape it.

Palpatine is also a scholar, and definitely a huge nerd, so I think as Emperor he spent a lot of time delving into the secrets of the Dark Side, and I'm not sure if it's canon or legends or both, but I know in at least one EU he writes a few books about the Dark Side.

I also think that Palpatine's happiness, if we can call it that, was very hard won. In the Plagueis novel, there's a lot of hints that his apprenticeship under Darth Plagueis was absolutely horrible. He endured it willingly, at least at first, though eventually I'm sure Plagueis would have killed him if he'd tried to back out, so remaining the Sith Apprentice was really Palpatine's only option at some point.

Let's not forget that Palpatine pledged himself to the ways of the Sith and became Hego Damask's apprentice at 17, and he didn't kill his Sith Master until he had been elected Chancellor (in The Phantom Menace) at age 52. So that's 35 years of torture and humiliation and brainwashing he endured to get what he wanted. Sith training is not kind.