#Anti TCW

[skyguy8108]

This is how Padmé and Anakin would resolve their argument over Padmé going on a dangerous mission not how The Clone Wars portrays it.

Secrets of the Jedi - by Jude Watson

Anakin needed to talk to Padme directly. Palpatine couldn’t order her not to go. But Anakin could.

Padme’s laughter bubbled, then died when she saw he was serious. “You’re ordering me?”

“Yes. I have a right. I have more experience than you do; I’m a Jedi and I know what we could be in for. I’m also an officer in the Republic army.”

“But I’m not.” Padme continued to fold a robe she was placing in a small bag at her feet. “So thanks but no thanks, Commander.”

“It’s dangerous and unnecessary for you to go, and I won’t allow it.”

Padme turned. Her gaze was direct. Cool and composed. That always infuriated him. “I think you know well enough how your attitude angers and upsets me. I don’t respond to orders. I am a Senator. I have a duty to perform. So I am going.”

“Padme, please.” He wanted to give in to her softness, but she stood before him, ramrod straight. She wasn’t wearing her ceremonial robes, only a soft sheath down to her ankles, but she might as well be costumed in armor. He collapsed on his back on the sleep couch. “I don’t know why it’s so hard to talk to you.”

“That’s because you’re not talking to me. You’re ordering me.”

“I’m just trying to keep you safe.”

“This is not the way to do it.” He looked up. She was smiling at him. She came and sat beside him.

“I know you worry about my safety,” she said in the soft tone he loved. “I worry about yours. We live in perilous times, Anakin. We’re in the middle of a war. I’m in danger no matter where I am. We’ve both been in some kind of danger since the moment you arrived to protect me.”

“Agreed. But do you have to volunteer for it?”

She took his hand and laced her fingers through his.

“I offered to go because I knew I would be safe. I knew the best Jedi in the Order would be there to protect me.”

He groaned. “Now don’t start flattering me.”

She grinned at him. “I meant Obi-Wan.”

He tossed a pillow at her, and she shrieked in surprise. She threw it back, and he held it suspended in the air with the Force.

“Are you still trying that same trick on me?”

“It’s worked in the past.” She lay down beside him. They faced each other, almost nose to nose.

“I’ll be careful,” she said.

“I won’t leave your side,” he said.

“Don’t,” she said, drawing him close. “I don’t want you to.”

[bg-11]

Them: Barriss Offee becoming a terrorist is bad.

Me: Yes...

Them: ...Because she's Muslim coded.

Me: No.

People who believe in "coding" will grasp onto the thinnest straws to support their headcanons. She's an alien in a setting that has no connection to Earth, wearing black robes doesn't equal Muslim. Coding is literally just people going "This character has these stereotypical traits, therefore they are X coded".

Just be mad because they assassinated her character to prop up Ahsoka.

[lukereiter]

as much as i love ahsoka and her dynamic with anakin, i think i enjoy reading anakin’s character without her inclusion more. but this is basically how i feel about tcw in general anyway so idk

[electricprincess96]

I am tired of some Star Wars fans pushing a mediocre kids TV show as the peak of Star Wars television and then getting mad when I point out it's only somewhat good at times and mostly is just a dumb kids show and not the dark, mature and deep story they try and sell it as.

Yes, this is about TCWs. I watched it all, i watched parts of it growing up and thought it was mediocre at best then and that opinion hadnt changed now. It's really, overall, not that good. It's near unwatchable for like 3 and a half seasons. Then passable for the rest. Even it's so called "best arcs" are full of plot contrivances and unlikable characters (didn't like Ahsoka at the start, still didn't really care for her at the end, she's most certainly overstayed her welcome post TCW).

And here's the thing if it was just a run of the mill kids show I'd leave it alone, but it's fans hold it up as in some cases being better than George's films or many of the novels which is just not true. Also, they can't hold it up as some of the "most mature storytelling" in the franchise and then when I point out plot contrivances go "it's for kids", all of Star Wars is for "12 year olds" as George's Lucas has said but the Original Trilogy certainly never made me feel like it was insulting said 12 year olds intelligence by assuming they wouldn't notice stupid storytelling decisions.

Oh and again saying "it's for kids" is an issue when it is now required watching to understand half the live action shows because Dave Filoni can't let any of his characters die.

One good thing I will say. As much as the.... logistics of Maul's return is.... stupid. Maul is one of the best parts of this show. In fact he might be THE single best thing about the show.

The worst thing? Anakin. Oh, sorry, I mean the imposter wearing Anakin Skywalker's face and name because I don't know who that man is, but it's not Anakin Skywalker. That man is nothing like his movie counterpart, and while I'm sure plenty of prequel haters appreciate that, I actually quite like Anakin in both The Prequels and the 2003 Clone Wars miniseries.

[mademoiselle-cookie]

Bariss as a terrorist is not problematic just because a good and kind character get assasinated to prop up the MC without any preparation, or bc we lost a good example of a good Master-Padawan relationship, hence giving ammunition to anti-jedi. It’s also, and mostly, because of racism. 

The Mirialans are Muslim-coded, they are all women who wear the veil. It doesn't come out of nowhere if fans think that. In the West, if we think “veiled women”, we think Muslims. If the news talks about the problem of the veil, they are talking about the Muslim veil, not the Hindu veil, not the Amish veil, not the Christian veil, and no one hearing them will think for a second that they are talking about things other than the veil Muslim. The veil is a very characteristic element of Muslims for an average person.

(In the movies, Luminara and Bariss aren't even played by white actresses, so we can't say it's 'just a veil, nothing deeper behind'.)

The West has a history with Muslims and terrorism. 9/11 still has an impact today, even more so during the making of TCW. So using a veiled woman as a terrorist is clumsy at best, and not having bad intentions doesn’t erase the impact this representation has. 

This reinforces the stereotype of the Muslim terrorist used to harass and oppress members of this religion. I don’t make this “shortcut” between Bariss Muslim-coded and terrorism because I think all Muslims are terrorists. I do it because I live in a country where the veil is considered a symbol of evil, where women who wear it are insulted and attacked, where laws are created to prohibit them from displaying their religion and/or culture.

The fact that the writers chose Bariss to play this role is certainly intellectual laziness, but they could, and should, have thought about what that entailed. “Think before you act” is not a lesson that only applies to Jedi.

Never heard of ‘queer-coded villains’? This is when authors attribute traits associated with queer people to bad guys, hence demonizing these traits. Did these authors think their villains were queer? In the vast majority of cases, no. They simply used traits often associated with villains to emphasize the evil side of theirs without thinking more than that. The absence of bad intentions does not cancel out the damage it causes.

And all this reflection is based on the principle that the parallel between the Mirialans and the Muslims is involuntary. I haven't seen a quote from LucasFilm saying anything, but I find it hard to believe. The Jedi were created to be extremely diverse, in direct opposition to the Empire made up of mostly old white human men, and this is not the first time that Lucas has drawn inspiration from cultures and religions existing in our world, especially Arab populations. There is no reason to think that he did not intentionally use Muslims to create Bariss and Luminara.

The most absurd thing is to think that LucasFilm is incapable of being racist. These are the same people who whitewashed the clones, who used Arab populations as very clear inspiration for a group of violent slavers who communicate only through pig squeals and will be massacred by a white man without any real consequences. The same people who, after being acquired by Disney, will replace a black character with his white neo-Nazi abuser in his role as main character/love interest, who will whitewash an already animated character, who will create clones superior to the others who are incidentally more white, who will cast a white actress for a character who clearly had Arab features in animation.

So no, we don’t have a problem with Bariss being Muslim-coded bc we think Muslims are terrorists, but bc the stereotype of Muslims being terrorists exists and is extremely harmful to the Muslim community. 

If you can’t see that, check your own bias and bigotry. 

[padme-amitabha]

I just saw a post calling ahoska and obi wan anakins truest loves and uh what? It brought up the mortis arc of tcw and essentially minimizing the anidala love for one another as some form of escapism and how its poison ( even tho vader literally gets saved bc of luke - padmes son🙄) Its so strange how ahsoka fans want to make her a more prominent character than she really is. Also a recurring opinion that gets brought up is ahsoka knowing/understanding anakin better than padme and obi wan when she didn’t even know things about him (like he was a slave) and we consistently see anakin confide in padme its just so odd how alot of star wars fans diminish her

That doesn't surprise me at all since Star Wars is Ahsoka Wars at this point. And even if it wasn't, you have to give the Skywalkers at least some rest uk? The constant retconning and addition of new stuff most people didn't even ask for is tiresome. Ahsoka from the start felt very OC-ish to me because she was constantly hyped and favored in a way not even Anakin was. She felt like a self-insert jedi character so her place is canon is just weird. And forcing her to be important in places where she's not needed just shows Filoni's favoritism. At least GL wasn't ever really biased towards Anakin and Luke. Anakin mainly suffered through so much and had enough flaws and complexies which Ahsoka never had. She's constantly in a plot armor and just overpowered imo. But ofc she's a badass Jedi so she is more popular than Padme. I cant even.. I just hate the way TCW and Filoni wrote her. I don't see Anakin as being a big brother to anyone. Or being a teacher. The only other natural interaction he has except Padme and his mother is with Obi-Wan and even that took time. They didn't get along well in the first two movies and although he does joke around with Obi Wan in ROTS, he has his own slightly awkward and shy way of doing it. And I imagine he's semi reserved and shy with other Jedi. Or when we see him interacting with Padme's family. But to make him a responsible master is strange because even in ROTS he was too young and not mature enough to be level-headed and responsible all the time. And I like that because he has flaws but he was trying to learn and wanted to be a good father. And I do believe he really gained that maturity (which was stunted due to obvious trauma) and fatherly affection for Luke after ESB and not before. I think he would have had trouble connecting with Leia as well post ROTJ because he wasn't prepared to and had no experience being a role model for anyone. Meanwhile, 22 year old TCW Anakin with Ahsoka acts like a 30 year old man with anger issues...

It's also frustrating to see Padme being reduced to a love interest when she was a main character and part of the trio. She, like Han, didn't need to be a Jedi to be one of the main characters and it's boring to see a trio of Jedi only. I don't really blame Ahsoka fans - only Filoni for constantly dragging her into everything and I'm glad it's backfiring because I see fans who previously liked her are beginning to get tired of her being shoehorned into every single SW thing and acting all Mary Sue. Also, see the amount of concept arts and storylines they wrote for Padme during the prequels. She had more arts than Anakin and Obi-Wan. GL clearly wanted her to be important even more than Leia in ANH because we see much more of Padme and the first movie directly involves her and her planet with Anakin's discovery being a sideplot. It's disrespectful to reduce her to a love interest.

This video puts it really well (although he isn't a fan of the prequels as far as I can remember): "Dave Filoni's biggest problem as a writer apart from his complete inability to write interesting dialogue or craft stories that are more than just fetch quest for Magical McGuffin or create people who actually make smart decisions or his borderline fetish for the boring mediocre character he's trying so hard to insert as the driving force behind the entire Star Wars narrative is his constant [ __ ] around and reconning of past events and World building to suit the needs of his own narrow story. It's like he's staying in a hotel room for a couple of days and decided that he now has the right to completely remodel the place because he feels like it. This isn't your job Dave you're supposed to work within the rules of the world that George created not write a whole bunch of new ones just to suit yourself that now affect everyone else."

Lol applause for saying that out loud

[jewishcissiekj]

One of the things that upset me most about Dark Disciple & the Quinlan/Asajj romance is just how much it's the writers smashing their action figures together. In general, the entirety of Asajj's TCW storylines also severely lack thought other than somebody playing a game with their dolls.

Let me explain. Asajj has a lot of potential. Her character and themes from the get-go (concept art for AOTC Sith) are full of intrigue and mystery. You want to know this character and whatever is behind her, why is she doing all this, and how she got there. And TCW answers that question pretty well. She was a Nightsister baby who was given to a slaver and later trained by a Jedi Master who died, she encountered Dooku and trained under him, only to get betrayed by him and return to her Nightsister roots, causing the murder of almost all Nightsisters and her transition to a Bounty Hunter and …redemption? leading to her eventual death at the hands of Count Dooku.

The thing is, this story feels so all over the place for me. There are themes, sure, but other than a clear motivation, something is missing. There's no point to her character. When she's introduced in The Clone Wars movie, she's just a flirty villain for Obi-Wan to quip and play off of. In the end, when she dies, she furthers a male character's character development we never even see afterward. TCW has plenty of pointless characters, don't get me wrong. But her story starts nowhere and goes nowhere, only affecting her and having no real story importance or relevance outside of that. It also means nothing. There are no repercussions to Dooku taking on an apprentice, no, uh, how do I put this. Her story is full of themes but no meaning. No underlying plotline or development that feels natural and beneficial to her character. That wouldn't be a problem if she was just a throwaway villain, coming in once in a while to flirt with Obi-Wan or fight with Ahsoka. But because of the natural interest in her, the intrigue and mystery, they gave her a story. Not even a motivation, a story that came out of nowhere and in watching back might feel like just an elaborate build-up to Maul's return. Instead of looking at the character and, idk, thinking about how you can develop her current character and the yet-unexplored background with Obi-Wan and her relationship to the Dark Side, they threw her into that whole Nightsister bullshit. And then that wasn't enough and they made her a bounty hunter because they wanted a Boba Fett & friends episode. For the love of god, if she knew about the Nightsisters, why wouldn't she go to them earlier? You didn't tell us how she found out and who told her, so why THE FUCK would she go to Dooku after her mentor's death and not to her people? What of all things made her go to Dathomir in Nightsisters? Why would an ex-dark sider with (probably) knowledge of Dooku's most secret plans who just lost the people she just found go and be a Bounty Hunter? And what about that redeems her? What the fuck was she doing on Coruscant? If she hated Dooku so much and knew she couldn't kill him alone, why would a single Jedi help her do it? What is her motive and why was she so loyal to Dooku if she's just going to throw the Dark Side and her hate for the Jedi out of the window like that? Does she have principles? Character motivations? Is there a point to any of that?

Legeneds version aside, what does she mean? Is she the last survivor? Is she a failed apprentice? Does she just want to be loved but gets consumed by the Dark Side? She's all of these things but none of them consistently. If character development happened, I'd have no problem with her character changing. But it DOESN'T. Things just happen to her and we barely see any reaction to it from her. To me, she's kind of like Thrawn if we never got the (canon) books, empty and lacking any character motivation.

In Dark Disciple, instead of expanding on the actual character, they just kept on putting her in situations. Because we don't really see her POV anywhere in the book, and she's not written to express emotion openly, she feels like she was molded to fit the story instead of the story being character-focused and following her and Quinlan's development through a situation. The only time her character feels well-written in the canon era to me (not just in a fun comic story) is in Dooku: Jedi Lost, which actually shows us her perspective for once, and even if she still lacks motivation, it feels like a story of her character and not of her action figure. She has a character and a personality throughout all of Canon, don't get me wrong. I can't accidentally write her like Ahsoka. But a character and what the writers do to put it in a story are two different things.

And I know I said I wouldn't get into the Legends part of it all, but even in a few shorts and a handful of comics, there seems to be a much more consistent line of thought and an arc to her character than there is in the canon version. The best way I can describe it, tbh, is that something just clicks with the way her story and role are in Legends, while in canon it feels like 10 different people trying to put together 15 different jigsaw puzzles. Maybe it's the fewer writers, maybe it's the different approach to story-telling in general, it's just very different to me. Right now (since a May comic issue and excluding the mention in Ahsoka), there isn't any new Asajj content, so it's not really a problem. But if they ever do something new with her I need them to get their fucking shit together and make it make sense.

[ooops-i-arted]

Separate of feelings on tcw and its unending array of spinoffs (though honestly, day by day I find myself sliding closer to your attitude about them) I do think filoni and favreau's treatment of the Star Wars/Disney brand is worthy of an academic paper. Specifically looking at how allergic to consistency it all (including the sequels) is. Because again, regardless of feeling, I think there are some really wacky choices being put to screen that often contradict itself in ways that actively antagonises and alienates its audience. Because say what you will about the prequels, but at least they had a clear vision throughout. Personally I think they were the last time SW had any sort of clear vision but that might just be me being bitter about Din's treatment in s3... :P

Yeah, anyway, stopping before I get rambly-er...It was just something that sorta stuck me as I was backreading some of your clone wars critical posts.

The underlying problem imo is that Disney wants money, not a consistent story. George Lucas of course wanted to make money, I'm sure, but he had a consistent story and he stuck to his guns throughout. People hated the prequels when they came out, but George Lucas stuck to his overall story even if he tweaked things (like reducing Jar Jar's screen time). The sequel trilogy makes it abundantly clear that Disney changed things as soon as there was any sort of backlash and they risked losing money - Finn CLEARLY being Force-sensitive but shafted by the story and never allowed to be a Jedi with Incel Poster Boy Kylo Ren given all the attention instead makes it very clear that's what happened.

It's more than that with Filoni - at this point I think some of my students have more consistent storylines in their play than he does in his paid work! He drops anything like a hot potato when something more interesting to him comes along. I've been saying this since Rebels season 2 finale - half of your ensemble cast doesn't even feature in the season finale and the rest are shoved aside so your OC and Darth Vader can have a rematch that's meaningless to anyone that hasn't seen TCW instead?? That's fucking bad writing. It's a pattern that continued. TCW had a message of just because the clones look the same doesn't mean they aren't individuals with value - wait, no, we have the individualistic, specialier (whiter) Bad Batch butt in during season 7. Din and Grogu have a heartfelt separation that's for Grogu's benefit? Nope, he's back with Din in the next show. Boba Fett getting some good character development and becoming a leader? Nah, back to the Mandalorian. (I love Din, but again: fucking bad writing. Temuera Morrison has every right to be salty as fuck.) Din having the potential to be come the leader the Mandalorians need and can respect and follow? Nah, just hand the sword to Girlboss Barbie Bo even though she's lost it and we've done this arc already what, three times? Actually no, never mind the Darksaber, let's break it! Anyone wanna take a bet that it's gonna be reforged in Season 4?

[helbertinelli]

https://www.tumblr.com/merrysithmas/697923361071824896/ill-never-get-over-how-in-the-mortis-arc-the-son Ive never had a post make me so irrationally angry lol

It's been a while since I watched TCW, but pretty sure the Shmi who tells Anakin that isn't the actual ghost of Shmi but some darkside vision. The whole thing is taken out of context either to deceive people or because the OP didn't understand the scene.

"Shmi" even turns into some horrifying dark creature when she says "She is a poisoner!" It's not meant to say Padme is bad for Anakin, it's a dark force meant to pull Anakin away from what is good in his life (aka Padme). Even their Mary Sue Ahsoka says that Anakin is in danger after she has her own vision. So it's clear that the visions aren't meant to represent truth, but the dark side sowing doubt into Anakin/Ahsoka/Obi-Wan. But you know, it's not the first time SW fans didn't understand what SW meant, and it won't be the last. There's no critical thinking anywhere.

Also if Ahsoka and Obi-Wan were the truest loves of Anakin's life and not Padme and his mom and his children, I'm pretty sure George Lucas would have made that point in the prequels or the OT when he wrote Anakin's full story. And not in some off-brand show meant to sell toys.

Here's the full scene for people to see.

[bg-11]

Filoni always was and always will be a hacky, overrated creator who was never any good. I hated all the pointless retcons that TCW made to the existing EU, the change in Ventress' backstory and fate and especially the character assassination of Barriss were some of the worst.

(The Mandalorians I can't be too mad about personally, I think of Traviss as a proto-Disney writer, to be honest. Combative with fans, didn't give a shit about established canon and made retcons and twisted characterisation when it suited her to prop up her pet characters...she and Filoni have a lot in common. Fuck 'em both)

general grievous is one of the characters ever. he’s a pile of lizard organs in a robot suit. he has four arms. he was invented before george lucas had any idea what his personality was and everyone though he had to be the coolest guy ever and then george decided he was an absolute fucking clown and didn’t tell anyone else. he has two different backstories, one of which is him being a tragic warrior-king fighting to preserve his spirit and to avenge his dead queen, and the other is him being an asshole who turned himself robot because the jedi wouldn’t invite him to their parties. he has some of the most raw artwork ever. his real name is qymaen jai sheelai. he has a moe schoolgirl version. they had to spend all of clone wars writing it so that he never met anakin because of one line. he killed a jedi named after shaggy from scooby-doo and another jedi named “master baytes.” he was trained by count dooku and the only thing dooku taught him was spinning. his voice is like 80% post-processing. he has a cough because george lucas had a really bad cough. the cough he uses is george lucas coughing. he has a pet monster and a sassy robot doctor. he has an infinite combo in lego star wars skywalker saga. nearly every one of his lines is a solid meme. i dressed up as him for halloween as a kid. he’s great.

[inquisitor-apologist]

The first time we see Yoda, leader of the Council, in tcw, he’s explicitly affirming the individuality and importance of the clones. He then teaches them how to connect to the Force, the most sacred tenet of the religion he’s dedicated his life to.

The first time we see Plo Koon, a Jedi Master, in tcw, he clearly tells his clone troopers that they are not expendable to him, and then proceeds to do his absolute best to save as many clones as possible.

The first time we see Anakin in tcw he has his clones fly an unnecessary suicide mission because he wants the glory of killing Grievous. He doesn’t even stop when he hears them all dying—his Padawan, a 14-year-old, has to yell at him that no one else will survive what he’s doing before he changes his plan.

And people STILL say that Anakin is the Jedi who cared about the clones the most. Seriously?

[bg-11]

Ripping into TCW's A Friend in Need, in which every character is awful.

I'm going to be upfront about this: I do not care for TCW, I never really have. See, I've always been a big stickler for continuity, even as a kid, and by this point there was *plenty* of Clone Wars related content that had been set across the whole 3 years of the war. The big issue of course was always Ahsoka, who of course just couldn't neatly slot into that timeframe at all because there were already plenty of comics that made it clear that Anakin never had a Padawan. She was a square peg the writers of TCW had jammed into a square hole. Of course, Ahsoka wasn't the only example, it was clear the writers never really gave a shit about what other, better writers had already established, and so retcons and continuity errors were rife with the series, only increasing as it continued. Exactly the kind of thing I was leery about. I was willing to give it a chance when it first came out, but that optimistic goodwill didn't really last too long.

I watched it on-and-off when it came out to check it out, I didn't want to judge it without having seen it. It was the same when I heard about how obnoxious Karen Traviss' Republic Commando series was, I wanted to see if that was as bad as people were saying it was (it was worse). By Season 4, I was pretty ready to write it off, the retcons were getting bigger and bigger (Even Piell getting killed off before his Canon death in Coruscant Nights, changing Asajj Ventress' backstory and fate contrary to what it was in the Republic comics, treating the Nightsisters as if they were literal witches who could use actual magic, the list goes on, but those were my biggest gripes). One episode that stood out to me though, was A Friend in Need, an episode in which pretty much everyone except for Artoo is stupid, malicious or both. At the time, I thought it was the worst episode of TCW yet. Has that changed since then? Yeah, but I'd still count this episode as the dumbest.

For whatever reason, the episode popped into my head recently after...I don't know how long its been, relatively shortly after the episode aired, I guess? And, I don't know, I guess I wanted to take a jab at picking it apart? I've never really done this before, there've been a couple of times when I've wanted to examine bad media, but for whatever reason, I never really got to it. So, fuck it, better late than never, I guess. So, I rewatched the episode to get it fresh in my mind. As the old EU was still Canon when this aired, I'm putting it through the lens of it still being Canon when I talk about it.

There's a good reason why my friends call me a masochist, I guess.

Things start out on Mandalore, where Ahsoka is escorting Padme, Bail and Mon Mothma in talks with representatives from the Separatist Senate when Lux Bonteri walks in. When I first watched A Friend in Need, I had missed Lux's Introductory episode which also introduced the Separatist Senate, so I was a little confused here. Confused because prior to TCW, there wasn't a Separatist Senate, the Confederacy was solely ruled over by the Separatist Council. Now, there's commentary from Filoni that apparently, the EU writers had misunderstood the purpose of the Separatist Council, that no, they weren't the leaders of the CIS, and that the megacorporation's who made up the CIS were just neutral parties. I have two issues with that, first being that I trust Dave "I sincerely believe this man wants to fuck wolves" Filoni's word about as far as I can throw his furry ass, and two, that isn't how it comes across in the movies at all.

The leaders of the Trade Federation, Intergalactic Banking Clan, Techno Union and Commerce Guild are all present, outright saying they're pledging their alliance and their armies to the Separatist cause. That they're apparently neutral, uninvolved parties doesn't gel at all, it just seems like a clumsy retcon to me. One of many.

But anyway...

Lux busts in and causes a scene, accusing Count Dooku of murdering his mother, so the Separatist senators have their guards drag him away. Ahsoka, concerned, gets permission from Padme to follow him, as long as she's discrete. Lux is dragged back to the Separatist's shuttle, where a hologram of Dooku appears to gloat a bit, before telling the droids to execute Lux. Why he doesn't just use the Force to choke him, I don't know, all you need is line of sight.

Now, I'd actually misremembered how this scene went down. In my memory, Lux dropped an ion grenade to disable the droids and *then* Ahsoka showed up. Apparently my flawed memory made Lux more competent then he actually is in the episode. How was he actually planning on getting away? We'll get back to that in a moment, but for right now, he's at the battle droid's mercy.

And then Ahsoka intervenes.

Here's another issue I had with Ahsoka, her characterisation. There were a couple of moments that stuck with me that I think are relevant here.

Season 1, episode 19, Storm Over Ryloth: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

Season 2, episode 1, Holocron Heist: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

This episode? Ahsoka is a reckless, headstrong idiot who forces her way into a hostile situation, gets the attraction of a bunch of armed droids and leads them back towards the Senate Guards who are stationed at the Republic shuttle, quickly alerts the unaware men that some pissed off droids are on her tail, then boards the shuttle, takes off and flees back to Coruscant, abandoning the Senators she was supposed to be escorting *and* the Senate Guards who are now taking the heat for her.

Ahsoka is such a shitty bodyguard, Jesus Christ. Getting Lux to safety is a priority, fine, but why does she need to board the ship herself and flee the system entirely? Why not just have Lux board the ship, then go back to help the Senate Guards deal with the battle droids that she *led* there in the first place? They're not just regular battle droids either, they're droid commandos who are supposed to be a lot tougher and smarter than the standard B1 battle droids. We don't see the outcome of this fight, so I presume the Senate Guards won, which, good thing. Because Ahsoka abandoned the Senators she was supposed to be watching over, and I genuinely wouldn't put it past the Separatists to pull something now that these peace talks have collapsed because of what Ahsoka did. They were never going to work out anyway of course, given Sidious' whole purpose behind the Clone Wars, but the characters aren't aware of that.

Anakin gets in contact and when Lux tries to apologise with "Master Jedi, I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble." ("If" you caused trouble? "If"?)

Ahsoka tries to brush it off with "It's nothing." Uh, no, it's not. See the above paragraphs for why it *is* a big deal, and I can't see Anakin of all people being too happy with Padme being left in a dangerous situation like that. But I guess we're brushing past that, cool.

Ahsoka points out how dumb Lux's plan was, saying he would have been killed if she hadn't intervened (true). Then Lux says no, actually, he *did* have a plan, then he pulls out a taser and stuns Ahsoka. Seriously? His plan was to go in, confront Dooku, hoping that he'd send a transmission just to gloat (apparently he "knew" he would, but why? He could just have easily been shot by the battle droids), and he went in there armed with a dinky little taser? Brilliant plan, I'm sure that would have done *wonders* against a squad of droid commandos all armed with blasters.

Ahsoka wakes up hours later aboard the shuttle with just Artoo, her lightsabers missing. She goes out to talk to Lux and finds out the contacts he's meeting are the Death Watch, that Mandalorian supremacist group of terrorists who are awful even by Mandalorian standards.

Jesus Christ, Lux is so fucking stupid.

Despite Ahsoka attempting to tell him that they're bad news, he keeps brushing it off because they *also* hate Dooku, so it'll be fine. Back aboard the ship, Artoo finds Ahsoka's lightsabers tucked away in a random drawer. So, if she had bothered to look for them, she would have found them in the space of five minutes. My God, she is useless. These two deserve each other, I swear.

Oh, and we meet Bo-Katan for the first time.

Awful, *evil* Bo-Katan.

On the ride back, Lux reveals he had a way to track Dooku's location through his communication.

Serenno. He was probably on Serenno, his homeworld of Serenno, where he has a mansion on Serenno, Serenno on which he is a Count. This isn't exactly hidden knowledge.

They go back to the Death Watch compound. see them using kitbashed battle droids as target practice and Ahsoka is marched off while Lux talks to their leader, Pre Vizsla. Apparently, he has beef with Dooku now and the Count gave him a scar. Which, first thing, if Dooku had wanted him dead, he'd be dead. Second, I actually don't remember those two falling out, so I looked it up and apparently it happens entirely offscreen between his last appearance and now, so whatever, I guess. Also, Vizsla threatens to cut up Lux if he doesn't hand over the tracer, and Lux seems pretty fine with that. Brilliant, that one, real smart.

Ahsoka gets thrown in with a hut full of enslaved women from a nearby village. Great people, those Mandalorians. Artoo, meanwhile, is taken to the droid shack and told to fix up the damaged battle droids so they can be used as target practice again. They don't even slap a restraining bolt on him, they just leave him to his own devices. Which, in this case, happens to be a room full of battle droids, several of which actually still have blasters in repairable condition as we'll see later.

Well, the Mandalorians are rock stupid, so I suppose I can't complain *that's* out of character.

Big feast is held, now Lux can see with his own eyes that the Death Watch are using the local women as slaves...but he doesn't seem to give much of a shit about it, even as Ahsoka keeps trying to point out how awful his allies are. It's at that point the village elder shows up and demands Viszla let his people go. He did this unarmed, with his only support being two other unarmed villagers, walking into a camp full of hostile people who had already taken the village's women as slaves and expected things to go well for him. When Vizsla agrees in the most sinister way possible, with several other Death Watch members openly snickering about it, the elder thinks all is well and Lux even says: "You see? They're not the butchers you make them out to be."

I...Jesus Christ, they were using the local women as slaves, but you're fine with that so long as they take them back when they're done? Lux has to be the stupidest character in this series, I swear. There is exactly one smart person this entire episode and it's Artoo.

Next day, the Death Watch take the enslaved women back to their village, the Elder thanking him for it.

And then he takes out his stupid edgesaber and stabs the man's granddaughter in front of him. Can't help but feel this would have been more impactful if obvious sacrificial lamb character had more than a minute of screentime, but okay, its awful and its typical Mando behaviour. For good measure they start torching the village and maybe set one villager on fire. And much to my shock, Lux finally gets it. I was half expecting him to brush it off as them setting fires to keep the villagers warm. Ahsoka seems to impale a guy with a blunt pole, before getting tied up. And then they drag her back to their camp from their speeder...yeah, Ahsoka should be dead.

Then Lux says this...

"I believed you had honour, but you're just murderers."

What possibly led you to think that conclusion, you absolute dumbass? This whole time, Vizsla has been acting as blatantly sinister and creepy as Dick Dastardly, if he had a moustache he'd be twirling it. Lux seems like the kind of character who needs to be told not to drink drain-cleaner, I swear to God.

As Vizsla is preparing to deal with Idiot and Useless, Artoo shows up with an army of kitbashed droids...and like I said either, a few of them have working blasters. Literally the only competent character, I swear. Artoo gives Ahsoka her lightsabers back, and Vizsla decides to duel her one-on-one, because like every Mando, he has a totally unearned superiority complex. She ends up slicing his jetpack and he doesn't even notice until Ahsoka points it out to him. How did he not hear her hit it? How did he not feel that? In the confusion of the exploding jetpack, Dumb and Dumber manage to escape, chased by Bo-Katan, but they get away.

Then Lux fucks off in the escape pod, the end.

And apparently the next time Ahsoka runs into Bo-Katan, they're besties and join forces to free Mandalore. Guess Ahsoka kinda forgot about the whole slavery, village torching and innocent people she murdered, huh? Yeah, guess so. Bo-Katan fucking sucks, she doesn't get a redemption, the narrative just wants you to forget all the atrocities she commits because she doesn't want Maul to be her leader. Zuko she ain't.

Ahsoka majorly screws up her assignment, puts senators in danger and gets some guards killed, Lux is so braindead that he blindly trusts the most obviously evil pack of killers he could find. I'd say he needs a helmet, but I don't think its possible for him to get anymore brain damage.

TCW is massively overrated, this is a hill I will die on.

[politicalprocrastinator]

no but like imagine introducing female thematic parallels to anakin and obi wan - sisters divided by one's utmost loyalty to strict ideological duty and one's belief that you can never fix things from the inside because the system is broken and instead of writing something nuanced about how political violence has gendered implications you decide to immediately kill one of those characters off because you're a lazy loser who thinks women that don't carry weapons are boring

[bg-11]

Agreed 100%, I hate the stupid brainwashing chip thing so much

The Star Wars fandom doesn’t talk enough about how terrifying Order 66 must be from the point of view of the clones.

You spend 3 years fighting side by side with someone, in some cases becoming as close as family, only to have your individuality ripped from you and basically turned into a machine. We don’t have enough stories about how the clones felt after Order 66 was executed and they eliminated their Jedi. Rex visibly shakes and tries to stop himself after Palpatine sends the message. Did the ones who never had the control chip removed ever think about their Jedi? If they do, did they think of them fondly? Or were their memories or opinions of them altered by the control chip? Did the clones ever live to regret what they had done?

[legobenkenobi]

there is quite genuinely not one single day where i don’t think about this and feel like i’m going to be fucking sick.

they purposely isolated Cody from not only grieving over Obi-Wan but also from other people close to Obi-Wan because they didn’t want any risk of the mission failing. i’m gonna be fucking SICK do NOT talk to me!!!!!

[padme-amitabha]

Am I the only one who can't stand the nickname "Skyguy"

It just sounds so icky and so out of place with the prequels. Anakin wasn't the kind of individual who had friendships (in the modern or normal sense) having grown up and bonded with people older than him. He always seemed like the precocious child who preferred hanging out with adults over peers and people his age. Not to mention him being taken into the order so late when all other younglings knew each other and him being widely thought of as the Chosen One (much like Aang in ALTA) would mean he always felt burdened by expectations and responsibilities - not to mention struggling to deal with trauma and not feel like an outcast - to have a normal, fun, teasing friendship and even if he did the last person I would except is a padawan who has just been assigned to him out of nowhere. Let's not forget especially in AOTC he is a sucker for rules - for the most part. He might disregard some when his impulsiveness takes over or when it comes to his feelings for Padme but for the most part he does listen to or feels the urge to listen to given instructions (as he is accustomed to as a slave and would as Vader).

It makes no sense if a padawan would come up with a cutesy nickname because Obi-Wan and Anakin go way back and he never calls him anything but Master respectfully (and have a semi-awkward half respectful half playful bond). It's like a tradition of the Jedi but clearly we can't expect Ahsoka from following the rules of the order she been in her whole life. It's so disrespectful to Jedi customs who always respect their Masters are on the opposite sides of the war.