#He didn't deserve to see his home destroyed and spent years in exile

[ilovescarletwitch]

I don't understand why people call Anakin insensitive and casually hurtful when Obi-Wan Kenobi is right there.

It genuinely doesn't make sense to me. Anakin was a literal child slave, a small kid in a very abusive situation. While some abused children do turn out emotionally cold as a defence mechanism, it's way more common for abused children to become hyper aware of other people's emotions and turn into people pleasers as a way to keep themselves safe. Anakin spent the first nine years of his life knowing he was a piece of property, he could be sold at any moment or simply killed at a whim. Anyone could do anything they wanted to him and the only thing stopping them was that it would cost them money. Anakin learned as a child to be very perceptive of people 's emotions especially if they had power over him and how to make those people happy so they would be less likely to hurt him.

Obi-Wan during the course of the prequels showed himself to be way more insensitive and casually cruel with his words. At TPM Obi-Wan is twenty five years old, older than Anakin had been during the prequels. He called the child slave who had risked his life to help them a pathetic lifeform. No compassion and no gratitude, just complaining about the inconvenience of having to help the traumatized child who had already selflessly helped them. During the same movie he again calls Anakin dangerous and urges Qui-Gon to abandon him as the Council wants, not even bothering to make sure Anakin is out of earshot. At that point Anakin is a former child slave turned unaccompanied child refugee, separated from his only parent and thrust into an unfamiliar world.

Then let's move to the AOTC. At the very beginning of the movie Anakin clearly communicates to Obi-Wan his distress over his mother's wellbeing. He hasn't seen or had news of Shmi Skywalker for ten years, since he left her behind in a dangerous planet as somebody else's literal property. He has every cause for concern and now is getting nightmares that may be force visions of her suffering. He clearly tells Obi-Wan about it and Obi-Wan responds by telling him that the dreams will pass and to stop caring about his mother/pestering Obi-Wan about her wellbeing. Pretty darn insensitive in my opinion.

Then during the actual bodyguard part of the movie. Anakin and Padme together make a plan to lure out the assassin trying to kill her. That plan involves using Padme as bait while Anakin is on the other room using the force to sense potential threats. Obi-Wan arrives on screen, learns about it and immediately casts doubts on Anakin's ability to carry out the plan. To me that feels more like Obi-Wan doing this as a way to force Anakin back in his place because he is angry they made a plan without him. The whole point of Anakin is how incredibly powerful he is. He should absolutely be able to sense a threat literally in the other room. Moreover Obi-Wan was Anakin's primary teacher and they have already been together in a number of missions, so he should also have a very good idea about Anakin's abilities. He is just being dismissive because he feels Anakin is challenging his authority. A moment later Anakin does sense the threat in Padme's room.

Then Obi-Wan jumps out of the window to chase the droid. Anakin then acts as a model partner imo. He doesn't panic or anything. He checks Padme is safe and in no more immediate danger and then immediately finds an appropriate vehicle and runs after Obi-Wan. He catches him on time and then engages in a high speed chase with the assassin. During the entire time of the chase Obi-Wan keeps yelling at Anakin instead of just trusting him, the person who has the most experience among them in piloting and high speed chases. I am honestly surprised Anakin didn't tell him to shut up even once.

Then Anakin jumps of the speeder to catch the assassin. He does the exact same thing Obi-Wan did. I would even argue he is more successful because he does manage to disable her speeder. When Obi-Wan catches up to him he immediately scolds Anakin for doing the same thing Obi-Wan had done only five minutes ago. He specifically says:

"I swear you will be the death of me"

I know people usually take it as a light hearted joke. But in context it really is not. Obi-Wan and Anakin are Jedi and are often expected to go on dangerous missions together where they will have to depend on each other's skills to survive. It would be pretty hurtful to Anakin to be told by his teacher that raised him for ten years that Anakin's actions during a mission will cause his death. And he is pretty hurt by it, which he again tells Obi-Wan clearly:

"Don't say that Master. You are the closest thing I have to a father. I love you and I don't want to cause you pain. "

And Obi-Wan's response: "Then why won't you listen to me?"

Anakin clearly tells Obi-Wan that his words hurt him. He also tells Obi-Wan how much he means to him and that he doesn't want Obi-Wan to come to harm. Obi-Wan responds with a dismissive joke, doesn't even consider that his careless remark hurt Anakin and he should perhaps apologize. He never even addresses Anakin's confession of loving Obi-Wan as a father figure.

I don't say that Obi-Wan was a bad teacher. Anakin managed to catch up to and even surpass his peers while under Obi-Wan's tutelage, so he must have been pretty good. And they definitely had their good moments otherwise Anakin wouldn't care about him so much. And Obi-Wan is capable of compassion and kindness as evidenced when he tells Padme of her husband's fall.

But I am so angry at the fandom portraying Obi-Wan as this sensitive flower who always considers other people's feelings and is always hurt by Anakin's reckless and cruel words but never tells him and suffers in silence because he doesn't want to hurt Anakin/is afraid of Anakin's temper. Anakin was a child, a student under Obi-Wan's care for the majority of their relationship. And in the movies it's Obi-Wan who is repeatedly shown to make insensitive and hurtful remarks and then completely ignore and dismiss Anakin when he calls him out and/or expresses his hurt.

[cursedfortune]

[kazeofthemagun] He could tell she was upset even before he laid eyes on her - not that it was trivial to gauge even based on her body language. The Witch wore a mask of her own more often than not, not allowing her inner frustrations to slip too easily into the light. Another similarity between them, and yet the familiarity of it meant they had both grown more proficient at reading between their verses. Hearing the unspoken, seeing the unseen.

He had only entered the room after a dull clatter signified an object escaping between floorboards. A closer look revealed the item she had been tending to be the shattered blade he had seen a time before - with the unfortunate escapee being presumably a small shard of the weapon. The shift in her energy was palpable.

"Everything alright?" He inquired, walking up behind her with enough deliberate weight in his step to forewarn of his arrival.

He could tell this old sword was a treasured possession - a cherished memoir of a bygone time, perhaps bygone comrade. If she only wanted, he could help pry the board off to reclaim the lost fragment.

Unprompted. @kazeofthemagun

It was time to routinely clean the broken sword she kept and preserved since the first war she took part in. The witch touched upon the glass case she kept it within, framed with dark wood and a stone only found deep within the earth. Laid within a deep blue velvet, like the darkest parts of slit eyes that once narrowed into pinpricks when she took up arms against him.

His face was forever burned into her mind. The look he wore when her purpose finally told her what she was to do. Whose side she was supposed to take. For years she sat by, watching with a blank face in an old stone fortress within the desert. Knowing the elf was on the rise. Three thousand years of preparation, of isolation, to crawl to the surface as a one-person army and wage a war far worse than the last.

The way he looked at her... as if he had been waiting to see what she would do. Thinking the witch would not interfere due to never informing those that trusted her the truth about herself and all that she knew. In all honesty, Mortem thought her purpose would tell her to let him. He certainly deserved to win despite... everything.

They were both so young back then. He, a child with a knife in his mouth. Her, youthful and on the run as his people overtook their small world.

She remembered well, yes. She remembered the way he understood without saying a word; scarred lips curling so slightly, so briefly that she nearly missed it before he shattered the very sword she stood before now. One hit. That's all she did to him. One fucking hit. It didn't pierce his armor but it was the principle of acting that did the damage. To think... she nearly did nothing as he destroyed the home she had come to know for centuries. The desert fortress full of life she valued, set aflame within the sweltering heat for days on end. He came to kill, finally - he succeeded to a great extent. The final culling before the end battle.

And somewhere in between all of it, he built a gravestone just for her. Sat now in a secluded spot behind her cabin - an elf who carried so much sentimentality even for his own enemies. For the way things could have been.

The witch was so very careful each and every time she tended to this sword. She collected as many pieces as she could back then, back before she was banished from the desert nation and exiled as a traitor to her original country that didn't want her either.

It was the last thing... The only thing...

One piece between the floorboards stunted the witch. A veteran of far too many wars, too much heartbreak, stared down upon floor of her home with such betrayal. But there's no comedy to find here. The old board had a chip in it, just big enough for a single shard to fall through. A board she had been meaning to fix but... who would have thought?

Though she has spent many years since coping with all that happened. The tragedy of his end, as justified as it was, she was nonetheless harrowed and scarred by the events that altered the entirety of her world. The love of one elf that became a force of nature, that challenged the will of even a witch - who became the violence he was surrounded by, believing that was what he was necessary to become. She snapped shut the case quietly and placed it down, safe and sound, before sinking onto her knees to stare at the board. Within her a cord was pulled taught, humming loudly as it grew in pitch - hearing his footsteps, his words but unable to acknowledge them.

A shuddering breath entered her lungs. She could hear bones rattling, mockingly from a place beyond. Tension built, the cord pulled unbearably so until it snapped. Her fist broke through the floorboard with a single controlled strike - augmented strength activating without a thought as she cleanly snapped it in two.

Her hand reached down into the darkness, searching as a shaky breath exhaled from her. The rattling she heard in her head became all too real as she felt her body trembling. Fear. Agony. This hurt her.

This sword, it was not a fucking trophy, no matter what people tried to say. This very sword being the same one engraved down the length of her spine; a reminder, a promise to carry on with the elf's mission in the way it should have been done. Gone from this world but not forgotten. Kill a god, demolish the faction she despised but was allied to, put back into place a fae gone rogue, restore the precursor world, restore the solution - he carried the burden alone for far too long. No child should have ever been expected to do so much.

But she was not a person. She was a force and she could carry it for him - because that was the right answer. That was what kept her purpose inactive until the end, when it decided the potential of life that already existed outweighed his plans. And she screamed, she cried because she knew the soul inside him was beautiful. She saw him laugh, she saw him smile, she saw him cry genuinely and it was the second time she ever came close to shattering. To have an enemy that loved so fiercely that he was willing to ruin himself for all that he loved.

The shard was grasped between her fingers as she pulled it out and turned to her Hunter, unaware of the tears running down her face when she looked up to where he stood. When did her throat get so tight? A hand grasped hold as she slowly realized the state she fell into. It didn't matter how old she was. The scars ran deep. The trauma lived on despite how much she had grown and how well she coped usually. Her head bowed as her fingers curled around the metal tightly, forming a protective fist as she held the piece of her old sword. Plum tendrils spilled over, dragging against the floor as she allowed herself to cry - something deep, something buried in agony and understanding pulled forth from her.

"I'm... I'm just so angry." All of the time. She burned. She was one fire constantly. She felt fucking sick.

Her free hand motioned to the broken board, "And now I have to cut down a stupid fucking tree." That wasn't the issue but her mind was compartmentalizing to the best of its ability, lest she travel down the unsafe path of regret. Mortem pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose as she heaved a few heavy breaths, trying to calm down.

The witch sniffed as her hand dropped from her face after a minute and instead reached around to touch upon the hilt of the sword that was tattooed upon her spine. "I-I... I can't fail." Him. Them. Everyone. All that knew. All that didn't know. The Hunter should understand. The Hunter would understand the context without her having to elaborate. He knew the tones, he knew her. Mortem tilted her head to partially peer up to him. Support. That's what he was - that was what she was to him. Give and take between two forces within the universe.

She would never be able to help him finish his quest (for it was his), she would only ever be a supporting role. Likewise, he was the same for her. This man of a distant star that she cared for, that she trusted, that she understood. That she allowed herself to let go of the sword upon her back and instead reach out to him, "Will you help me cut down a tree?" She didn't need it. She never needed help but... the witch was asking, knowing he would hear all that was unspoken.

[theirondragonrants]

8 Thoughts on GOT 8X06 - The Bittersweet Ending

I might be lit up in flames for saying this, but I didn't hate the ending? Granted I was ready to be disappointed, but I think it wrapped up everything the way it promised to wrap it up, despite the shit season its riding up behind.

1. Daenerys Targaryen's ending

Dany spent so long trying to get a throne that wasn't hers, on behalf of a family she didn't get a chance to know, for a cause that didn't stand.

Daenerys would've never stopped fighting, because there would always be bad men to burn, whether they knew it or not. There was always going to be a reason to make people into the bad guy. Like the kids she burnt, and the ones she would've burnt.

It hurts because she wasn't a bad person. She was a good person whom circumstances soured, but at least she can rest now.

2. Jon Snow's ending

It's no secret how much I LOATHE Jon Snow. I think all Stark men are absolute peanut heads and their moral absolutism keeps getting them into shit.

That being said, Duty is the death of love and I loved that they brought the phrase back because it's exactly what I assumed he was thinking. Jon lost the woman he loves over a throne he didn't want, because she thought him a threat. He wanted away from the Wall, and he has to go back because that's how you get a hateful ending, but he can go to the true North now. He even gets ghost because they both belong beyond the wall.

I won't justify the stupid writing decisions that were made to get him here, and I won't admit people have a reason to hate what they did to him. But honestly what's worst for Jon than losing all you gained, but getting to return to your true home anyways.

3. Arya Stark's Ending

Arya Stark, the princess who was promised. Arya Stark who looks death in the face and says not today. Arya Stark who wanted to go home.

I appreciate the way they wrapped up her story because to do anything else would've promised that, eventually, they would've sacrificed her character and her sense of self to marry her off, or rule over a castle, or something like that.

She's wanted to know what's West of Westeros for the longest time, and much as she wanted to come home and avenge her family, this is both bitter and sweet. Arya Stark will get to see the world, and be herself.

3. Tyrion Lannister's ending

Bran said it best. He thought he was clever and he made a lot of mistakes, and he'll spend his life paying for them. He told Shay once that these people were what he did best. This power hungry city and the people in it.

But he's gone past that because power killed people and power corrupted a woman he believed in so deeply he let her worst flaws go on behalf of believing in her.

So now, he gets to live in the city he had a hand in burning, fixing the Kingdoms he played a hand in destroying, for a King he had a hand in crowning. And unknown in the story of the fight he had a hand in playing out. Seems fitting for the hand of the King?

4. Daenerys' troops ending

This is a virtue of shitty writing, but the Dothraki and the Unsullied ended up being war criminals. They killed innocents, and prisoners, all in the name of Daenerys Targaryen.

She's gone now. They have no place in Westeros because without Daenerys they've got nothing here. So they lose their Queen, and their purpose here, but they get to go home.

Grey Worm who lost so much in the end, and lost his humanity, held on to Missandei's last wish and got to take his men to a peaceful place, where they can live it out.

Grey Worm doesn't get what he deserved after years of loss and pain, but he can fulfill Missandei's last wish.

5. Brandon Stark's ending

I'll admit I didn't see that coming? Again, granted, probably the virtue of shit writing but I digress.

Maybe Bran didn't want the Lordship of Winterfell because it was his mission to gun for something bigger? Maybe this is the rightful ending to the struggle life of the Stark family? But who better to rule a kingdom than the one person who can see every injustice and truly punish the guilty and reward the good?

Brandon didn't want power, but maybe the best man to sit on the Throne is the one who doesn't want it. He also gave independence to the North and I live for that.

6. Ser Brienne's ending

Brienne lived her life for duty. She served the Starks because duty to Catelyn compelled her to, and then proved herself worthy of everything by being the most kickass knight in the Seven Kingdoms.

But she lost the man she loves, and now she gets to write the end of his story, including the part about Cersei, and she'll live out her life protecting the Stark King. Podrick lived to serve by her side in the end, and I'm glad he got knighted (though I am almost 100% sure Brienne did it and I would've loved to see that).

Brienne gets to be a knight, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Kingsguard for a King who is good and just. Just not the King she wanted. And she survived through insurmountable odds, but lost the man she loves.

7. Sansa Stark's Ending

Sansa Stark, first of her name, the Red Wolf, and the Queen in the North.

MAN I'VE BEEN CALLING THIS FOREVER! THIS IS WHAT VINDICATION LOOKS LIKE!!!!

Honestly I've got nothing but happiness that this is a thing. They fiddled the least with Sansa's story in this shitty season, so I 100% believe she deserves this. Sansa's been telling people what they're doing wrong and that they should listen to her. And yet nobody does.

Sansa had the piece of mind to make sure Bran knew, in PUBLIC, that she loves him but the North fought for its freedom and it deserves its freedom.

Nothing feels better than hearing a room of men chant for the Queen in the North, after so many Kings in the North (especially because the ones we've seen were well meaning morons).

8. Game of Thrones' ending

(lmao anyone notice they told us from the start with the Raven on the seat? Sorry just thought it was funny)

Shitty writing decisions aside, the Game of Thrones was the story of the ruling families of Westeros fighting for a throne.

It was the story of the Stark family, the family that lost everything to love and duty and had to fight to get it back. It was the story of the Targaryen family that conquered Kingdoms and held them by fear, and lost the favor of the throne. The Lannister's who could buy the world with their gold until the gold and the power ran out. The Baratheon's who blindly followed orders, no matter who or what other factors were in the way.

And now, there's no more Throne to fight for.

The Targaryen's are dead, except for a Bastard in exile.

The Baratheon's are dead, except for an unknown and unprepared Bastard.

The Lannister's are dead, except for the imp son who may as well be a Bastard.

And the Starks live in the end. The King of the 6 Kingdoms, the Hero of the World,The Queen in the North and a man who is finally free.

At the end of the day, the Starks who lost everything for the Throne are now the ones who won the game, and that feels like the most poetic justice in the world.

Final Thoughts

I've taken this season at face value. For the effort of the cast, the crew, and the amazing story they brought to life. The writers and their decisions aside, these people took on a titanic job and delivered the most amazingly acted and visually gorgeous story they could.

So Thank You, Game of Thrones, for the last 10 years of my life. Thank you for the theory fodder, and the ending that I can't entirely hate, and the characters that have shaped my life.

Thank you for a strong Sansa. A just Daenerys. A loyal Jon. A brave Arya. A wise Bran. A clever Tyrion. A dutiful Brienne. For every character that was not black and white and played the game. For the characters that left early but made this story so important.

Thank you, GoT. Despite your final flaws, you went out fighting.

Thank you.

BONUS GHOST REACTION

A GOOD BOY GOT PETS IN THE END AND HE GETS TO LIVE IN THE NORTH I LOVE THAT FOR HIM!!!!!