#The republic

[short-wooloo]

Another way I realized the opinion that "the Jedi got too involved in Republic politics" is stupid:

How in the fuck are they supposed to be effective at their job of peacekeeper-diplomats if they aren't involved in politics?

You can't eat your cake and have it too! No one listens to people who have no political authority!

Politics involves you, whether or not you're involved in politics!

[darth-memes]

[shiversdownyourspleen]

Just thinking about how the clones - a group engineered purely to be a faceless military to die in the name of a Republic whose ideals they would never experience - have infinitely more humanity, personality, and individuality than the stormtroopers that replaced them, a military made of the everyday people

And how of these two, only one of them is truly faceless

The clones fought to find their humanity, the Empire sold theirs

[mudwerks]

(via Best monsoon photos from photographers at The Arizona Republic)

ROB SCHUMACHER/THE REPUBLIC

[sporadicsweetswitch]

My friend is playing KOTOR for the first time and has now come to four conclusions so far...

PARTS HERE [1] [2][3][4][5]

1. Carth and Mission being a dad-daughter duo was a missed oppotunity.

2. Jolee is not very jolly and therefore his name is false advertising 🙄

3. They would like to adopt a Gizka as a playable pet and teach it to fight and eat people.

4. Malak is in no way qualified to run a sith empire. He took the Zapp Brannigan approach and failed upwards to the point of being in charge and having no clue what the eff to do now. He should at LEAST be going through basic training.. because the course "How to run an empire 101" must exist somewhere

[adragonsfriend]

SW Prequels: 1 Politic Please, for the Naive Child

(A complicating narrative…but probably not for you, reader of this post)

The prequels, according to quotes from GL, have two main goals:

“How did Anakin become Darth Vader?” (How does good person become a bad one)

“How did the Republic turn in to the Empire?” (How does a democracy become a dictatorship)

The first goal, though perhaps not perfectly executed, is largely achieved. We see Anakin go from a child who wants to help others, to an adult willing so sacrifice children for his own selfish desires—and we the viewers understand that (if not always agree which) decisions he and others made caused him to follow that character arc.

What the Prequels do Not do

The second goal falls far short.

The prequels offer some broad factors in the Republic becoming a dictatorship (as well as why the Separatists were no better)—corporations in government, greed of the already wealthy, war, fear-mongering manifesting policy changes, etc—but does not examine them in detail. It doesn’t take particular care with the timing of when the main characters acknowledge Republic’s values as having been lost, or the construction of “democracy” in-universe, or to what degree planets like Alderaan must be stealing from the Mid and Outer Rim, or even how Padmé and Palpatine both being from Naboo potentially alters any political commentary to be about Naboo rather than on the Republic as a whole, and carries around a whole bunch of other careless world-building problems that muddy the waters of plot elements which should be fairytale-clear (look I was gonna link a bunch more individual posts, but I got tired. Go read @saga-ordsmed’s star wars tag—she writes more elegantly, scathingly, and competently about Star Wars’ political & narrative failings then I ever will).

The prequels are a story about Anakin and about values of personal responsibility, and any political commentary suffers for that.

We know that the Senate willingly votes Palpatine into absolute power, but we do not know what alliances led to that vote passing, what Palpatine has been doing inside the Senate rather than outside it (his Sith & separatist activities), what battles and press releases cause the tide of the Senate to turn. We are shown a few bad apples but largely left unsure what turned the whole Senate, other than “time” “decay” and “greed.” These are vague comments on human nature, not on systematic conflicts.

If we saw something like this deleted scene, where Padme gives a speech to the senate, or this deleted scene, where some Senators talk about the Delegation of 2000 confronting Palpatine, I might have a reason to believe Padmé has fresh insight into the current political instability when she says the Republic is crumbling (if we actually got some of the pointed comments from the Delegation of 2000 scene, I would never have been able to make this post). Frankly, all of Padmé’s opinions are already under narrative suspicion because of her choice to help cover up Anakin’s massacre; without taking time to establish her expertise in politics as separate from her decisions about Anakin, her words about the Republic mean little. But these scenes are deleted, and whatever the reason, it causes the prequels to fail at their second goal, even more than they do structurally by not paying it much attention.

The most convincing comments about the political state of the Republic and the Chancellor instead come from members of Jedi Council, who have deliberately held themselves at a remove from the political process—for philosophical and practical reasons—and so lack detailed insight into the Senate’s functioning (why have so many benevolent Senator characters if you’re not going to use them as such? Just put one in the room with the Jedi council for a minute, seriously).

The most interesting scene we get about politics is the scene when Anakin and Padmé chat in the field and Anakin basically says he thinks the right dictatorship would solve the Republic’s problems, and Padmé largely laughs it off. It has the potential to be commenting on how people become radicalized when governments do not serve them, but the scene is so short and Anakin is in such a unique position as a Jedi and someone being personally groomed by the Chancellor, that it falls flat in terms of telling us anything either fresh and interesting about GL’s perspective on radicalisation, or anything applicable to a wider group of people.

Instead, the scene is again almost solely about the characters. It tells us about Anakin, Palpatine’s influence over Anakin, a little about Padmé, and a lot about Anakin and Padmé’s relationship. This would be fine—stories are allowed to use politics merely as a backdrop to character-level conflicts—if the creator didn’t claim to be telling us how a democracy can become a dictatorship.

So the prequels fail as a detailed or even followable portrayal of how a democracy becomes a dictatorship. They set up a few dominoes, but largely do not connect them to one another—for that we must fill in elaborate headcanons, read a million and one comics that probably don’t help the matter, or refuse to pay the question any detailed attention at all.

What the Prequels do Achieve

I recall a day, quite a while ago now, when as a kid—9 or so—I was walking to a friend’s house. It was sunny; the lawns were green and the sky was blue but the pools were bluer. I don’t remember the exact trigger for the thought, but I suspect my eye caught on the American flag hung by someone’s door. Whether it was the first time, or only the most memorable time, I remember realising: There is nothing inherently stopping my country (the US) and the whole world from getting worse again.

Now, there was a lot that was limited and outright wrong about that thought: the idea that the world didn’t currently suck for a lot of people, that it couldn’t start sucking for me, that the safety I experienced wasn’t built on other people not being safe, that the world was necessarily headed in a positive direction at the time, and so on. Many children are obliged to realise those things far earlier, if they ever held such beliefs in the first place.

But it was a step on the ongoing path toward a more complex world view, and a necessary one.

What the Prequels do is to present a situation in which the Evil Overlord takes over not by having a bigger army, or by poisoning the Good King, but by asking for and being granted supreme power by the government which is supposed to be checking his power. It is not detailed, or nuanced, or particularly well orchestrated. The how is barely a concern. The Prequels are highly unlikely to tell an adult anything they do not already know—in fact they are more likely to reinforce overly simplistic, individualistic views of highly systematic, large scale issues.

But the prequels do present a naive child with the possibility that a democracy can willingly become a dictatorship, that a government and a world can become worse.

That is only a step—one everyone must eventually move beyond—but for the naive child, it is a necessary step.

[httpschrys]

On The Allegory of the Cave by Plato

interestingliterature.com

[hymneminium]

[...] But the right thing to do is to take up the third dimension right after the second. And this, I suppose, consists of cubes and of whatever shares in depth. You’re right, Socrates, but this subject hasn’t been developed yet. There are two reasons for that: First, because no city values it, this difficult subject is little researched. Second, the researchers need a director, for, without one, they won’t discover anything. To begin with, such a director is hard to find, and, then, even if he could be found, those who currently do research in this field would be too arrogant to follow him. If an entire city helped him to supervise it, however, and took the lead in valuing it, then he would be followed. And, if the subject was consistently and vigorously pursued, it would soon be developed. Even now, when it isn’t valued and is held in contempt by the majority and is pursued by researchers who are unable to give an account of its usefulness, nevertheless, in spite of all these handicaps, the force of its charm has caused it to develop somewhat, so that it wouldn’t be surprising if it were further developed even as things stand. The subject has outstanding charm. [...]

(The Republic, 528b)

This is very cute. Plato is sad that people aren't researching 3D geometry

[short-wooloo]

I just cannot understand why people think the Jedi being a part of the Republic and answering to the senate is so bad

"OH no! The space wizards are held accountable by a democratically elected legal authority! How terrible!"

And more importantly, it worked, for 25,000 years it worked

Why does a few decades at the very end mean the whole several thousand year system needs to be written off?

"But the senate was corrupt!"

But the Jedi weren't, they continued to do their job, it's not on them if the senate stopped pulling its weight, not to mention there were still senators who were trying to do their jobs till the very end

Not to mention how the sorry state of the Republic near its end was a product of the sith's efforts to destroy it

[vickybiblecampsurvivor]

Autism rant time

Part one:

Let's talk about why the designs are different based on philosophical reasons and the war at the time. The star destroyer is a representation of oppression, Its sign is designed to oppress worlds and destroy worlds from orbit or at least destroy bases and cities. It has no front facing turbo lasers and if it does they're extremely weak. All the turbo lasers face downwards towards a planet or a base of some kind. It is meant to show up the strength of the empire and to keep people in check, always reminding that in a single notice could wipe out your existence. In addition The hanger bay that houses all the transportation for shuttles used to distribute soldiers, heavy armor, light armor and artillery of all kinds, making it very easy to release a swarm of imperial might onto a planet to oppress or conquer a world. This Represents The empire's philosophy of control: you'll have 1 officer in control of everything, all the goings on in the ship, maybe a separate force commander used to command the troops on the ground, maybe they would be on the bridge Usually once the battle begins they would be on the ground. 

Now for the venerator, The venator is based in the philosophy of the republic which is strength through unity and freedom, The best example used with strength of unity  and freedom is the 2 bridges designed 1 bridge controls all the going on the ship the other 1 controls the district distribution of fighters and transports. this allows for an easy and equal distribution of power, Now factoring in they usually there would be a some type of Jedi general on the ship and they would be controlling everything going on in the ground or they would substituting for the other naval officers that would be controlled the fighters depending on the Jedi's style and the battle going on but you would have 1 naval officer controlling the ship. Needs and then 1 Jedi  or naval officer controlling the fighters and their needs. Seldom would a Jedi have control over a ship It was rare and generally frowned upon. 

Now let's talk about the other designs And why They were different  for starters the venerator came first of course it's going to.be different and the type of war was different while both were a clash of ideologies the wars were fought drastically different. The empire was trying to oppress its people as well as crush a rebellion. The republic was Trying to reunite the separating systems And generally wanted to build a ship that was great for offense and defense and all of its cannons, well almost all of them. Were frontwards facing  And the hanger containing fighters Was directly in the center (that little red part that red line opens up for anyone that hasn't seen it before) It would open up and all the fighters and transports would come out of that But a lot of times When a battle was over they would just land and release most of the soldiers that way. But the vanguard would be dropped off through shuttles and gunships.

 This perfectly shows the difference of war, I will reiterate, both were clashes of ideologies. The difference is the rebellion was trying to overthrow an empire that was corrupt and oppressive. While the republic was also corrupted and oppressive, But so was the confederacy of independent systems. So it was a much more equal conflict And it was fought that way, With tons of ships battle battling With tons of ships battle, side-by-side trying to constantly 1 up the other. when the empire would just send out a super weapon to crush a small fleet Ships held together with duct tape and a dream. Continuing this The empire Again wanted to crush their opponents And remind everyone their place. While the republic  Wanted to crush their  Opponent Through Strategy and tactics to show why they were the better choice. 

[nikkidafox]

Reblog if you want to form the Transgender Empire

In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the

FIRST TRANSGENDER EMPIRE!

For a trans and euphoric SOCIETY!

Join me @xenasaur

[timaeuslover001]

The Jedi Order

Above all, the Jedi shouldn’t be despised or look down upon because of their certain rules that they’ve had previous orders.

The whole purpose for doing what they did was to serve the people as well as serve the side of the force For selfless purposes.

it was always the betterment of other people and their practices in their ways and their discipline prove that.

Even though some people didn’t agree, it may have caused some bitterness, and some sadness isn’t disappointments as well as confusion in the Order, it was also possible.

For 1000 years according to Master Mace WinWu, no one has left the Jedi order (before Ahsoka and Dooku)

Their Goal was to keep people from falling prey to the dark side , and that was possible.

Not saying it right or should be done anymore but don’t hate on them form this fact.

They didn’t ban emotion, nor did despise or look down on anybody who did have these attachments.

Their ultimate goal was to prevent over attachment. Often we see people in film media in real life who go off the deep end because they’ve lost somebody close to them family friends loved ones marriage whatever. And we hardly ever see somebody discupline or balance their motions enough to not make bad decisions in time, grief, or pain or heartache or heartbreak.

So to combat the over attachment, the Jedi just abstain from making these sort of attachments. In for forces users, this is very dangerous territory because these people are very close to that energy in spiritual life force that they deal with and being so close to the light as well as the dark. It’s a very sensitive thin line they have to walk to keep themselves from being sued and either direction.

The TEASON why the Orderbanned “attachments”

1. martial attachment :

The closes peopel to us and the most influential are our loved ones, family and spouses.

General lives are so purely dedicated to the force and so non-traditional in a lot of cultures and even seems countercultural in a lot of cultures because of their non-materialistic nature.

And that can seem often causing friction with somebody who is a Jedi who life is dedicated in a particular way.

Not to mention the over attachment of one spouse because of that unique bond that somebody shares with another person in the intimacy of that bond, someone who, if they lose that bond often react in a negative way and it can cause this person to feel embittered and angry and sway them to the dark side of the floor so Not even have that possibility they just abstain from these types of relationships and became dedicated servants of the light side of the force.

2. Familial Attachemnts:

kids is biggest problems can be their parents. if you go on social media right now they’re a lot of teachers who deal constantly with terrible parents due to the carelessness or overbearing this or neglectfulness harming their child.

Influences are also their parents and a parent can also be a hindrance to kids and their potential , because they’re teaching them selfish or bad habits that counter act the Light.

A lot more less crime in the world world would happen if people just had good stable homes. It won’t be perfect. It won’t eradicate it, but it’ll definitely be a lot less.

Children often receptive to teaching and learning and discipline that adults lose overtime, especially when they hit middle-age. A lot of adults get settled in their way and don’t really change.

In the movie avatar when Jake Sully met with the priest queen of her tribe, she said they stopped treating outsiders because it’s hard to fill a cup that’s already full, and Jake being very open and receptive to a lot of things about the culture because his culture lacks a lot of what he’s been missing, he was very receptive, as well as being the leader of this Tribe eventually.

And when they take them as children, they’re able to dedicate them solely to the ways of the force, and not have outside influences counteract that teaching or to make them dark side, force users.

Conclusion:

The Jedi wasn’t perfect but they served the forces of good over evil every time.

Not only that, but they served the good at their own expense as well, even if that meant the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.

Whether there be personally or literally.

Luke order was perfected by standing on what they had accomplished.

so was his better absolutely but the previous order regardless of the certain restrictions they still served the public in, made friends and connections with each other .

[captainsophiestark]

The Level-Headed One

Obi-Wan Kenobi x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2023!

Fandom: Star Wars

Day 8 Prompt: "Give that to me, before anything happens."

Summary: Obi-Wan and his partner (in life and on this mission) break into a smuggler's den in search of information the Republic needs, when things go a little sideways.

Word Count: 1,262

Category: Fluff

Requested by @ghostofskywalker! Hope you like it Tori!

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

"Missions like these are my favorite," I muttered, smiling up at my best friend and partner, Obi-Wan, as we ducked down a darkened bar hallway, his arm wrapped tightly around me and my arms around his neck. Obi-Wan hummed, leaning down and towards me until we disappeared from the sight of the rest of the bar, when he pulled back.

"They are more fun than rushing into battle on a dusty planet."

I smiled, leaning up to give him a brief peck on the cheek before we both returned our focus to the task at hand. We'd come here looking for information about smuggling routes the Separatists had been using to run supplies past our blockades, but with a cover as two people on a date in a seedy bar. Away from the Jedi Council, on missions in dives like this, were some of the only times Obi and I got to spend as a couple.

Unfortunately, they also often included people trying to kill us at some point or another. We'd just have to keep surviving long enough to get to the other side of the war and retire happily.

"Do you want to take care of the door, or should I?" asked Obi-Wan, both of us scanning our surroundings as we reached the locked door of the club owner's office. If we were right, all the information we could hope for and more would be in there.

I shrugged. "I'm probably going to kick it down, so if you have another way..."

"Hold on."

He closed his eyes, raising his hand ever so slightly as he concentrated and worked through the force. I turned to watch our backs, until I heard the telltale 'click' of a lock unlocking itself.

"You did that by moving the lock from the inside with the force?" I asked, turning to my boyfriend with a raised eyebrow. He shrugged.

"I've needed to develop that skill more than a few times in the course of the war."

"Still. Impressive."

With one last glance around the hallway, the two of us ducked quickly into the office, carefully shutting the door behind us. I relocked it before turning to take in the room with Obi.

We'd definitely found the right place. The office was a disaster zone, papers, boxes, and filing cabinets scattered everywhere. This was going to be a long, long night.

"I'll take the left half if you take the right half," Obi-Wan deadpanned. I sighed.

"We didn't do nearly enough dancing and drinking in the bar before hand to deal with all this."

Since neither of us knew when an enemy might next appear, we tried to work quickly while still doing a thorough job. I kept one eye on the time, all too aware that every minute that ticked by was another increasing the risk of our death.

I'd been getting jittery as we neared the half hour mark, but Obi-Wan and I had almost made it through the entire room. We'd started at the edges and gradually worked towards the middle and each other, and finally, we'd met at the desk.

I huffed a sigh and popped the top off yet another box and started digging through, until a large, familiar object made me pause.

"Oh boy," I muttered, reaching into the box and pulling out the flashbang grenade. I held it up to show Obi-Wan, turning it over in my hand. "Look at this. Who leaves something like this in a box on their desk?"

"Seedy smugglers who might need to throw one at someone coming in the door?" he suggested.

"Yeah, I guess so." I tossed the grenade lightly in my hand, testing its weight and getting a feel for it. "Interesting."

"Give me that, before anything happens," Obi-Wan said, holding out his hand with a sigh. I rolled my eyes, but dropped it in his hand anyway.

"I'm not going to blow us up, Obi-Wan. I might be best friends with Anakin, but I'm not completely stupid."

He snorted, which made a smile tug at the corner of my mouth. I nudged him with my shoulder as we both continued our search, the feeling of him in the force putting me at ease and bringing a smile to my face even in the middle of a mission like this. A few minutes later, I smiled for a different reason.

"I think I found what we're looking for."

Obi-Wan leaned over my shoulder as I fanned out a stack of documents, all detailing several shipping routes and smuggling runs designed to get around Republic blockades.

"Excellent work," he said, eyes still scanning the information. "Let's take that with us and get out of here, shall we?"

"Neither of you is going to be going anywhere, ever again."

Obi-Wan and I's heads snapped up to find the club owner standing in the doorway, flanked by two burly guards cracking their knuckles. I sighed.

"Two more minutes, and we would've been gone," I muttered.

"Nobody gets away with stealing from me, in my own club, with their lives."

Rather than returning fire with our new enemy, Obi-Wan leaned in to whisper in my ear.

"Can you gather those papers quickly if we were to run?" I nodded. "Good. Then close your eyes and cover your ears."

I turned to give him a questioning look, only to see him pick up the flashbang grenade I'd found and pull the pin, hurling it at the club owner without a second thought. I ducked and covered just in time as it went off before quickly springing into action, grabbing the papers off the desk and following Obi-Wan as we pushed past the stunned club owner and his guards.

We rushed back into the noise and confusion of the club, angry screams following from behind us. Obi-Wan reached back and took my hand as we wove through the crowd, finally making our way to an exit near the back and ducking out the door.

"You got all the papers?" he asked as we jumped into our speeder and he quickly guided it into the sky. I nodded.

"Yes, I did. And I'll absolutely never understand how you got your reputation as the level-headed one."

Obi-Wan chuckled. "It's easy. I got the reputation because I'm constantly surrounded by you and Anakin. And when he dives out a thousand-story window without a plan to catch himself and you run into an ambush with nothing but the force to get you out of it, a little flashbang grenade in a pinch becomes the most rational thing in the world."

I snorted, but he wasn't wrong. I caught him grinning out of the corner of my eye, so I turned to him more fully with a grin of my own.

"So... mission success, but I still think we got run out of that place a little early. Do you want to go somewhere for a little victory celebration before we go back to the Temple?"

"...What did you have in mind?"

"Padmé told me about a jazz club not too far from here."

Obi-Wan chuckled. "You certainly know me well." He glanced at the still-dark sky, then sighed. "I suppose we do have some time. Just tell me where to go."

We shared a smile, blending in amongst the lights of the city as two other people, no Jedi Order or war following us like it did everywhere else. And for tonight, we'd enjoy that escape for a little while, to help remind us exactly what we were out there fighting for.

[darth-memes]

STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH CAME OUT 18 YEARS AGO!

[r7-b7]

Indigenous casual Star Wars fan Hot Takes

The women deserve to live.

The mothers deserve to live.

Trans/Aro/Ace/Intersex characters: we need them. They exist. They have always existed. We need more.

Creators need to hire indigenous actors and artists. Stop just being "influenced" by us and our stories- offer to work with us, and adequately compensate us.

Almost all SW media fans the flames of unregulated White Boy Emotions. Not only encouraging but rewarding Creep behavior and the White women who hold the hands of supremacist genocidal White men. You've gotta do mental gymnastics and 3 paragraphs of his "trauma" to try to justify their femicide.

The Empire moved so seamlessly into power partially because The Republic was already an empire with a galactic militarized police force that people felt they had no chance fighting against. Similar bone structure.

Dave Filoni's Ahsoka costume choices until she's an adult and wears appropriate battle outfits. At 14 she wears a tube top, upgraded to an upper cleavage cut out, whatever perv. He was wrong for that, that was a deliberate choice made again and again until it was retconned in live action. The dedication to the white male gaze and sexualization/adultification of indigenous and Black girls is sickening and prevalent in US media.

The Jedi Order was responsible for aiding the colonization of thousands of worlds on behalf of the Republic.

The Jedi Order is based on a barely-not-a-Boomer cishet white man's perception of a bunch of religions/spiritualities and then applied to fantasy space cops, colonizer mentality is oozing out of the cracks.

People who get really mad about the criticism of the Jedi are usually White and men.

These are only "hot takes" because Star Wars is catered to White Supremacy and those who uphold it.

---

Some people have a BIG issue when I talk about Star Wars and colonizers/aiding colonization. So here you go straight from your Lord Lucas's mouth:

“I have a strong feeling about interesting kids in space exploration. I want them to want it. I want them to get beyond the basic stupidities of the moment and think about colonizing Venus and Mars. And the only way it's going to happen is to have some dumb kid fantasize about it — to get his ray gun, jump in his ship and run off with this wookie into outer space. It's our only hope in a way."

Got an issue? Block me, and be gone. This wasn't for you.