#also Barriss mentioned Ahsoka right?

[podsn]

Okay holy shit Tales of The Empire gave me everything I wanted out of Barriss. She is exactly what i expected her to be.

Joined the Empire in an attempt to survive, even showed violence to survive, never believing in their true cause, becoming disillusioned with the ways of the Empire and fleeing from them, becoming a healer in the mountains who also rescues force sensitive children and saves them from both the fate of the Jedi and Empire.

I was worried but Star Wars did really good with her character and if this is the last we see of her then it’s a very good send off.

[just-prime]

Tales of Squandered Potential

Oh hello again everyone who follows me for my Star Wars ranting!

So! Tales of the Empire. The Hat Man is at it again.

Episodes 1-3 : The Path of Boredom

As expected, all of the Morgan stuff was not my thing. She was boring in Ahsoka, she was boring here. The entirety of the three episodes just hammered home "this lady is angry" in a way that felt overdone because there is no arc. There's no growth, no interest, no nothing. It all just feels like Filoni trying to retroactively make his one dimensional character that gets killed off in the stupidest way possible feel super badass. However because we know that she gets killed in the stupidest way possible, everything falls flat and none of it feels earned. It also doesn't actually answer any of the many many questions that Ahsoka raised about her. She's just there, standing in front of a fire. That's all she does.

Thrawn is there for all of about two seconds, and every moment of it is painful, because here's the thing. WE KNOW WHAT THRAWN WAS UP TO AT THIS TIME!!! We have the book that explains all of Thrawn's many exploits as an admiral. This is only more evidence for the idea that Filoni has never actually picked up any of the canon Thrawn books. Which we kinda already knew, but this is all but confirmation. As I've previously said, and will continue saying, Filoni needs to contextualize Thrawn as a 100% big bad otherwise his Heir to the Empire fanfilm won't actually feel earned, so he is systematically destroying any and all nuance that Thrawn has had to make sure that new viewers only ever see him as an unredeemable evil.

And I know that there are a lot of you out there who are holding out for the possibility that this is all a misdirect by Thrawn! That this is all part of his grand plan to go back and help the Ascendency, and that he's lying to everyone about his intentions. But the sad truth is that Filoni doesn't give a rats ass about anything other than cartoonishly evil Thrawn which means we're never getting Eli, or Karyn, or Hammerly or any of the characters from the six fantastic canon books that Timothy Zahn so lovingly created. That was made very clear with Filoni's prioritization of Admiral Pellaeon, who for those who don't know is actually in the new canon Thrawn books too! He wasn't just left behind in Legends, Zahn brought him back into canon too! But again, being the Legends fanboy that he is, Filoni doesn't care about where Pellaeon should be canonically, so instead he's just shoehorned into the episode for no other reason then Filoni likes him.

Episodes 4-6 : The Barriss Content

Soooooo, why didn't Barriss get a full fucking season to herself??? I get the idea behind the 15 minute episodes, but it really makes it hard to tell any sort of cohesive story. It works far better as a snapshot of a couple of days in someone's life. So unfortunately, while I did enjoy them, Barriss's episodes felt really rushed and I found it really hard to tell when things took place. How long was she at the Inquisitor training center? Was it a day? Was it a month? Really would have been interested in actually seeing the inner workings but it all has to get brushed over in favor of her becoming an Inquisitor. A seemingly intentionally not named Inquisitor which makes me feel like they've run out of early Inquisitor names. Unless there's a trial period before you get a proper number? I don't know it was just one of those things that niggled at me. Another thing that niggled at me (which was also mentioned by the wonderful artist @stealingpotatoes, go give her art some love) is that her design is kinda boring as fuck? Like, you have Birdy-Mc-Skullface right there with such a neat design and yet all Barriss gets is a motorcycle helmet with very slight voice modulation.

But I digress. The fact that Barriss commits herself to the Inquisitorium via a ritualized fight to the death, and then goes "wait, the red light saber wielding, all black wearing, Darth Vader serving inquisitors aren't here to help people?" before immediately bailing is so funny to me. This girl cannot for the life of her commit herself to an organization without becoming disillusioned within 1-3 business days.

I'm not sure how I feel about it all being about Lyn? I was very much rooting for her to totally die in the ice shafts instead of what felt like a very last minute redemption arc?

Though speaking of the last episode...HOLY SHIT OLD BARRISS IS FUCKING HOT. *coughs* Excuse me. Anyway. I would have loved to see more of what happened in between eps 5 and 6. Seeing how she and the jedi kid escaped the planet, and where the two of them did after than in the very hostile Empire would have been a facinating story watch play out. Also, who is this female friend that Barriss is referring to when she sends the child away? Is it Ahsoka??? If it is...WHY WOULD YOU NOT SHOW US THAT REUNION??? Like I get the whole point of this is to set up Barriss to make the jump to live action like every single other Filoni character is curseddestined to do, but also you've had people waiting years to find out what happened to Barriss and it feels like they burned their biggest story possibility on a throwaway reference. Did she find Ahsoka? Did Ahsoka find her? When did they find each other? Was it pre-Rebellion? Was it after Ahsoka was already functioning as Fulcrum? Given that we now know the Fulcrum name originated from Anakin, did Barriss recognize the name and seek this mystery person out? I don't know it just feels again like more wasted potential.

Final Thoughts

Fuck this animation is good now! Can we get a new writer?

Like, even for the shit I was annoyed by, the entire show just looks fabulous. It makes me really really wish that ANYONE other than Filoni could make content in this style. Let the writers of Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor do a Merrin episode or a baby Cal episode. Or the people doing The Acolyte, let them do Tales of the High Republic! Let anyone other than Filoni have a chance to create within the world of Star Wars animated content.

[bluedeedeedoop]

My Thoughts on Tales of the Empire; mostly Barriss (spoilers ahead!)

Ah hello all, i have had some days or so to think since watching the show and to say it has completely wiped me of my life force would be... pretty accurate tbh. BUT I HAVE FINALLY DECIDED TO POST MY THOUGHTS. will this cover my entire though process that im sTill working through? PROBABLY NOT! my thoughts are very unorganized and very unstable! ANYWAAAAYS.

Now I just gotta say overall, the show itself definitely passed the test. To be completely honest, i wasn't really paying attention to the Morgan parts as i was the Barriss parts, since it was literally what I was looking forward to this entire time.

Though I will say that the first Morgan episode was pretty neat! it was crazy seeing that perspective of the Nightsisters again and god did they make Grievous fucking terrifying. Honestly, bravo to them, it was amazing. I diiiiid end up just.. kinda spacing out the rest of it tho unfortunately cuz i just wanted to see barriss..

Visuals 10000/10. stunning, amazing, phenomenal, gahdamn. the animation was so smooth and fluid and uGHH it was amazing throughout the entire show. Acting amazing as always. BUT GOD I CANT GET OVER HOW AMAZING THE ANIMATION WAS.

NOW.

In my opinion, they got her character pretty on the dot. I am SO glad they did. I was rlly rlly worried they were totally butcher her character and make her unrecognizable to all of us but oml they didn't completely disappoint us, she has her morals, SHES STILL A HEALER! Im so happy from that.

Now although i did enjoy it, i do have my own little complaints.

Now okay one i noticed since the trailer and has REALLY been bugging me; where are her hand tattoos??? idk i guess i just wasn't expecting them to just be gone?? they couldn't have just forgotten them.. right? I dunno, but unless someone has a genuine answer for that, imma just keep drawing them on her in the future.

??????

Alright another thing i've been seeing ppl post about is how come she looked so old at the end? I am also confused on that and i've seen multiple theories. She should only be like 30-35 max right?? Because i'm assuming the last episode took place a the time in Rebels where the inquisitors were after the force sensitive children, and Ahsoka was around that age a the time, so why is Barriss any different?

I suppose the one i think makes the most sense is the force healing? I guess it could take a toll on her over the years causing her to look more aged, but still, i'd really prefer an explanation. Also what happened to her hair coverings?? Is that not her culture?? I dunno, again, i really need an explanation. I suppose that maybe her perspective has changed since trying to come to terms with her new life, and her ditching the coverings is a way to free herself from her past? Honestly i have no clue but i just need a lot of things answered.

That's mostly my complaints on it! I just felt things weren't explained enough but to be fair, they only gave her like 3 15-ish min episodes?? I really think they got some explaining to do. Which brings me to my next points.

I'm like... 98% sure that the "old friend" is Ahsoka that she was talking about. Who else would it be?? Like cmon. And if it is Ahsoka, why did we not get to see anything about the moment of confrontation? or at least more of a mention? I guess they wouldn't rlly wanna rush that scene, and tbh, im glad they didn't. It's not some "we talk for 5 min and everything is fine" type of situation. it'll take time. time to rebuild that trust. time to discuss. YEAH. I've heard many people state how it would be more likely and realistic to see a novelization of that and i agree. I would want it to take time, showing the build of the relationship over time, going on further into the story as we watch their strong bond mend from the trauma it's faced. I'm not saying this as a crazed Barrissoka shipper, i mean it that I would genuinely want to see how that confrontation is handled, as do many others and not just as a ship!! It's been a decade! the fans wanna know!

And my last point.

I.believe.Barriss.is.alive.

The more i rewatch it, the more i believe it. the first time around i had my doubts, but something tells me they are NOT done with her character. At least before the stabbing scene anyway. There's too much stuff that's left unanswered for it to just end that way! I dunno man, but Lyn's "i'm going to get you out of here" sounded way too determined for a "im going to move your body out of here" type of thing yk? maybe she could sense she was still alive, just barely hanging in there? I don't think they are done with Barriss Offee, and I wont think so unless we see her corpse being fucking BURIED. Not to mention the UNGODLY amount of parallels of that scene along with them exiting the cave. I've already seen so many point it out. Post-Vader and Ahsoka fight on Malachor?? Back when we all thought Ahsoka may or may not be dead?? sounds familiar hello?? Also a parallel from earlier in the show itself when Barriss saves that unnamed jedi! she HEALS them when they were going to be left there. Something tells me the same fate may happen to Barriss. Idk call me crazy but i will say it again, i don't think they are done with her story.

Thank you for reading my very unorganized thoughts! this has taken me longer to write than expected because i did not predict this to make me have to step away from making SEVERAL times- but yeah! lmk what yall think! and yes you can be expecting some art here and there! i know i've been slacking- Also lmk if u want me to post my crazed Barrissoka thoughts! because aHa i have them. i have them a lot. send help.

ALSO KEVIN KINER I GOT MY EYE ON YOU. BRO NEEDS TO RELEASE THE SOUNDTRACK BEFORE I DIE.

[awesomestarfighter]

Whump Isn't Satisfying When It's Not Followed Up On

Another clickbaitey title again, I'm nothing if not consistent.

But I got incensed enough to make another post, so here I am again.

I love the Jedi, and like many fans, one Obi-Wan Kenobi is a huge favorite of mine.

I also love whump. It's one of my favorite subjects to search for in fic.

I do not like how Obi-Wan is whumped in The Clone Wars.

The setup is there, as we see the many, many ways one Obi-Wan Kenobi is whumped in TCW.

. . . But that's it.

That's all the show does to him. It beats him up till he's battered and bruised, and then it just leaves him in the dust.

At the very least it was mentioned he was dunked in the bacta after Landing at Point Rain, but the other examples?

Zilch.

And I know it's an action show, so it doesn't really have time for the much less exciting aftermath.

That would hold up a lot better if we didn't see other characters getting medical attention.

Ahsoka and Barriss, after the worms? Medical bay.

Anakin, after the explosion he held back with his mind and severely injured him? Getting him medical attention is literally the entire drive of the episode, and by the next episode he's still pretty battered.

Mace and Anakin, after they're both pinned under several tons of debris? Medical bay again.

Padme, Ahsoka, Rex, and his brother, infected by a deadly disease? Wheeled away on stretchers because they can't just walk that off.

There might be more examples I'm forgetting, but the point is that when the show goes out of the way to show injured characters getting medical attention, you can't spare a second of thought for Obi-Wan (remember when he's just standing there after Kadavo all bruised and battered? I sure do) then that is a problem.

Specifically, it's a huge problem of Filoni's.

It's not really a secret that he doesn't like Obi-Wan after all. Cody was the only named clone in the movies after all, but we got so little of their relationship in the show. Hell, we got more moments between Obi-Wan and Rex then we ever got between Obi-Wan and Cody.

Even more tellingly, Filoni's an Anakin stan, so of course he doesn't like Obi-Wan. He beats him up and never treats his injuries, he's never mentioned in moments when he theoretically should be (especially Umbara, when he's literally the only other Jedi present on the planet besides Krell) and of course then we have s7, where characters badmouth him and the narrative lets them be right because it's written by Filoni.

I'll always be grateful for the fanfic writers who take the time to write the aftermath of Obi-Wan getting beat up all the time.

When whump is written into something, I want it to be written right.

[antianakin]

You know what annoys me? Like every former Jedi that gets shown bashes the Order. Show me a former Jedi who left not because of some BS ‘Jedi are wrong’ reason. Have some who left because they acknowledged that they weren’t fit for it or because they fell in love and understood they couldn’t be fully dedicated to both their spouse and the Order. Show me former Jedi who are still fond of other Jedi and the Order.

Yeah I feel like there's maybe been one or two in comics or something? I feel like I remember seeing panels where someone was discussing their grandmother who had once been a Jedi and left because she wanted to start a family, but there was never any animosity or hard feelings or anything like that.

I feel like the reason we don't see it very often is because, like I've been mentioning in my post about Pong Krell recently, former Jedi often end up being FALLEN Jedi who are always then utilized to showcase the theme of selfishness and greed. The Jedi are a symbol of selflessness and compassion within the narrative, so it can sometimes I think be difficult to write a character who has left that behind and NOT have them sort-of... becoming a symbol of the opposite. It places the characters in this strange limbo where they AREN'T part of that symbol of selflessness and compassion anymore, but they aren't a symbol of the opposite either, so what is the point of this character within the overall narrative? We see the problem this causes with any story involving Ahsoka these days.

There seem to be three places where we see these characters go.

First is the fallen Jedi route, obviously. They've left the Order and since gone down a path of darkness. This is where characters like Anakin, Dooku, Barriss, Pong Krell, and all of the Inquisitors end up. Pretty obvious storyline.

The second is where the character leaves the Jedi for any reason and then ultimately has to find their way BACK to being a Jedi as part of their journey. They probably never were fully fallen or anything, but they do lose some part of themselves when they lose their identity as a Jedi and regaining that identity allows them to grow into a healthier, more compassionate and selfless person. This is where characters like Kanan, Cal Kestis, Cere Junda, and Obi-Wan Kenobi end up.

The third is the Jedi critical route and the only one I know of who is on this particular journey is Ahsoka, but I'm assuming that The Acolyte might end up with at least one of their characters in this category. This is where the characters leave the Jedi Order and they don't explicitly end up FALLEN, but they're not at all on a route BACK to being a Jedi either. Or, if they are, it's explicitly NOT a Jedi like they were before and this is what makes them BETTER than the other Jedi.

The point is that there's usually a JOURNEY that is involved in characters who have left the Order or lost their identity as a Jedi in some way. Characters who have left the Order but bear no animosity towards the Jedi and are still fond of them have less room to grow in terms of their identity. You could presumably do a story of a Jedi that ENDS in them leaving the Order. We kinda sorta got that with the Grogu storyline in TBOBF where he attempts to go back to training with Luke and ultimately decides it's not the path for him anymore. It was arguably done for the wrong reasons and this storyline was rushed because it was put into the wrong show, but the concept behind it is actually quite similar to what you seem to be looking for. And it gave me some more complex feelings about that storyline because you're not wrong that it's not a BAD thing to see a story where a Jedi character leaves the Jedi simply because they've decided it's no longer the right path for them and not due to anything negative. This particular version of it might not be the greatest example of this story ever done, but I didn't hate it, either. I appreciated the novelty of it and the overall way it was handled even if I also had some issues with its placement and the motivation behind it.

So it's not like it CAN'T be done, but I think it just feels less compelling to most people because of what the Jedi tend to symbolize within Star Wars. It'd be interesting to see more people attempt to tackle this story for other characters, but I'm also cognizant that there's a LOT of bad Jedi content out there right now and they keep killing off the Jedi or having characters be Jedi critical and all of that, so having more stories of Jedi who LEAVE the Order isn't perhaps what we need more of. I want more stories of Jedi who are happy to be Jedi first, THEN we can look at stories about Jedi who leave the Order amicably.

[gffa]

Hi! While you'll get some conflicting stuff in Legends (I think I remember a brief mention of it in The Approaching Storm which made me roll my eyes because it was Luminara thinking it and Luminara was wearing her own outfit with her own accessories already, in contrast you also have things like Obi-Wan’s river rock from Jedi Apprentice, which is a possession, so it was entirely dependent on which author you were reading) so it’s not totally coming out of nowhere, but it’s one of those things where it’s a random author from deep supplementary material because they just assume the Jedi can’t have possessions, but higher canon contradicts it. We see a handful of rooms in the Jedi Temple and they do tend to skew towards simple in decor (but you also have to consider that animation is HELLA expensive for something that’s only going to be used once, that’s why characters stay in the same clothes in animation so much of the time, because it costs a lot of money to design an outfit that can move around the way they need) but we can see Jedi possessions are not forbidden: - Anakin’s room is chock full of stuff:

Barriss has her prayer statue that’s unique to her:

Depa went all out in her room:

Yoda has candles in his room as well:

There’s a few quotes from Disney canon that says even Initiates have possessions:      “But this morning, [Qui-Gon had] had to pack his few possessions in a small bundle and leave the crèche where he’d lived as long as he could remember.“ [Master and Apprentice]     “So instead Obi-Wan trudged to his room. It was small and austere, but a shelf above his bed held a few treasures he had gathered. A rock from Ilum. A flower Siri had once tucked behind his ear as a joke. A shell Prie had given him that was probably from an unspeakably terrifying creature she adored. The spoon from their initiate days that Bolla had for some reason decided was his favorite, so they all made a game of stealing it. Obi-Wan had won, he supposed, since they were no longer younglings.”  [Padawan]     “Qui-Gon sat on the simple gray cushion he kept in place of more elaborate seating. He had never added furniture for hosting guests. Obi-Wan always felt like he was somehow intruding, like there really was no place for him in Qui-Gon’s life. He knew Siri’s master had a table for two in her living quarters where they took most meals together, and Prie’s had insisted on a Padawan room right next to his own so they could have easier access to each other when studying together.” [Padawan] (I don’t have the direct quote on hand, but in The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark, Katooni also has a poster of Ahsoka on her wall that she hung up.) Overall, I look at it this way, there are three things that are going into what we see with the Jedi: - Every single frame of animation costs money to make and TCW was not rich at the time it was made, so rooms are designed simply because it was cheaper - The Jedi have a touch of ascetism going on because they’re not super big into worldly possessions and they’re Buddhist monks - I think it works really well as a theme--most Jedi just don’t need stuff, they’re content as they are.  If they want some stuff, they’re perfectly fine to have it, not once does anyone give Anakin a bad time about all the stuff in his room, he openly displays it, it’s fine.  But as a theme, Anakin’s a character who clings onto things, who has trouble letting go, who wants to be surrounded by tangible things, rather than living in harmony with the transient nature of life. Jedi seem to naturally lean towards not having a lot of possessions, they just don’t seem to need them, but they are emphatically NOT forbidden from having them!  There’s nothing in canon that I’ve ever come across that says they’re frowned upon, either. It goes hand in hand with how Jedi are often seen wearing outfits from their birth cultures, like Shaak and Ahsoka with their headddresses, Luminara and Barriss with their head coverings and tattooss, things that are just theirs. So, you’ll see it come up in fic a lot and it’s not like it came out of nowhere, but primary canon does say, yeah, Jedi can have possessions, but they don’t really seem to want or need to have very many of them.

[thefastestelementalmasteralive]

procrastinating school work so let me talk about my starwars (Anakin) aus

There's that lion!Vader Au, if I named it I don't remember the name but basically, either Anakin doesn't tell Padme where he's going or she doesn't go to Mustafar. might actually have R2D2 with Padme as her bodyguard or Anakin just didn't want r2 to know what he did to the separatist leaders. anakin doesn't come back from Mustafar because when he leaves the planet, the force decides 'okay, enough atrocities for the next... two decades.' and transforms him into a lion and sends him to a green planet. Sidious finds him a year later and decides to just build a gladiator ring and throw him in there to execute the people he wants dead on television.

19 years later Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Padme, Cody, and Rex all get captured and are sentenced to be executed as a group with some other non-important people. Anakin eats the non-important people and vaguely recognizes some but tries to kill Luke and Leia because he doesn't recognize them.

SITS au - sith in the senate au - me trying to explore my favorite arc (mortis) and what would have happened if Anakin left with the son (and the daughter) and the father let Ahsoka and Obi-wan go thirty minutes later but Anakin is nowhere in sight when they go back to the real world. this is also the au where the Tusken massacre is really addressed in this au, in others it didn't happen, obviously in lion!vader it did since it only changes in rots. i don't know if it's really a character study that I'm doing for this au but I'm actually writing an essay on Anakin for my writing class and I'm so using elements from this for that and from that for this.

(please- someone stop me from making Barriss run away from the Jedi and Anakin adopting Barriss after she ends up on Tatooine and Anakin gets over his initial feeling of 'YOU D:<')

14!au. i have no other name for it as of right now.

anakin gets found by Palpatine and Shmi dies (i think) but surely its not you Pal Friendpatine's fault :0

Anyway, Palpatine finds Anakin at like... 5 and adopts him and brings him on his path to becoming chancellor and then the clone wars start at the Naboo blockade, Palpatine started cloning **early**. no, I have no idea how old Jango Fett is, why do you ask? anakin befriends some of the clones and takes an interest in politics because he thinks he can convince then senate to stop creating clones and just recruit normal civilians to the army.

this au is inspired by Hazbin Hotel song 'you didn't know' and some brave group of clones tries to plead their case to the senate, ankin watches in on it, nala se mentions the chips in the kaminoan rebuttal of clone rights and Anakin FREAKS. palpatine tries to calm him saying 'they are to control them, they're dangerous otherwise' and basically dooms himself. also, Anakin specifically has wings. see, I subscribe to the thinking of 'Anakin can shapeshift due to his unstable DNA' Edit: I Found it! @thewildballyntynesgrow or mballyntyne on Ao3 with their series 'A Wild Thing to Tame'. Anakin leaves taking a majority of the coruscant guard with him and goes back to Tatooine and starts freeing a whole bunch of planets over the years. the meeting in the senate takes place when he is fourteen, the empire starts when he is seventeen. Anakin adopts Boba and Galen Marek. anakin and the freed outer rim either hide rebel bases or use their revolutions as distractions for the empire.

Retconned rebel Anakin Au. aka, Barriss is the same age as Anakin and befriends him and Ferus eventually befriends him, and Anakin is closer to those two and some others than Obi-wan and Ahsoka (who is Obi-wan's padawan) Barriss never bombs the temple, the empire rises but the original empire dies like a year into the reign and another emperor rises.... Emperor Obi-wan Kenobi and his daughter Ahsoka how are both overly attached to rebel leader Anakin Skywalker and are both trying to adopt him and turn him to their side... by kidnapping Anakin's family. (rexanidala). anakin adopts so many kids, most of them are force-sensitive and want to fight so he lets them reluctantly but those not young enough to choose or fight are sent to live with Rex, Padme, Luke, Leia, and their grandparents; Dooku and Plo.

Ventress and Anakin Swap au, sort of. anakin got nabbed from his mom by Dooku. Dooku never found Ventress, Obi-wan does instead. Obi does not train Ventress but they are friends forever after. ventress tries forcefully redeeming the seventeen-eighteen year old Sith lord and it only sort of works. he defects but really only after he finds out about the slavery in creating battle droids. Anakin isn't really a separatist general, he just has a specialized group of droids that he rebuilds after fights with Jedi. he never fights clones with droids.

after defecting Anakin plans with Ventress and decides to free the outer rim then take the former slaves that will join him and start up a third party to the war. inspired by 'blood oath' by the art of pleasing princes.

okay so for this next au, named Anakin Umakkar, The rain storm. sources are ADragonsFriend and @fialleril or fialleril on a03, and @clawedandcute or ClawedandCute (Adi_Fire) on a03. and songs this au is inspired by for this au is (and in order) Puppeteer, Done For, Hell is Forever, There are Other Ways, What Did I Miss? and Respectless.

Umakkar was a name I first read about in a book called 'Elder sisters' by ADragonsFriend. I first heard about Ekkreth in Fialleril's books. the concept of Anakin staying on Tatooine was inspired by ClawedandCute's book and au 'The Accidental Sith'

Anyway, Qui-gon and the queen's ship never stops on Tatooine, but the clone wars do not start early. a solid two months into the Clone Wars, it is revealed that Jabba the Hutt has been dead for a year, and Tatooine has freed itself from the huts. Senator Padme Amidala and Jedi Obi-wan Kenobi (and Padawan Ahsoka Tano) are sent to Tatooine to try to get Tatooine to align with the republic. now please listen to Puppeteer and Done For (no, Anakin does not turn any clones into pigs, just like any non-clone serving in the army ). once Obi-wan draws his lightsaber on Anakin, Anakin just swipes it away, unhurt, and has him and other... three (Cody, Padme, and Ahsoka)locked up until he decided to hear them out. (cue hell is forever, the last lines being, "the freed outer rim has found both the separatists and the republic to be the enemy" ya know due to their armies) then when it looks like Anakin is gonna do something to them to send a message to the republic, Obi-wan pleads with him and mentions the Sith Dooku mentioned and any evil smile on Anakin's face slips away into annoyance "Sidious, huh?" and in 'There are other ways' fashion tells obi-wan about Mortis and other wells in the force that might be better for the Jedi to focus at. when asked why he had that reaction to the 'Sidious' character, he implies that Sidious has reached out to him to join either side of the war, like once per side.

he sends Obi-Wan and the Clones that want to return on their way and a year later decides that enough is enough and heads to Coruscant under the pretense of negotiating. palpatine sets up a committee to welcome Tatooine to the republic only for 'respectless' to happen and Anakin starts arguing with Orn Free Taa, then Palpatine himself and once Palpatine leaves, turns to the Jedi in the room and says "yeah, you might want to look into that..." and leaves.

Detached Mortis god au: inspired by the ocean saga

switching up the timeline here, Rako Hardeen happens, the Wrong Jedi arc happens, *Then* mortis happens. Anakin is alone on Mortis, he decides to stay, Padme is pregnant, the empire rises, Padme survives and joins the rebellion, Ahsoka becomes Fulcrum. Obi-wan joins the rebellion to help train Luke and Leia. Luke, Leia, Han, Ezra and some others start on a mission, but it starts off rough. Ezra decides to pray to a Force Diety he or Ahsoka met once and the diety appears and decides to grant them safe passage to the actual start of the mission as long as they keep Ahsoka, who they meet up with later on the mission, safe. if they accept and fail, another god is going to have a really big problem with them. they accept and all goes well until the last day of the mission, everything falls apart and Ahsoka is separated from the group and captured. the gang decides they need to go back to base to think and plan. on their way back their ship is seemingly attacked but they cant tell by what, they crash land at base and get out of the ship, not the falcon, only to meet two dragon-like-creatures, and a portal opens and a very pissed Anakin steps out. he kidnaps a bunch of rebels and puts them in the world between worlds and tells them they only get their people back when Ahsoka is safe. Obi-Wan and Padme only make it to the hangar this goes down once Anakin has stepped back through the portal.

[twinsunstars]

Let’s Review the Tales of the Empire Trailer.

This really dropped out of nowhere on a Thursday (at least where I live), and I am super excited for it. Let's review the content we will be getting on May the 4th!

Also, sorry if I miss any details, I'm writing this based off what I see and know! Feel free to mention anything in the comments! All screenshots taken by me!

The trailer opens with Morgan Elsbeth, which I am very glad that more of her story will be told. She is shown with Thrawn, and he looks so good in Clone Wars animation. I'm excited to hear more about how Morgan knows Thrawn and what she went through before the events of that episode from The Mandalorian. She was a Nightsister, and it will be interesting to hear what she went through when she lived on Dathomir.

We get to see Barriss Offee so long after those episodes in The Clone Wars when she admitted to setting a bomb in the Jedi Temple, and long after Order 66, she is still imprisoned. Barriss is taken out of her prison quarters and taken to become an Inquisitor, and this will be so exciting to see.

Morgan is seen behind a large wildfire, and she is in the same outfit she was in during The Mandalorian. I think this is going to be one of the scenes when she takes over that town, which is crazy since we see this whole fire in the back and who knows what else she did to get the town under her rule.

Barriss is taken under the Grand Inquisitor's wing, and it is exciting to see this character in Clone Wars animation. The Grand Inquisitor trains Barriss, and towards the end of the trailer, she faces another opponent to prove her strength.

The town from The Mandalorian is shown with the guy who ran the town before (I'm sorry, I cannot remember names right now and I need to look up the name of the town lol), and there is a character that hasn't really been seen before. They confront Morgan, and this'll be a good confrontation to see.

In The Clone Wars, Grievous had attacked Dathomir on Count Dooku's orders, killing almost all of the Nightsisters. Morgan fought hard against Grievous, and we also see her with those Nightsister tattoos on her, which is an interesting detail since she doesn't have those anymore. Seeing Grievous again after so long is really exciting too.

The moment that sent chills down my body. Barriss becomes an Inquisitor, and she stands with others, bowing to her new master. Darth Vader enters, and Barriss has no idea that her new master is the former Anakin Skywalker who had made her confess to her crime. Though, the Anakin inside him will recognize her.

I am very excited for this series and getting a chance to view more of these two characters. Morgan's character was someone I really wanted to know more about, and I did get upset when she died in Ahsoka, as I feared that we might not get to know more about her. Barriss's return is one to look forward to, as we get to see what happens with her during the era of the Empire. May 4th is going to be a blast.

Tales of the Empire releases on Disney+ on May 4th, 2024.

[stellanslashgeode]

Okay so ya'll said you like hearing about wips so I'll talk about Let's Call it Love because it's consuming me right now.

I've been trying to abstract my favorite characters for a while now, trying to figure out what is essentially them. My Sundari stories are just a little conon divergence, what would Barriss be like if she left the war early. What would she do to find a new purpose. Then I wanted to write a pulp fantasy romance with Dusk of a Golden Age which is still set in the Star Wars universe but in the past and on world never contacted by the Republic and explore what Ahsoka would be like without her collogues, her mentors, her lightsabers. But she's still a Jedi.

And now I really wanted to write a modern-day AU and an all human AU. See what they'd be like in the real world. I am really drawn to romance stories about people in their mid-twenties. So, it's not like a first love or even the third. I just think it's a really vital very raw time of your life when you're out of school and trying to sort your life out, figure out what you want to do long-term.

I mentioned before I have started reading some romance novels to step up my game and yeah that's really been inspirational. The author I found tends to write about white main characters and one of them comes from wealth and Ahsoka and Barriss ain't white so that's different. I also don't want to read about rich people in love. I understand especially in this day and age some wish fulfillment is nice but I just can't. Besides, it's easy drama when one of your characters is broke and struggling. So that's Ahsoka's character arc, she fucked around and is finding out, had to move back in with relatives in shame and has to start over again. With Barriss I feel her best stories involve anxiety and dealing with trauma but in this case it is unhealthy past relationships. It's getting to trust yourself and being willing to be vulnerable again. Which I can relate to very well. There's no Clone War of course but there's still a Global War on Terrorism because I wanted to invoke this very specific 2005 feeling, this dread that was always in the air but at that point was beginning to get stale (but it still hung around). And I'm homesick so I wanted to set it in a town I really love.

It's weird planning things out because I'm having to come up with drama that is really mundane and not science fiction at all but I am excited to work on this!

[ylojgtr]

ive just been thinking about it so here are my initial thoughts

fucking marrok man. like wtf. i was legitimately excited for this guy, even though he kinda seemed like a one-note character, i was so excited to see what being an inquisitor was like after the empire was defeated, like it's almost a reversal of order 66 and now the hunters become the hunted. and if filoni has proven one thing, it's that making one-note characters more complex is kind of his specialty. but i GUESS NOT

the ahsoka-baylan duel...it was just not enjoyable for me. my interpretation is that they were trying for something similar to what obi-wan and maul did on tatooine in rebels, where they used lightsaber stances as non-verbal communication. in rebels it was obi-wan assuming his prequels/cw pose, then his original trilogy pose, then the pose that qui-gon used when maul killed him. maul thought he could use the same attack he did when he killed qui-gon, and his immediate defeat shows how obi-wan has thought about that day for years and years, and how he's always learning from his past, whereas maul only thinks about his past as a source of anger and motivation for revenge. in ahsoka they might have been using the stances to sort of gauge each other's knowledge of the jedi traditions, and i appreciate the different uses of this heavy reliance on star wars lore, but the payoff doesn't seem so satisfying. ahsoka dismisses talking about her past (and tbf, why wouldnt she, like this guy is trying to start another galaxy wide war) so we don't really get anything out of it all *SO FAR* i really hope the relationship between her and baylan evolves and this lightsaber thing becomes more important, but on the surface right now it just felt like another sorta boring lightsaber fight. but i would absolutely love to hear other people's thoughts on this and ill probably edit this once more people have seen it and posted about it

also where's zeb. we saw him in the mandalorian, we know he's there. where are you hiding him. we know he knows paul sun-hyung lee (i forgot his characters name). he would absolutely have come with hera. also morai

im usually a pretty conservative shipper, like i don't really care about ships (as long as they're ethical lmao) i just don't really engage with that part of fandom. i could get behind luke and ezra being together, there's some cool sun and moon imagery there and they sort of have contrasting stories, as @hashtagloveloses said once. zeb and kallus i don't mind either. but barrissoka is my everything. it is the one ship that i want to see SOOO BADLY FUCCCKK PLEASE DAVE YOU SAID YOU HAVE PLANS FOR BARRISS LIKE TEN YEARS AGO PLEASEE

but yeah shin and sabine would be pretty cool too, there's definitely a lot of tension there and even though we don't know much about her (i really want to learn more) it would be cool to see shin have someone truly care about her, not be her boss or anything, and have sabine learn to lean more into honesty expressing her affection, since she's always been really stoic and i think shin would need that sincerity in a relationship

and i already mentioned anakin in another post but fuck im so happy to see hayden chritsensen again man. even if his story is lackluster (which oh my god i hope it's not) im so happy to see him again ❤️

i also really hope anakin brings up some character development/exploration for ahsoka cause like. what has she been doing. this is probably the biggest problem i have with this show so far, or at least second biggest lmao. i like that they're taking time to explore different characters and relationships in the universe, but i really want to see ahsoka get more time to shine. when put in a leadership position, she's always been a little more serious (character development from that one time she led a while squad to their deaths cause she was careless), like when she was with the younglings when they got their kyber crystals, but that doesn't mean she's invincible/unfeeling. she has lots of feelings about anakin and obi-wan and ezra and sabine, and i really want to see them!! when she said it's better to destroy the map and lose ezra than let thrawn return and start a war, i want to see her struggle with that like sabine does because she misses ezra too! i get that she didn't want to talk about anakin with baylan but let her talk about him with someone else! hopefully her world between worlds experience will help with that. some of the most solid development we've seen with her so far is being upset by how much she's let people down, ie anakin, sabine. and baylan tries to play into that to make her feel bad. i feel like that certainly will be explored more but fuck. it's about time.

i also want to see her relationship with the jedi more fully explored. i had always assumed that, while she was deeply affected by order 66, she didn't regret her decision to leave the jedi order. i thought that barriss had shown her some of the problems with it, and that her supporting the siege of mandalore showed that she was able to pursue what she thought was important, not the jedi order who were being heavily controlled by the senate and the politics of the time. but she seems to feel guilty about the fact that she's not a jedi? that she somehow let them down by not confirming to a system she no longer believed in? idk if i just made that up in my head cause i like to think of it that way and that my hradcanon is interfering with my enjoyment of this show lmao, someone please tell me if it is

another big problem i have with the show so far is how much it relies on the audience being invested in these stories to supply dramatic weight. and i don't mean in the way that it doesn't explain who sabine, ahsoka, hera, jacen, etc. are, this is obviously a show specifically for cw and rebels fans and im all the way here for it. i mean theres very little substance here, it feels like mostly biding time until ezra and thrawn show up. like we're 4 episodes in and we've seen some relationship development for ahsoka and sabine, a bit of hinting at a backstory for baylan, and...a lot of good guy v bad guy race for the special map, which just isn't very enthralling cause we know someone's gonna get to thrawn and ezra, we all saw lars mikkelson in the trailer. what i really want to see developed is his response to him being seen as a sort of messiah that will bring the empire back. or why baylan is so certain thrawn will start another war, or still be loyal to the empire at all with their power, and therefore political value to the chiss, as well as palpatine, who was sort of keeping him in line, gone. i want something substantial out of these stories were invested in, not just fodder for "ooh who are we gonna see next?"

also how much you wanna bet that ahsoka uses the world between worlds to get to thrawn. like its lines and shit appear in the credits so it's probably important

but yeah that's about all im thinking about right now hopefully next episode is crazy, cause it sure is shaping up to be a doozy

[jedimasterbailey]

Hey, I just wanted to point out something I realized the other day.

So we all know Luminara's name pretty much means 'glowing', right? Well her last name is Unduli, which sounds and looks a lot like the word Unduly. The definition for 'unduly' is "to an unwarranted degree; inordinately."

Conclusion?

George Lucas literally named a Jedi "So, this lady is on the light side. Like really in the light. Like why the heck does she have so much light?"

Thought you would enjoy.

😍 so this is the greatest thing to wake up to ever!💚 I did enjoy that thoroughly and please send me more info on my favorite Mirialans if you come across more because I’m forever thirsty for it.

And now everyone gets to (once again) endure my long winded rant on how much I love this woman…sorry not sorry 😁

I always knew Luminara’s name was next level beautiful with the meaning but this new information just kicks it up an extra notch 🥰 It is truly surprising how George named the Mirialans such precious names (“Glowing Light” and “Peace”….I mean come on does it get any better than that?!) only for them to get absolutely crucified in the canon story for no reason.

The meaning of both of Luminara’s names are just so perfect for her because she truly lives up to them. She, like Obi-Wan, are so deeply rooted in the light that it’s intoxicating. In the few times we see her, Luminara deals with the hardships thrown her way with such grace. She’s always thinking of others before herself (going as far as being more than willing to sacrifice herself to zombie bugs on Geonosis and face Ventress away from Ahsoka for everyone’s safety). The dark side could not touch Luminara if it tried. She always chooses the light because even in Imperial custody (which as we’ve seen in comics and games like Fallen Order, that’s a life of constant torture and pain), she never broke. Luminara died a hero, standing by her morals and Jedi beliefs until the very end, again much like Obi-Wan did when Vader struck him down.

Also by the way other characters look at her/act around her (namely Barriss, Ahsoka, and Anakin), it’s clear her goodness is infectious. Even Kanan remembers Luminara in a very positive light and immediately felt she’d be the better teacher for Ezra. Like why would Kanan want that for Ezra if she was anything but a kind and loving person?

The woman must glow like a candle within the Force because it’s so apparent in her facial expressions and voice that Luminara just radiates with warmth. Just look how smiley and soft everyone is around her! 👇🏻

Like Barriss’s whole face just lights up when Luminara is addressing her. It’s a “Yes Master, I will not let you down” expression. Clearly she is proud to be at her shoulder because I see nothing but love, admiration, and respect in that girl’s eyes💚💙

Look how excited Ahsoka is hearing what Luminara has to say (even though it was Barriss that was mentioning her accomplishment). Ahsoka is happy to have received a compliment from her that she’s even looking back at Anakin with glee on her face. It’s such a “did you hear what she said about me Master? She approves what I did!” face on top her gratitude for Anakin’s faith in her. Their previous solo mission together showed how much Ahsoka held Luminara in a high regard (like her adversity to Luminara fighting Ventress alone and her constantly checking to see if she’s overstepped any boundaries). It is evident between Ahsoka’s behavior around Luminara that she cares deeply about what the Jedi Master thinks of her.

And then there’s Anakin. The hero with no fear, the most powerful Jedi Knight of his generation, possibly ever, looks and speaks to Luminara with admiration in his eye. He is almost always complimenting her and obviously trusted her to watch over her Padawan in the past. Anakin also feels comfortable to joke and smile around her. You don’t really see Anakin being soft like that around other Masters besides Obi-Wan.

Even the way she addresses the Clones and other beings like the little robot in “Cloak of Darkness” is just so lovely. Luminara has the biggest heart and a soft spot a mile wide and yet people still wanna believe she’s the exact opposite.

In conclusion, Luminara is indeed a very luminous being, the exact kind Yoda was referring to when explaining the Force to Luke years later. She’s as close to an Angel as you can get in the Star Wars universe (as are many of the other women in that universe). Plus she’s Barriss’s mother and need I say more? 🥰

Also side note, I don’t trust anyone that can’t appreciate how precious her face is like just look at her! They had no right to make her so breathtaking! 💚

(Notice how two of them are expressions makes towards Barriss? You know…the Padawan she does in fact love very much?)

Luminara stans, feel free to add on as we must continue to spread the Luminara love in this fandom that’s just straight up unfair.

[catfur-and-greenscales]

Latelty I have been thinking too much about rooms the Jedi have. And what they do mean. More like in level what they reveal from the characters. Apparently rooms for the Padawans aren't that nice. And Barriss Offee's room is super gloomy. Even it has a window the stills are completely closed. It gives an impression of person who is in balace of the choices they have made, but also person who has made their decision and is not going to change it. It also presents her cultural background.

Ahsoka's Room is even barer. Her only personal thing is a light saber. It is right next to her bed, showing that she's always ready to fight. Yet it also shows that she does not know other life than fighting and the war. Which is sad when thinking that nobody should be living such a life. And apparently Jedi does not use blankets. Except Anakin...

Oh boy.. Anakin. His room is so full of stuff! He's the only master with personal items and actually only Jedi with that much of stuff. It actually means that whatever the other Jedi are doing with their free time, Anakin is not doing it but rather staying in his room. Alone. All those crates also show that Anakin has secrets that he's not sharing with the others and he's sentimental since keeping things from his past. Especially from Tatooine, showing that he's emotionally attached to his past. (And welding without safety goggles. Man, Anakin, have you not heard about getting sparkles into your eyes? Apparently Obi-Wan is also done to reminding him not to do it without goggles since he just walks in and starts to chat like: 'sup!)

Yoda's room for instance is more like a communal space and we see many of characters mentioned in this post too to visit him there. He clearly tries to be open for his fellow Jedi. But...

Here is Obi-Wan's room. I want to turn your attention into windows. Obi-Wan is the only one whose window blinds are open. He's the only one watching the Coruscant and seeing how ordinary persons are living. In distance, of course. Even Anakin is standing there, next to his window, he's not watching out and Barriss has closed her blinds completely. This all is a sign of it how the Jedi has lost their touch of ordinary life and estranged themselves from the ordinary people. Also. View from Obi-Wan's room is magnificent!

[airlockfailure]

Axe and Ahsoka (and Anakin is here as well) Some Head-canons

My shift yesterday started in the pre-dawn hours so I got to see the total eclipse of the moon, but it also means I'm alone at work for a solid two hours before any of my co-workers arrive. We aren't allowed to have cell phones and the computers can't access music/radio sites so one's brain must keep oneself entertained.

So I'm thinking about clone pilot Axe, and how he's ten inches taller than the rest of the clones. How did he avoid decommission? He'd be so expensive for the Kaminoans, rigging gear in a larger size, customizing everything down to his nutritional intake, not to mention in the field he's a sizeable target compared to other clones.

I don't know how the droids' targeting AI works, but my HC is they're programmed to scan for life forms, and lock on heat signatures. This is partly why in my fics the cooling system in the clones' under armor is so important. Usually, larger people have a more body heat because it requires more energy to keep them alive. That makes Axe even more of a target.

So, my head canon is that this height discrepancy didn't make itself known until he was already trained. A mutation that didn't activate until his final growth spurt in the clone equivalent of his late teens.

This means, instead of adjusting for his specific needs, Axe is forced to go without those needs being met. He eats the same as the rest of them, and is therefore malnourished early on. He has to cram himself into a tiny cockpit made for people ten inches smaller than himself. His suit and armor don't work right to protect him from g-forces because he's bigger, his heart works harder, his blood travels farther. So my head canon is that Axe has much more wear and tear on his body than the rest of the pilots. His joints, his organs, especially his cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and I think his brain would suffer to an extent that he's likely using oxygen tanks made for normal clones, not giants. So he either runs out faster then the others, or is never getting enough air (either in his lungs or to pressurize his armor). *Don't question the space/atmospheric flight dynamics here, I don't actually care that much about the differences. Star Wars treats space too much like atmospheric flight for me to go the opposite direction. It's also more dramatic to treat space flight like atmospheric flight. SHHH I'm having fun, things don't need to be realistic. It's okay.

And all of that leads me to this: the person Axe relates to most among the 501st ends up being Ahsoka. She's too short for the ships. In my head canon the Jedi have to suit up for flight the same as the clones, because while a Master might be able to use the Force to correct blood flow and respirations, I don't think a Padawan could.

Of course, in my AU, Ahsoka is already a Jedi Knight (similar to Barriss Offee), working with Anakin until the 501st splits.

But she's too short for the ships, she has to stretch to reach the controls, she has to adjust to getting too much air, her suit not fitting her properly. (Because Sidious wants the Jedi to suffer damn it, the Republic already spent enough credits to make these things, they aren't spending more to accommodate the Jedi. What do you meant the Jedi are compassionate, good people and want to fight alongside their men and not from the safety of the Venators? Just kidding, Sidious knew they would do exactly that and intended to make it suck in so many ways.)

So of course Anakin overhears Axe and Ahsoka talking(complaining) about their mutual struggles in opposite directions, and being the hack mechanic that he is, he makes alterations to Axe and Ahsoka's bombers. Are these alterations safe?? More than likely not. Do the alterations extend to their suits? Sort of, but Anakin's ability with textiles while there (you think a slave from Tatooine doesn't know how to mend/alter clothes????), isn't as honed as it is with mechanical things.

And because everyone gets the same food, Ahsoka gives her extra to Axe. They usually eat together whenever they can. And Axe goes with her when the 501st splits into the 501st and 332nd.

So yeah, all that to say I think Axe and Ahsoka are good buddies and no Axe doesn't die, what do you mean?? Haha. Ha.

I need more coffee.

[madhyanas]

so hubris is built into the existence of the jedi right? because as a collective their whole intention is that they consider themselves representatives or even embodiments of the light side rather than just vessels that are attuned to that particular facet of the force. 

like to compare them, for example, against the sith, who immerse themselves in the dark side but don’t think they are the dark side. they are sith. like that’s their identity. (except possibly palpatine? apparently in the sequels he says ‘i am all the sith’ which is. interesting and also possibly just ego)

back to the POINT - the jedi believe themselves to be the light, or at least that’s the principle on which the jedi originated from.

but what happens to jedi who leave the order, or jedi who are expelled? they’re still trained in the ways of the force - with the light in particular, obviously. so they’re just no longer... the light? because they’re not technically jedi anymore?

take ahsoka for example right like any instance we see of her interacting with the dark side is against her will (i.e. the mortis arc in tcw); she never dips into it by choice. i’d say that’s one of the most ideal jedi traits/skills. but when she left, she was no longer allowed to stay in jedi quarters or keep her lightsabers - the latter of which is literally!!!!! a force-attuned weapon!!!!!!! specific to her own individual resonance with the force!!!!!!! 

so ahsoka’s actual moral/religious dedication to the force is irrelevant to her identity with the light side now that she left the institution?

and she continues that ‘purity’ (if you can call it that) with the force even after she left btw. after O66 and after she herself no longer identifies as a jedi. so you might say one’s alignment with the light side has nothing to do with the title of ‘jedi’ at all. it’s an arbitrary title invented by people as a form of identification and a black-and-white lens on the force as a whole.

not to mention the ‘jedi’ that use the dark side under said title like. hello even anakin “chosen one” skywalker aside, you still have people like pong krell who was just straight up Evil, used the dark side of the force, supported darth sidious, and no one realised till he was caught in the act! but until then he was still given complete privileges as a jedi master and general of the GAR! 

barriss offee would also fit here too - technically a jedi till she was caught, did use the dark side, etc etc. that’s so interesting bc her argument was that the jedi no longer stood for the light. which might have even been blasphemy (or something similar) according to the belief that the jedi are the light side of the force as much as they uphold it! and in her attempt to dismantle (or at least discredit) the institution of the jedi, her use of the dark side is actually quite minimal! 

so it raises questions as to whether the jedi are undone by the dark side of the force (as the whole ‘we are the light’ argument would have you believe) or if they were just an arbitrary organisation of people who were brought down by politics etc etc which they literally were lmao

(this being said, barriss’ shitty character arc was about islamophobic and racist rhetoric so. that explains why the force-involvement was minimal.)

can’t remember my point but the gist is like. the jedi call themselves a spiritual order but they’re really more of a bureaucratic framework. i think. yeah

[coruscantguard]

a void in the deserted temple

Barriss Offee, mentions of Ahsoka Tano, Luminara Unduli, & Lieutenant Trap.

Warning for a character throwing up, mentioned past character death, and all the general angst that comes with time travelling back before you betrayed everyone you knew and loved

(Ao3 Link)

When Barriss first sees Ahsoka again, she throws up.

She can’t actually remember most of that interaction, right now. She remembers waking up in a room that hasn’t belonged to her in years, remembers walking out to see a Jedi Temple full of light, full of life, remembers thinking that this must be a dream. She remembers starting to walk to Master Luminara’s quarters, because if there’s one person she wants to see before she wakes up it’s her Master alive, alive and breathing and not frozen to death, her body a trap for any surviving Jedi. She remembers walking, and hearing the noises of a group of initiates, and turning and seeing Ahsoka’s montrals in a group of senior initiates, seeing Ahsoka, realizing— Force, Ahsoka isn’t even Skywalker’s padawan yet— and then Barriss came to in a refresher, hunched over and upheaving her lunch.

What did she even eat for lunch? Does she— or, well, past-her— have plans today? Did Padawan Offee know anything besides the basics of Soresu when Master Unduli took her on originally? If this is real, not the dream she thought it was, not the nightmare she’d feared it being, then have her sudden shields prompted suspicion? If this is real— and the fact that she just threw up is indicating that this probably isn’t a dream— then she has to keep her shields up. She knows that, but she also knows that for a while when she was a padawan her shields had been as leaky as Ahsoka’s got when Skywalker was missing, so her sudden shields could give her away easily. Provided that this truly isn’t any kind of dream or hallucination or vision, but she’s never been prone to visions, not like Ahsoka—

Force sithing hells. Ahsoka.

Her stomach rolls again dangerously, and Barriss hurries to lean back over, waits until her body is finally done. Forces back the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, partially caused by the exertion of her dry-heaving, partially caused by the emotional toll of seeing— of seeing her again.

Oh, Force. Oh karking hells, oh Force, Barriss has the sinking suspicion that this is truly, honestly, real. That she’s actually in the past. Actually been given another chance.

It’s disgusting and unhygienic, but Barriss rests her head against the porcelain basin. Closes her eyes. It’s all too much. Why is she, of all people, the one sent back? Karma? Penance?

Is this to be her punishment? Falling apart in the Temple’s refreshers, a place she’d thought she’d never get to see again? The light all around as she chokes on the Dark Side bubbling up within her, her very existence a betrayal to those she loved, then backstabbed? She knows, she knows that the Force does not punish, but…

Barriss is a traitor, and a liar, and a fool, and the Temple bombing hasn’t happened yet in this timeline, but that doesn’t absolve her, not even close. She led to the death of her fellow Jedi, she personally murdered troopers, just as she’d murdered Trap all those years ago, she framed her best friend because she’d spent years stewing in her fury regarding Ahsoka’s lack of anger after witnessing Barriss gut Trap—

And she’d been stupid enough to think that Ahsoka’s connections could protect her, that Skywalker’s bond with the Chancellor and her Grandmaster being on the Council would soften the blow, that—

A sharp knock on the door interrupts her thoughts. “Barriss? Padawan?”

Kark.

Her former Master’s voice is perfectly controlled, but Barriss can tell that she’s worried. Master Luminara would not have called her ‘Padawan’ if she was not worried. There was always a certain amount of affection in her former Master’s voice whenever she called Barriss that— when introducing her to others, it took the form of pride for the young woman Barriss was growing up to be, when concerned for her wellbeing, it encompassed the question of are you okay, and how can I help— and it’s audible to Barriss right now, just as it always was. There’s that affection in her Master’s voice, soothing the sharp edges of her panic, because Master Luminara loves her and trusts her and cares for her and surely she can help fix this and—

And Barriss had taken advantage of that when she turned her back on everything Master Luminara had ever stood for, and attacked the Jedi Temple. Attacked her home, the place that raised her, that loved her— the place that just hours prior, when she’d been in her cell, staring at Darth Vader standing outside her door— she would’ve done anything to return to.

And in the end, that’s what it truly comes down to, isn’t it? Barriss is a traitor, a betrayer, but— she regrets. She regrets, knows that she would do things differently if she could, and- and it seems she suddenly has an opportunity to do so, an opportunity staring her right in the face. She does not deserve it, but Force hells, since when did anyone get what they deserved?

So if she has the opportunity to make a change, then karking hell, by the Force, she has a moral obligation to herself to do so. To herself, if not to everyone else she wronged in her first life.

Barriss closes her eyes, and breathes in. Breathes out, and opens them, then pushes herself up, off the floor, and tries to smooth down her dress. She doesn’t look in the mirror— knows that she won’t be able to handle seeing Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee, age 14, staring back at her— and goes to open the door.

Master Luminara’s presence is nothing but light, and Barriss is in her younger self’s body, too young and too short and too clumsy, but despite that, for the first time in years, everything feels right.

[gffa]

OKAY, IF I’M GONNA DO THIS, I’M GONNA DO IT PROPERLY.  WHICH MEANS YEAH IT’S GONNA GET REALLY LONG. A couple of things to say ahead of time:  Lucasfilm’s Story Group has always said CANON > WORD OF GOD when it comes to these matters, so when I quote canon examples from supplementary materials that contradict what he says, that’s LF’s official position, but that doesn’t mean that an influential person like Dave’s views couldn’t affect how things will be shaped in the future, like Deborah Chow listening to this may be influenced by it on the Obi-Wan show, despite that Master & Apprentice contradicts him.  It’s an incredibly murky area!  Mileages are going to vary.   Another thing to keep in mind is that Dave Filoni never worked on The Phantom Menace, that was long, long before his time at Lucasfilm (which I think he joined sometime around 2007? and TPM was released in 1999), that he has worked with George more than probably anyone else, but we cannot and should not treat him as infallible or the True Authority on things, because even Dave himself has said things like: “I mean, I know why I did that and what it means, but I don't like to explain too much. I love for the viewers to watch stuff and come up with their own theories -- and they frankly come up with better things that I intended.”  --Dave Filoni, Entertainment Tonight 2020 interview Or, in the same episode as the above Qui-Gon interpretation:

So, when I dig into this, I’m not doing this out of a sense of malice or even that I suddenly hate Dave or don’t appreciate all the incredible things he’s brought to SW, but in that I disagree with his take, Dave understands that he doesn’t always get it right, that he enjoys that fans come up with different things than he does and sometimes he likes those even more.  There’s room for both of us and, for all that Dave mentions George a lot (and, hey, fair enough, the guy worked with George and I’m just quoting what George Lucas has said) doesn’t mean that this is straight from George, especially because I have never seen George Lucas utter so much as a peep about how the Jedi were responsible for Anakin’s fall.  He has explicitly and frequently talked about how Anakin’s fall was his own choice, as well as I’ve never seen him say anything Jedi-critical beyond “they were kind of arrogant about themselves”.  I have read and watched every George Lucas interview I could get my hands on and maybe I’m still missing something, but that’s literally the extent of him criticizing the Jedi I have EVER seen. (It’s from the commentary on AOTC where he put in the scene with Jocasta to show they were full of themselves, but I also think it’s fair to point out that Obi-Wan immediately contradicts this by going to Dex for help, showing that it’s not necessarily a Jedi-wide thing.) Before I go further, I want to say:  this is not a post meant to tear down Qui-Gon, he is a character I actually really do love, but the focus is on showing why the above interpretation of him is wrong, which means focusing on Qui-Gon’s flaws. He has many wonderful qualities, he is someone who cared deeply and was a good person, I think things would have been better had he lived!  But Anakin’s choices did not hinge on him, because Anakin’s choices were Anakin’s, that has always been the consistent theme of how George talks about him, the way he talks about the story is always in terms of “Anakin did this” or “Anakin chose that”, and the Jedi are very consistently shown as caring, they believed very much in love and Dave’s own show (well, I say “his own show”, but honestly TCW was George’s baby primarily and he had a lot of direct, hands-on say in crafting it, through at least the first five seasons) is plenty of evidence of that. I’m not going to quote the full thing because this is already a monster post, I’m just going to focus on the Jedi stuff, because I like the other points a lot, but if you want the full text, it’s here.  The relevant part is: “In Phantom Menace, you’re watching these two Jedi in their prime fight this evil villain. Maul couldn’t be more obviously the villain. He’s designed to look evil, and he is evil, and he just expresses that from his face all the way out to the type of lightsaber he fights with. What’s at stake is really how Anakin is going to turn out. Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But Qui-Gon is ahead of them all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” “So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family. So that moment in that movie which a lot of people I think diminish, “oh there’s a cool lightsaber fight”, but it’s everything that the entire three films of the prequels hangs on, is that one particular fight. And Maul serves his purpose and at that point died before George made me bring him back, but he died.“  --Dave Filoni  I’m going to take this a piece at a time to show why I really disagree with the content of both the movies and The Clone Wars supporting what Dave says and, instead, contradicts it a lot. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. He doesn’t explain what this means, but I’m pretty sure that he’s referring to this conversation: OBI-WAN: “I am concerned for my Padawan. He is not ready to be given this assignment on his own yet.” YODA: “The Council is confident in its decision, Obi-Wan.” MACE WINDU: “The boy has exceptional skills.” OBI-WAN: “But he still has much to learn, Master. His abilities have made him... well.... arrogant.” YODA: “Yes, yes. A flaw more and more common among Jedi. Hmm... too sure of themselves they are. Even the older, more experienced ones.” MACE WINDU: “Remember, Obi-Wan, if the prophecy is true, your apprentice is the only one who can bring the Force back into balance.” OBI-WAN: "If he follows the right path.” None of that has anything to do with being “detached” and, further, I think this is something that’s come up with Dave’s view of Luminara a lot, because he’s described her (re: the Geonosis arc):  “We were trying to illustrate the difference between the way Anakin is raising his Padawan, and how much he cares about her, and the way Luminara raises her Padawan. Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her emotionally.” Here, he says that the Jedi care, in the above, he says that the Jedi don’t care, which makes me think there’s a lot of characterization drift as time goes on, especially when fandom bombards everyone with the idea that the Jedi were cold, emotionless, and didn’t care.  However, look at Luminara’s face in that arc, when she’s talking with Anakin:

That is not the face of someone who doesn’t care.  She even smiles brightly in relief when Barriss is shown to be okay, that this really doesn’t convey “detached” in an unloving or uncaring way.  (We’ll get to attachment later, that’s definitely coming.) (I’m also mostly skipping the political thing, because I think that’s just a fundamental disagreement of whether Jedi should or should not lean into politics.  My view basically boils down to that I think ALL OF US should be leaning more into politics because we are citizens who live in the world and are responsible for it, and the Jedi are no different.  This is evidenced by:  - M&A’s storyline has Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan saving the day specifically because they play politics, that’s how they manage to free the slaves, through playing politics and being part of the Republic/having Senate backing. - The Clone Wars has shown that the Jedi believe “lasting change can only come from within” and “it’s every citizen’s duty to hold their leaders accountable” when Ahsoka teaches the cadets on Mandalore, as well as that politics are not inherently bad, given that Padme and Bail are working to make the system better or “create lasting change from within [the system]” - "Trying to serve the greater good does not always make you popular” says Padme Amidala in a very caring speech - Star Wars Propaganda makes the case that the Jedi might have won the war had they leaned more into politics. - Sometimes the Jedi get unfairly accused of playing politics when there’s just no good choice and they still have to choose one or the other.) But Qui-Gon is ahead of them [re: caring and loving] all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. This is flat-out wrong in regards to canon.  Mileages are going to vary, of course, on how much one takes a novel into consideration, but Dave Filoni is not a fan with the luxury of deciding what is or isn’t canon, he works on Star Wars where canon is canon.  Now, does that mean canon will never contradict itself, especially if Dave gets to write something for Qui-Gon?  Of course not, SW isn’t immune to continuity errors and they themselves have never said otherwise, even when fans want to hold them to that standard. However, this is still pretty much a big “that’s not what happened” instance.  In Master & Apprentice, the Jedi Council offer a seat to Qui-Gon on the Council, specifically BECAUSE he has different opinions from them and they welcome that.  (Excerpt here.)      “We hope it will also be our gain,” Mace replied. “Qui-Gon Jinn, we hereby offer you a seat on the Jedi Council.”      Had he misheard? No, he hadn’t. Qui-Gon slowly gazed around the circle, taking in the expressions of each Council member in turn. Some of them looked amused, others pleased. A few of them, Yoda included, appeared more rueful than not. But they were serious.      “I admit—you’ve surprised me,” Qui-Gon finally said.“I imagine so,” Mace said drily. “A few years ago, we would’ve been astonished to learn we would ever consider this. But in the time since, we’ve all changed. We’ve grown. Which means the possibilities have changed as well.”      Qui-Gon took a moment to collect himself. Without any warning, one of the turning points of his life had arrived. Everything he said and did in the next days would be of great consequence. “You’ve argued with my methods often as not, or perhaps you’d say I’ve argued with yours.”      “Truth, this is,” Yoda said.      Depa Billaba gave Yoda a look Qui-Gon couldn’t interpret. “It’s also true that the Jedi Council needs more perspectives.” Ultimately, Qui-Gon is the who turns them down and gives up a chance to shape the Jedi Council because he doesn’t like the shape they’re taking.  That he does become less political, but this is after he’s argued that the Jedi should be working to push the Senate harder, so when he has a chance to help with that, he turns it down.  It has nothing to do with caring and loving, it’s about Qui-Gon’s desire to not have to deal with the work himself, when he wants to be more of a hippie Jedi.  (I’ve written a lot about Qui-Gon in M&A, why I actually think it’s really spot-on to someone who can be both really kind and really kind of a dick, but it’s not the most flattering portrayal, even if narrative intention likely didn’t mean what came across to me.  I think this post and this post are probably the most salient ones, but if you want something of an index of the web that’s being woven with all the various media, this one is good, too.) So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. I have only ever seen George Lucas talk about Anakin’s fate in one instance and it’s this:  “It’s fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flipside of greed. Greed, in terms of the Emperor, it’s the greed for power, absolute power, over everything. With Anakin, really it’s the power to save the one he loves, but it’s basically going against the Fates and what is natural.“ –George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith commentary I’ve made my case about why I think Anakin’s fate is about that moment in Palpatine’s office, and so I’m not fundamentally opposed that “Duel of the Fates” is about Anakin’s fate, but here’s what George has provably said about the “Duel of the Fates” part of the story: - In the commentary for The Phantom Menace during “Duel of the Fates” and none of Dave’s speculation is even hinted at, there’s more focus on the technical side of things and the most George talks about is that it’s Obi-Wan who parallels Luke in going over the edge during the fight, except that instead of a Sith cutting off a Jedi’s hand, it’s a Jedi cutting a Sith in half, drawing the parallels between them. - He does say of the funeral scene that this is where Obi-Wan commits to training Anakin and how everything is going to go (though, in canon we see that Obi-Wan still struggles with this a bit, but Yoda is there to support him and nudge him into committing even more to Anakin, because the Jedi are a supportive community to each other).  This is some solid evidence for that Obi-Wan is already caring about Anakin beyond just Qui-Gon. - Then here’s what he says about the “Duel of the Fates” fights and themes of them in "All Films Are Personal": George Lucas: “I wanted to come up with an apprentice for the Emperor who was striking and tough. We hadn’t seen a Sith Lord before, except for Vader, of course. I wanted to convey the idea that Jedi are all very powerful, but they’re also vulnerable — which is why I wanted to kill Qui-Gon. That is to say, “Hey, these guys aren’t Superman.” These guys are people who are vulnerable, just like every other person. “We needed to establish that, but at the same time, we wanted the ultimate sword fight, because they were all very good. It sort of predisposes the sword fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan later on. There’s real purpose to it. You have to establish the rules and then stick with them. The scene illustrates just how Jedi and Sith fight and use lightsabers.” “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him.  We’ll get to the “attachment to his mother” thing in a bit--but, for now, let’s just say, George Lucas’ words on this are not that attachment to her was a good thing. Fair enough that “not because he cares about him” is up to personal interpretation, but canon has also addressed the topic of Obi-Wan’s treatment of Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped up to the plate on this.  In addition to how we see Obi-Wan REPEATEDLY being there for Anakin and being concerned and caring about him, they specifically talk about Qui-Gon and overcome this hurdle.

No, Obi-Wan is not Anakin’s father figure, on that we definitely agree.  Anakin never really even treats Obi-Wan like a father--he says “you’re the closest thing I have to a father” in Attack of the Clones, as well as he says Obi-Wan practically raised him in The Clone Wars “Crystal Crisis” story reels, but Anakin has never actually acted like Obi-Wan is his father--”then why don’t you listen to me?” Obi-Wan points out in AOTC--as well as Obi-Wan glides past those remarks, which I’ve always taken that he doesn’t want to reject Anakin’s feelings, knowing that Anakin can be sensitive about them, but neither does he want to confirm them. This does not mean Obi-Wan was not supportive, caring, and loving.  He says, “I loved you!” to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, he asks after him and if he’s sleeping well in Attack of the Clones, and even George Lucas himself said that the elevator scene was set up TO SHOW OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN CARE FOR EACH OTHER:

PUTTING THE REST UNDER A READ MORE FOR A BETTER LENGTH REBLOGGABLE VERSION, IF  YOU WANT.

This is further evidenced by how the Jedi do see themselves as family, they just don’t need to put it into strict nuclear family dynamics:     - “You were my brother, Anakin!  I loved you!”  [–Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith]      - “We are brothers, Master Dibs.” [–Mace Windu, Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu]      - “Did your parents bicker?” she asked. “The adoptive ones, I mean.”         A slow smile broke across Ashla’s face, curling first one side of her mouth and then the other. Whatever she was remembering, Kaeden could tell it was good.         "All the time,“ Ashla said, almost as if she were talking to herself. [–Kaeden Larte, Ahsoka Tano, Ahsoka]      -  Vos, brought to the Temple even younger than most, felt that he had hundreds of brothers and sisters, and it seemed that whenever he went into the dining hall he ran into at least half of them. [Dark Disciple]       - “It was not his birthplace, exactly, but the Jedi Temple was where Quinlan Vos had grown up. He’d raced through its corridors, hidden behind its massive pillars, found peace in its meditation hall, ended-and started-fights in rooms intended for striking blows and some that weren’t, and sneaked naps in its library. All Jedi came here, at some point in their lives; for Quinlan, it always felt like coming home when he ran lightly up the stairs and entered the massive building as he did now.” [Dark Disciple] Brothers, sisters, and other more non-traditional kinds of family are not lesser and Obi-Wan and Anakin absolutely were family, just as the Jedi are all family to each other, so, no, there was no “failing” Anakin, except in Anakin’s mind, perhaps.  (In that, I can agree.  But not on a narratively approved level, canon too thoroughly refutes that for me.) Rebels as well pretty thoroughly shows that non-traditional families are meaningful and just as important--we may joke that Hera is “space mom”, but she’s not actually Ezra or Sabine’s mother, Kanan is not actually their father, and even if they sometimes stray into aspects of those roles (as the Jedi do as well in the movies and TCW), that they don’t need that traditional nuclear family structure.  Mentor figures--and Kanan is Ezra’s mentor--are just as meaningful and needful as a “dad”.  And I’m kind of :/ at the implication that anyone without a dad/father figure or mom/mother figure is being “failed”. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” Whether or not Obi-Wan is being genuinely dismissive in this movie (I think you could make a case either way), the idea that Qui-Gon is better than Obi-Wan about this, as shown through Jar Jar isn’t exactly very supported given how Qui-Gon and Jar Jar first exchange words:

QUI-GON: “You almost got us killed. Are you brainless?”   JAR JAR:  “I spake.”   QUI-GON: “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.” Qui-Gon is just as bad as everyone else to Jar Jar, he’s not somehow elevated above them. It’s also baffling because, Dave, I have watched your show.  The Jedi are specifically shown to be kind to people and creatures, not considering them “useless”.  Henry Gilroy (who was the co-writer for The Clone Wars and frequently appeared in featurettes on the same level as Dave Filoni) explicitly draws this to The Jedi Way, that “life is everything to the Jedi“, when he said this about the Ryloth episodes:

(Caps cribbed from Pan’s blog, because I cannot make another gif, save me, please.)      Henry Gilroy in an Aggressive Negotiations Interview:  "Obi-Wan truly is a Jedi in that he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to murder these creatures [in the Ryloth arc of The Clone Wars].  They’re starving to death.  They’ve basically been unleashed against these people as a weapon, but it’s not their fault. They’re just doing what they do.  They’re just animals who wanna eat.’     "So the idea was–and I think there was an early talk about how, 'Oh, yeah, he’ll go running through them and slicing and dicing them and chop them all up or whatever, and save his guys.  And I’m like, 'Yeah, but that’s not really the Jedi way.  He’s not just gonna murder these creatures.’     "And I know the threat is [there], to save one life you have to take one, but the idea of him [is]: why can’t Obi-Wan just be more clever?  He basically draws them in and then traps them.     "It says something about who the Jedi are, they don’t just waste life arbitrarily.  And someone could have gone, 'Oh, yeah, but it would have been badass if he’d just ran in there with his lightsaber spinning and stabbed them all in the head!’  And 'Yeah, you’re right, I guess he could be that, but he’s trying to teach his clones a lesson right then, about the sanctity of life.’       "That is the underlying theme of that entire episode.  Which is:  A tactical droid is using the people as living shields.  Life means nothing to the Separatists.  The droids.  But life is everything to the Jedi.  And even though he doesn’t have to say that, it’s all through the episode thematically.“ It’s also Obi-Wan who teaches Anakin about kindness to mindless creatures in the Obi-Wan & Anakin comic:

"These beasts are nearly mindless, Anakin.  I can feel it.  They are merely following their nature, they should not die simply because they crossed our path. Use the Force to send them on their way.” Now, fair enough if you want to say Obi-Wan was taught by Qui-Gon, but also Qui-Gon is dead by that point and Obi-Wan growing into being more mature is his own accomplishment, not Qui-Gon’s, especially given that we see Qui-Gon himself being pretty dismissive to Jar Jar in TPM. This isn’t unique thing either, Padme is incredibly condescending to Jar Jar in “Bombad Jedi” and expresses clear annoyance with him to C-3PO when sighing over him.  Jar Jar is a character you kind of have to warm up to, pretty much the only one we’ve seen consistently being favorable to him is Yoda (and maybe Anakin, though, Anakin doesn’t really interact with him a ton) and Mace Windu warms up to him considerably in “The Disappeared” and even specifically is shown to be teaching him and helping him, which is a huge theme of the Jedi and how much they care.

So, ultimately, the point I’m winding my way towards is--the other Jedi do show kindness and consideration to Jar Jar Binks, including characters like Mace Windu, so if you’re judging the Jedi based on that, the conclusion of Qui-Gon somehow being more compassionate and loving is really pretty thoroughly disproved by The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars themselves. So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family.  You could be charitable and say this is just from Anakin’s point of view that it’s a “failing”, but within the context of what Dave’s saying, it’s clearly meant as a more narratively approved take, not just Anakin’s point of view, and I really, really dislike the idea that Anakin--or anyone, really--needs a traditional nuclear family, ie a “mom” and/or a “dad”, or else it’s a “failing” for them. Setting aside that the idea that Qui-Gon would need to be Anakin’s dad to be kind to hi (which is ?????) is contradicted by The Clone Wars as well.  Yes, Qui-Gon is warm with Anakin in several scenes, which is what Dave is presumably drawing on to show that Qui-Gon believed the Jedi should be caring and loving, but you know who else is warm to younglings?  OTHER JEDI COUNCIL MEMBERS.

Those two scenes have the exact same kind of warmth to them.  Ie, THE JEDI ALL BELIEVED IN BEING LOVING AND KIND, NOT JUST QUI-GON.  The things evidenced to show Qui-Gon was loving and kind are evidenced just as much in other Council members, in Dave’s own show. As a bonus--have Mace Windu, known Jedi Council member, being super kind and loving towards a young Twi’lek girl he just met in a canon comic:

But I know that this is about the way the Council treated Anakin in The Phantom Menace testing scene, but here’s the thing--when I go back and I watch that scene and the Jedi aren’t ever mean to him, they’re neutral in an official testing situation, where they are trying to determine if he’s able to adapt to the Jedi ways.  They never once say he’s bad for holding onto his fear, only that he does--which Anakin digs his heels in and gets angry about, he can’t really even admit that he’s afraid and that’s a huge deal for the Jedi. I’ve made a longer post about it here (and here), but the basic gist is: - That scene has Yoda giving the famous “Fear leads to the dark side” speech which is almost word for word how George Lucas describes how the Force works, showing the Jedi are narratively correct - “Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi” may be from the sequels, but it is thoroughly supported by the movies and TCW and Rebels and even supplementary canon material, including that the Jedi literally design their tests around both Masters and Padawans for it (Ilum, the Jedi Temple on Lothal, etc. - Anakin cannot admit to his fears in that TPM scene - We have examples of Jedi younglings do admit to their fears and the point isn’t not to have them, but to face them--the younglings in “The Gathering” are the most blatant example of this, but it’s also pretty much the entire theme of Jedi: Fallen Order, especially when Cal goes to Ilum to face his fears and get another kyber crystal. The point isn’t that Anakin--who has very good reasons to be afraid! nothing in the story or the Jedi have said he didn’t!--is wrong or bad, but that he’s not a great fit for the Jedi life because he is “unwilling to accept [Jedi philosophy] emotionally”.  And they’re right about this, because this is how George Lucas describes Anakin in commentary: “The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can’t hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he’d have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.”  --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary And so this brings us to A T T A C H M E N T, which, yeah, we’ve been having this discussion forever, but I’m going to state it again:  Within Star Wars, ATTACHMENT IS NARRATIVELY A BAD THING.  It is consistently tied to possessive, obsessive relationships, to greed and an unwillingness to let things go when it’s time (letting go is a huge theme in Star Wars) and equating love with attachment is fundamentally wrong according to George Lucas’ Star Wars worldbuilding: “The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth,” he continues, “They’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people-- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith If attachment and love were the same thing, then he would be saying, “They should love their enemies, they should love the Sith.  But they can’t love.”  The way George makes the distinction shows that, no, attachment and love aren’t the same thing at all, attachment is not caring.  Further, there’s another instance of him showing there’s an important distinction between relationships and attachment and the association of attachmets with possession:  "Jedi Knights aren’t celibate - the thing that is forbidden is attachments - and possessive relationships.” --George Lucas, BBC News interview So, yes, when Anakin is attached to people, it is directly tied to obsession, possession, and greed, all things of the dark side: “He turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.”  --George Lucas, Time Magazine  “But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary ATTACHMENT IS BAD IN STAR WARS AS THEY DEFINE IT. Finally, I’m going to circle back to: Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. Here’s the thing about this:  You know who else, by this logic, Qui-Gon should have been a father to?  OBI-WAN KENOBI. This isn’t said as “Anakin specifically needs a father” (which I think would be an interesting idea to bandy about and I’m not disagreeing, though, it’s complicated because of what Anakin refuses to accept emotionally), it’s said in a bigger context, that Qui-Gon is better than the other Jedi because he understands the need for fathers (and thus this ties into Return of the Jedi) and he’s ahead of the other Jedi, who apparently think loving and caring about people are bad things, but Qui-Gon does not treat Obi-Wan like his son.  Or, if he does, he’s not exactly a stellar dad about it. Within Master & Apprentice, there’s an incredibly consistent theme of how Qui-Gon thinks supportive things about Obi-Wan, but never says them aloud.  He thinks he should talk to Obi-Wan about the upcoming decision to be on the Council and then never does.  He could have explained why he kept Obi-Wan training the basics but he never does.  There are multiple instances showing that Qui-Gon is actually really, really bad at actually handling a young apprentice who needs him to talk to them about important things.  Qui-Gon continues this in From a Certain Point of View where he still never talked to Obi-Wan about everything that happened, even after he became a Force Ghost.     Damn, damn, damn. Qui-Gon closed his eyes for one moment. It blocked nothing; the wave of shock that went through Obi-Wan was so great it could be felt through the Force. Qui-Gon hadn’t thought Kirames Kaj would mention the Jedi Council invitation. It seemed possible the soon-retiring chancellor of the Republic might not even have taken much note of information about a new Council member. --Master & Apprentice     That comment finally pierced Qui-Gon’s damnable calm. There was an edge to his voice as he said, “I suspected you would be too upset to discuss this rationally. Apparently I was correct.”     “I thought you said my reaction was understandable,” Obi-Wan shot back. “So why does it disqualify me from hearing the truth?”    Qui-Gon put his hands on his broad belt, the way he did when he was beginning to withdraw into himself. “…we should discuss this at another time. Neither of us is his best self at the present.” --Master & Apprentice     Obi-Wan walked toward the door, obviously outdone. “At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I couldn’t understand you,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s just as true here at the end.”     Only yesterday they had worked together as never before. How did Qui-Gon manage to get closer to Obi-Wan at the same time he was moving further away?     Just before Obi-Wan would leave the room, Qui-Gon said, “Once, you asked me about the basic lightsaber cadences. Why I’d kept you there, instead of training you in more advanced forms of combat.”     Obi-Wan turned reluctantly to face him again. “I suppose you thought I wasn’t ready for more. The same way I’m not ready to believe in all this mystical—”     “That’s not why.”     After a long pause, Obi-Wan calmed to the point where he would listen. “Then why, Qui-Gon?”     “Because many Padawans—and full Jedi Knights, for that matter—forget that the most basic technique is the most important technique. The purest. The most likely to protect you in battle, and the foundation of all knowledge that is to come,” Qui-Gon said. “Most apprentices want to rush ahead to styles of fighting that are flashier or more esoteric. Most Masters let them, because we must all find our preferred form eventually. But I wanted you to be grounded in your technique. I wanted you to understand the basic cadences so well that they would become instinct, so that you would be almost untouchable. Above all, I wanted to give you the training you needed to accomplish anything you set your mind to later on.”     Obi-Wan remained quiet for so long that Qui-Gon wondered if he were too angry to really hear any of what he’d said. But finally, his Padawan nodded. “Thank you, Qui-Gon. I appreciate that. But—”     “But what?”     “You could’ve said so,” Obi-Wan replied, and then he left. --Master & Apprentice     "I owe you that. After all, I’m the one who failed you.“     "Failed me?”     They have never spoken of this, not once in all Qui-Gon’s journeys into the mortal realm to commune with him. This is primarily because Qui-Gon thought his mistakes so wretched, so obvious, that Obi-Wan had wanted to spare him any discussion of it. Yet here, too, he has failed to do his Padawan justice. --From a Certain Point of View, “Master and Apprentice” (Further, in Master & Apprentice, Qui-Gon thinks that the Jedi give Rael Averross--who is HUGELY paralleled to Anakin--too many exceptions, were too soft on him because he came to the Jedi later than most and has trouble thinking of them as his family, and he thinks they should have been stricter with him.) It’s also readily apparent within The Phantom Menace itself:

You can take some charitable views of this scene, that Qui-Gon was pushed into a corner where he had few other options (and this is the view I generally take even!), but this is after the entire movie where he’s never once indicated that Obi-Wan was ready, has instead indicated that he still has much to learn (not just of the Living Force, but in general), as well as made it clear that he’s still teaching Obi-Wan, like on the Trade Federation ship. And I do think Obi-Wan got over this because he understood, because Obi-Wan actually is a very selfless person, he clearly cares (which is furthered by how we see him warm up to Anakin very quickly), but look at their faces. This was not a good moment, and they do somewhat make up, where Qui-Gon says that Obi-Wan has been a good apprentice, that he’s wiser than Qui-Gon and he’ll be a great Jedi--but if we’re counting that as Qui-Gon being this great Jedi, then you can’t say Obi-Wan failed Anakin, given that we show him doing the exact same thing, except better.  He tells Anakin, “You are strong and wise and will become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.”, echoing Qui-Gon’s words, but also he never threw Anakin aside for someone else. This is kind of a major undercurrent throughout The Clone Wars, where Obi-Wan never takes another apprentice, where he continues to teach Anakin, to support him, even to the point of occasionally co-Mastering Ahsoka with him.  “This has been quite a journey for our Padawan.” Qui-Gon’s treatment of Obi-Wan in this scene isn’t the worst, he’s kind about it later (though, he never actually specifically apologizes for this), but we can see that this is a moment where Qui-Gon hurts Obi-Wan and knows it. And you know what George Lucas has to say about Qui-Gon?  This: “So here we’re having Qui-Gon wanting to skip the early training and jump right to taking him on as his Padawan learner, which is controversial, and ultimately, the source of much of the problems that develop later on.”  –George Lucas, The Phantom Menace commentary There’s nothing about Qui-Gon being right or better than the other Jedi, but instead that Qui-Gon’s actions here are a source of much of the problems that develop later on. So, ultimately, I liked some points Dave made in that speech, it’s a beautiful and eloquent one, but I thoroughly disagree with his interpretation of George’s intentions for Qui-Gon and I thoroughly disagree that that’s what the movies, The Clone Wars (DAVE’S OWN SHOW), and the supplementary canon show about Qui-Gon and the other Jedi.  I still stand by my appreciation of Dave’s contributions to SW as a whole, I think he does a really good job at making Star Wars, but he doesn’t always get everything right and this is one thing where I think the canon and George’s commentary show otherwise, as much as I love his desire to defend the prequels’ importance in the story.  Because, my friend, I have felt that every single day of my SW life.