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Rewatched Return of the Jedi and forgot how Han and Leia's romance sets up what unselfish love looks like to compare with in the prequels and also gives us context why love can be dangerous for a Jedi.

(Note: this isn't an!dala bashing I like an!dala)

With Han! (Yes! Han the non-Force sensitive.)

Han, we must remember has been out of the loop because of his Carbonite freezing, but even so he wakes up to: someone who loves you. Before that he had Leia declaring: I love you!

He gets very clear signs from Leia that she is in love with him. Like. Very clear out loud signs. In the Ewok village when they reunite they hug.

But he's still jealous of Luke.

So when he finds Leia crying after Luke says he's leaving to face Vader and that he's Leia's brother, his first reaction is jealousy. He gets mad when she refuses to tell him what's wrong. He accuses her of being able to tell Luke but not him, implying obviously she thinks Luke is more important to her.

His fear she doesn't love him back makes him angry.

You can see how it could lead to hate, this kind of situation. Hating Luke and Leia two people he adores because he thinks they're together, which would lead to him suffering unable to let go of his feelings for Leia and Leia suffering from his anger as well. He could destroy all their relationships with his anger, and he's just a normal non-Force sensitive guy.

And Luke and Leia aren't even a thing. He's just assuming! He's letting his emotions control him.

He's about to stomp away with a: bitter forget it! As she sobs.

But he stops! He stops giving into his negative emotions and he goes back to comfort her without demanding answers. He holds her because he loves her. He lets go of his negative emotions and possessive jealous feeling. His love is stronger than his fear.

Then on Endor he point blank asks her if she loves Luke. She answers Yes, not realizing unlike the Skywalkers he didn't get the memo from the Force about the family stuff.

And he is disappointed, but he says he'll step aside. He loves Leia and he's willing to let her go for her happiness.

That's what romantic love without possessive attachment looks like. He loves her. He puts his own initial negative emotions aside.

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I always wondered why as a kid this was the romance I liked out of all other movie romances. (Usually I hated romance in things.)

At first I thought it was because there's not a lot of emphasis on it, but now I realised when Han has all the opportunities to do the classic Alpha Male stuff, he doesn't. In other movies he would have walked away and let her cry by herself to make drama. Have the stakes higher. They'd get together in the end but it would be after Han does something heroic and Leia throws herself at him or something. Which would make Leia a prize even though she never had to be.

But Return of the Jedi cuts through it. Han comes back, holds her even though she might not love him. That's incredibly powerful. That moment he holds her and apologizes and lets her cry and is there for her despite his jealously. Even now it's pretty refreshing considering the archetype people associate Han with.

And Han doesn't heroically save Leia to win her. They get held up. She has her gun ready to blast their attackers. They smile at each other. That's the moment he says the words I love you out loud. When she is about to save them.

It's obviously contrasted with Anakin and Padme.

Once again it is very clear how Padme feels. They both verbally reinforce their love for each other.

But Anakin isn't thinking of what Padme would want or asking what she would want. Through out the movie he's obsessed with the idea of her death. Letting himself be corrupted and ultimately killing people so that he doesn't have to feel losing her. Unlike Han, he puts his negative emotions and possession of her above his love for her.

And just like Return of the Jedi is different for Han coming back and holding her, Revenge of the Sith is different because usually movies emphasis all-consuming love as a good thing. Love so strong you would do anything to save them is shown as being selfish in RotS because Anakin does it. He does anything and everything. He makes himself unrecognizable.

He will stop at nothing to keep her. And then the moment he thinks Padme herself is the one trying to take herself away from him. When he thinks she's chosen the other side or Obi-Wan or however you interpret the moment and not him, he doesn't let her go. He doesn't love her enough to see her happy, he attacks her. That's what attachment does. It isn't about the love he truly feels for her, it's about the fear of losing her. His negative emotions ruling him. He lashes out and hurts the person he's supposed to be saving because it was about him, not about her. She became a prop. An icon of his fear of loss.

He wasn't acting on his love when he joins Sidious, he was acting on his fear. It is a selfish moment and ends in everyone suffering.

I can see why there was supposed to be more of a love triangle with them and Obi-Wan in the earlier concepts just to heighten the contrast with Leia and Han.

Han accepts that Leia chooses Luke (even though she didn't). He says he'll let her go to be happy.

Anakin accuses Obi-Wan of turning Padme against him (even though he hasn't). He attacks her when he thinks she's going to leave him.

Anakin's love by itself has never been the problem. It's what love so easily can become if darker emotions are controlling you. The Jedi forbid these kind of relationships because of the powers they hold and how easily love can turn to fear, anger, hatred, and suffering. And because they have powers most do not, how devastating that can be. Jedi learn emotional regulation so they don't get overwhelmed and hurt people. Palpatine made an effort to chip away at those teachings by using Anakin's trauma against him and encouraging him to dig into his negative emotions. That he's right for indulging in them and that it's human and normal to do so.

Sidious tries to do this with Luke. He's taking Luke's love for his friends and emotions and trying to get him to strike him. Use his fear to put him on the path to the Darkside. To give into his hatred and violence.

Then Luke remembers the cave. Killing Vader would be to kill himself, just as Anakin had once done. Winning the fight would be losing his soul.

He lets go of his fear for his friends and his hatred for Sidious and he refuses to fight. He sees the only way forward is love. That when Yoda said he must face Darth Vader before he can be a Jedi this is what he meant. In facing Vader he is facing his own darkness.

This is all to say the Jedi teaching doesn't only apply to Jedi. (I mean it's based on real world practices it's not just fantasy nonsense). But it makes sense that it's very important for Jedi.

This is also why I prefer the release viewing order. It gives a lot more context to the prequels that can get lost in the shuffle. Rather than trying to make prequel concepts fit for the OT, OT concepts are actually being expanded on in the PT. Looking at it the other way around is working backwards from the true starting point.

Tl;dr: Han shows what love without attachment looks like.

Thanks for coming to my blorbo talks.

As always YMMV.

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LFMAOOOOO INFINITE SADNESS BE UPON YOU BOTH LFMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🫵🫵🫵

text is from the poem hevel by Nathaniel Orion!

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LFMAOOOOO INFINITE SADNESS BE UPON YOU BOTH LFMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🫵🫵🫵

text is from the poem hevel by Nathaniel Orion!

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The Phantom Menace.

That poor malnurished doomed kid.

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baby anakin picking flowers in the temple garden pond + has the lecture of a lifetime coming

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of course i did them, that meme format suits them too perfectly 😭😭🥹

(spoiler: anakin will be called a good boy anyway hehe)

original meme drawing-format from sweepswoop_ on twi

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That scene from Obi-Wan Kenobi, but with Luke

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say no more 🙂‍↕️

inspired by this amazing Spirk version

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firmly in favor of it being a different match each time

We all know that Qui-gon asking Shmi who Anakin’s father was was an incredibly personal question and if she was totally lying to him I support her in that however I was thinking about it and started dying bc. there are like. two plausible explanations for him asking and I find both of them somewhat hilarious

1. The Jedi have no concept of the wider social norms regarding things like pregnancy and single parenthood, etc. because the vast majority of them will never have children plus they’re a giant communal village of psychics. They have no idea what is and is not appropriate to ask. It is the one situation that their training cannot prepare them for

2. Qui-gon is looking down at the midichlorian count and back up at Anakin. And then back to the count and then back at Anakin again trying to figure out if this kid looks like anyone he knows. Sweet force that would be awkward. Maybe he should call Obi-Wan and ask him to look up the last time a Jedi was assigned to come to Tatooine. But no, no accessing that info without anyone’s consent would be rude. Surely it would be more polite to ask her directly.

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arms tied above head wins horniest arrangement at torturers' choice awards

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"Anakin's relationship with Palpatine eclipses his relationship with Obi-Wan," Christensen remarks. "But he doesn't really have a clear devotion to one or the other. Anakin as he will be played is—I don't want to say naïve, but his belief system is still open. He still isn't exactly set in his devotion to the Jedi or to Palpatine. He is looking to see how he can get more power, but his ideas of good and evil are not black and white."

reading about hayden's understanding of anakin's psychology in revenge of the sith is so illuminating. his fall is not about his moral convictions or about loyalty to a mentor. he's selfishly looking for ways to increase his own power to resist change, without regard for any ethical boundaries, he simply doesn't care about that. he's apolitical, amoral; it's all about what he wants.

anakin just doesn't love obi-wan and the jedi more than he loves being important and having control over the world around him. he doesn't love freedom or justice more than he loves license to do and have whatever he wants. it's really what makes him so dangerous, such a malleable weapon to be wielded. he doesn't have ethical boundaries or convictions to keep him steady.

lacking firm definition of what is good and what is evil allows anakin to redefine those terms to suit his needs. it's what allows him to kill innocents and still not think of himself as evil. it's what allows him to tell obi-wan that the jedi are evil, despite it being an obvious self-delusion. he's lost because his moral compass doesn't point north, but spins freely to face whatever he wants.

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it does bother me how deeply people will mine obi-wan's child soldier trauma that comes from a dubiously-canon book and isn’t referenced at any point in the movies (or shows), but straight-up never talk about padme's child soldier/queen trauma, which is half the plot of tpm and while maybe clumsily followed-up on, is nonetheless a real genuine part of her character included from the start

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obligatory obi-wan doodles bc i watched tpm at the theatre yesterday!!!

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i am one with the force / the force is with me partially inspired by that one scene in padawan, mostly inspired by my need to draw young obi-wan with ewan’s long hair

don’t repost/remove caption!

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i almost forgot to give him the sith eyes while coloring this but the difference was too sickening not to share 😩

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+Bonus

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General Kenobi being a hot mess