#beloved jedi

[skykind]

A Clone Wars Episode Deep Dive

I didn't discover The Clone Wars fandom until 2021 and only started watching the show in mid-2023 (finished a few months ago), and I want to discuss and analyze all sorts of odds and ends—years after most people watched. This includes cool stuff in episodes I think some fans understandably skip when doing re-watches and therefore no longer remember well, but I’m digging into one of them anyway. So, have a long post about S2:E11, "Lightsaber Lost," and then come talk to me about it if you’d like!

This episode is saying three things at once, and the closer you get to the symbolic message meant for mostly adult audiences, the wilder things get.

The literal plot: Ahsoka’s lightsaber is stolen, and she recovers it with the help of a Jedi elder who teaches her life lessons along the way.

The morality tale for young viewers: gun control (a bold choice).

An eerie interlude for older viewers: A pair of brief scenes—only 45 seconds or so in length combined—communicate the future purge of the Jedi order via symbolic visual storytelling and a speech that’s being broadcast in the background. No dialogue required.

I'm going to focus on this third bullet point, but I also recommend a re-watch for the gun control angle. (Hint: if you think the writers are only arguing for handling guns responsibly, you haven’t taken the Jedi’s current context into account; also, the writers aren't referring to literal in-universe guns—Ahsoka’s lightsaber is the gun.)

Back to the episode’s message for older viewers: Split over two scenes, the audience watches Ahsoka chase a bounty hunter in possession of her lightsaber, then the bounty hunter partially damage and destabilize an enormous levitating billboard so she can get away from Ahsoka, and finally Ahsoka tumble down and precariously cling to the billboard’s screen. The billboard shows Palpatine delivering a—likely prerecorded—speech that is meant to sound supportive of the Jedi, but is instead priming Coruscant residents to believe anti-Jedi rhetoric; just before this two-scene sequence ends, Palpatine also begins to explain why he needs more executive power in order to support the Jedi.

It's great to pinpoint an example of Palatine's propaganda, but what does the visual storytelling communicate, with this speech for a backdrop?

Note: the text of Palpatine’s speech, shown in captions in the following screenshots, is not in alt text as that would chop the speech up between image descriptions, and is instead in a single paragraph after the final screenshot.

Palpatine's Speech

"I have no doubt that the Jedi are doing their very best to ensure the safety of every citizen in the Republic. The accusations that the Jedi created the Clone War to give themselves more power over the government is absurd and I will not stand for it."

Ahsoka as Symbolically at Palpatine's Mercy

After a scene break, Palatine's speech picks up mid-sentence and we see just how small and vulnerable Ahsoka is compared to Palpatine's soaring and vast projection. She appears entirely at his mercy, and somewhat at the mercy of Coruscant as well.

Palpatine's Speech, Resumed

"…Count Dooku and his droid army. To support the Jedi's efforts in the war, I ask the Senate to pass these new laws, giving more jurisdiction…"

The Genocide to Come

As this speech is broadcast to Coruscant, the seemingly trustworthy and dependable Chancellor of the Republic symbolically collapses beneath Ahsoka and leaves her stranded over a chasm. All while Palpatine spreads propaganda that will eventually convince the public to support her people's genocide.

Perhaps the best way to describe this is:

An unarmed Ahsoka struggles to hang onto the edge of a high precipice, that precipice is a symbol for Palpatine—and in a few years, Palpatine will shove the entire Jedi order off the edge of a much higher cliff.

Given how the sheer visual scale of Palpatine in this second scene represents the power he can wield over the Jedi—as the staging emphasizes Ahsoka's relative smallness and her physical vulnerability—it's clear the Jedi will not be able to rescue themselves when this future betrayal comes; Palpatine has amassed too much power and put too many plans in place. And no one who's bought into Palpatine's propaganda will try to catch the Jedi when they go over the edge.

Ahsoka’s Survival

Ahsoka’s individual survival of Order 66 is signaled here by her ability to get off the levitating billboard, but nothing about the staging suggests this comes down to unique skill—any number of well-trained Jedi could have gotten out of her predicament when the right opportunity (a single speeder that veers out of its lane and passes unusually close to the screen) presented itself.

In both “Lightsaber Lost” and "Victory and Death" (S7:E12, see below), her survival involves flinging herself through open air (and into an out-of-place flying vehicle), a nice nod to Ahsoka’s association with flight and Morai, though I feel like that’s a coincidence (?) as of season 2. Or maybe not. I have no idea if Ahsoka’s symbolic associations—flight in the case of “Lightsaber Lost,” rather than Morai specifically—were planned out in advance.

What About the Propaganda?

Returning to season 2, we come to the final big-picture takeaway of the "Lightsaber Lost" scenes: I’ve referred to Palpatine’s speech as something that plays in the background because Ahsoka doesn’t pay attention to his propaganda, even though it’s literally in her face. What does this mean if we treat Ahsoka as a stand-in for the Jedi, and Palpatine’s speech as a stand-in for his growing threat to the Jedi?   In these scenes, Ahsoka first doesn’t pay attention because she’s trying to stay alive in precarious circumstances, just as Jedi across the galaxy are kept distracted from the big picture by trying to keep themselves, their Padawans, their troops, and civilians alive as war swallows up the galaxy. Then, Ahsoka is distracted by tracking the bounty hunter who has her lightsaber; in the context of this episode (which asks, ‘who should be allowed to use a lightsaber, and when?’), Ahsoka’s lightsaber also comes to represent Jedi’s efforts to fight the Clone Wars as ethically as possible. It presumably takes more time and effort to fight a war when you’re concerned with morals, at least when the opposition is perfectly happy to commit war crimes.   By tossing the Jedi into a war, Palpatine keeps them too busy to systemically search for the Master Sith (in addition to Sith stuff diminishing the Jedi’s ability to use the force), as their time is eaten up by upholding the equivalent of the Geneva and Hague Conventions (etc.) when almost no one else is, by protecting as many other lives as possible, and by staying alive.

And The Clone Wars communicates all of this in a minute! Though I’ll admit my final point about Ahsoka’s lightsaber representing ethical combat is a stretch. I love it when TV shows and movies make full use of visual storytelling, and The Clone Wars is fabulous at it.

Whew—and that’s that! I’m grateful if even a single person has read this far and would love to know what you think, but regardless, I had fun analyzing this episode and organizing my thoughts about it. Cheers to the Clone Wars fandom.

[stealingpotatoes]

vader's an awkward subject in the normal tl4j au, but it is SO much more awkward in the original trilogy au <3

(commission info // tip jar!)

[skykind]

OP, I hope you don't mind me bringing the Clone Wars show into this, but it really supports your initial point.

Though it happens in a vision-like setting, Yoda also faces a similar test, which I think is a really fascinating! This is in the Clone Wars episode "Sacrifice," at the end of season 6. Pardon the messy screenshots—I'm not a gif maker or visual artist, but I think this is too cool not to talk about, even with my shoddy skills as our only option for visual examples.

In the episode's climactic scene, Yoda knows he's facing the cloaked master Sith, and believes he has a chance to discover his identity, but can't do so while also focusing on keeping a now-unconscious Anakin from falling to his death.

And then Yoda lets himself be hit by Palpatine's force lightning without defending himself, so he can focus on moving Anakin to safety; only when Anakin is in a safe location does Yoda go after Palpatine. Yoda is fully willing to put his own life at risk to discover the sith's identity, but he won't risk Anakin's. Yoda can make the choice to sacrifice himself, but he can't make that choice for Anakin—a young person in his care, and someone he personally cares about. Puts a more nuanced spin on attachment than we usually give Star Wars credit for (by which I mean this episode shows isn't attachment for Yoda to take the time to save Anakin).

Here's the cherry on top of this amazing sundae: the literal fall (engineered by Palpatine) that Yoda protects Anakin from simply to keep him safe—meaning he protects Anakin's well-being, not his utility in wartime—presages Anakin's later force-based fall to the dark side. Except Anakin will go on to make choices that are the complete opposite of Yoda's. So much going on here!

A visual parallel I have noticed throughout SW is the image of a Palpatine goading his new apprentice to kill a defenseless person. He does it with Dooku and Yaddle, Anakin and Dooku, and finally Luke and Darth Vader (Anakin). Each time he encourages them to do something that goes against their morals (killing a friend, a defenseless person, or their father) and the choice they make is telling to who they will become in the future. Luke is the person to break this cycle when he refuses to kill his father after seeing Vader’s mechanical hand. He looks to his own hand and realizes that to destroy his father is to become him. He holds fast to his ideals in the face of Palpatines attempts to change them. It’s a nice way to keep consistency with Palpatine’s character and form of manipulation.

[magicandmundane]

*after Mon Mothma’s briefing*

Wedge: Hey, Luke! So where’ve you been?

Luke: Yeah, so I went back to Tatooine to break Han’s ass out of Jabba’s Palace. I had to fight a rancor first, though. Luckily, I killed it before—

Omega, on the other side of the room: YOU KILLED MOOCHI?!

[intermundia]

to me this is one of the most important passages of the revenge of the sith novelization, as it contains a fundamental thesis of the prequels. the clone wars were designed to kill jedi. sidious put the order in checkmate before they'd even begun fighting. he used their compassion and trust against them by leveraging their sense of duty to push them into fighting a morally dubious war to protect innocent lives, tarnishing their galactic reputation. he gave them friends in the clones that were crafted to become their assassins. he spread the jedi out, thinned their numbers in years of brutal combat, and then when they were sufficiently weak, wiped them out.

the revenge of the sith required so much planning and moving from the shadows over decades to arrange the galaxy into a trap. the prequel jedi did not have the knowledge that we the audience have, they were operating out of a place of partial understanding and with the best of intentions. to hold them to a standard of omniscience and omnipotence instead of appreciating the genius and patience of the sith is unfair and missing the point. they're not perfect, but they are good. it is tragic that being good is not always enough, it is tragic to know that our best of intentions can come up short. it is tragic that evil can gain power and harm the innocent without repercussions.

this book is heartbreaking on a personal level, but also on a political and ideological one. it reflects the very real world when greed and fear hold sway over a population, where exploitation and oppression win. the jedi are slain and it is brutal to read, and a generation afterward struggling in the dark without them. however, star wars ultimately carries a message of hope: you can kill jedi, but you cannot kill compassion and community. wherever people love each other, there is light. the empire fell and the jedi returned because you cannot kill their ideas. so there is hope, but that doesn't change that it is an egregious crime in the prequels that they were slaughtered.

[skykind]

Alpha-17 has so much entertaining propaganda from his previous bracket that I feel like I need to talk up Tarre Vizsla, who is the better if less-funny choice to lead Mandalore in this round. Ahem…

For all that we don’t know much about Tarre Vizsla as a literal person, Star Wars has always been first and foremost a symbolic story, and boy does Tarre Vizsla pack a symbolic punch. He is multiculturalism incarnate, is remembered centuries later as a great leader, and wields a weapon that can be used to defend as well as attack. When he died, said weapon was laid to rest in the Jedi temple—a choice that can be read as Tarre wanting to stop Mandalore’s repeating cycles of violence—and the dark saber only became a symbol of might-makes-right leadership when other Mandalorians stole it from the temple.

Now, I would like to specifically address a particular through-line of Alpha’s propaganda as exemplified by the following statements: “Alpha-17 would be a great mandolorian leader I mean look at those Pecs! What else do u need in a leader?” and “Propaganda for Alpha 17: tall.”

We don’t know that Tarre Vizsla wasn’t sexy!! He could have been! Fact: most Jedi we see on screen are incredibly attractive. Fact: Tarre Vizsla was a Jedi. Therefore: Tarre Vizsla was probably also incredibly attractive. I rest my case.

ROUND TWO: MATCH-UP FOUR

Genuinely did not expect this one to happen, but here we go!

Remember, this is NOT about who would win in a fight. This is about who makes the best leader for Mandalore as a whole.

Explanation post

Seeding

Propaganda below the cut! You can submit more on this post and I will reblog it back to here!

TARRE VIZSLA

Anon: He was both a Jedi and a Mandalorian warrior. This means he had at least some knowledge of politics and how people work, and was a badass fighter. Both are important for leading a culture with a heavy focus on combat. He could also get advice from the Force, even if it was just a vague sense of whether or not something's a bad idea. (Also he was the one who created the darksaber, which isn't important on its own, but since it's his saber being used as a symbol of leadership, that implies he was at the very least a decent leader.)

ALPHA-17

@ihuntmonsters: He’s uhhh super badass and sexy and kicks ass and is really awesome and I’m in love with him Perfect propaganda yes. He shall lead Mandalore

Anon: He's pretty good with training children! He is very good at inspiring loyalty! He is very willing to go after sith lords with just his teeth if he has to!

Anon: Vote for Alpha he’s got Cody’s thighs, Fox’s tits and Wolffe’s ass. He’s also a DILF, if you consider the shebse squad/command batch headcanons. And who wouldn’t want a Mand'alor like that?

Anon: Alpha-17 would be a great mandolorian leader I mean look at those Pecs! What else do u need in a leader?

Anon: HERES WHY ALPHA-17 FOR THE WIN: HE WILL ASSASSINATE ALL OF THE OTHER POLITICAL FIGURES WHICH MEANS DEAD SKEVY SHEEVY PALPATINE AND WHO DOESNT WANT THAT?

Anon: What a guy. I love him so much. He's such an asshole. Alpha-17 was part of the second test batch of clones of Jango Fett, one of a group of 100, and as such he was trained directly by Jango Fett in the art of war; these early batches who had more contact with their Mandalorian trainers are commonly considered to have a stronger claim to 'Mandalorian-ness' because of this exposure and learning experience than clones from the later, larger batches

Anon: Propaganda for Alpha 17: tall

Anon: Alpha-17 should rule Mandalore because a good king doesn’t want the power of the throne and he does not want that at all. also he’s the funniest choice. might have the skills to not get killed by maul

NEW: @ihuntmonsters: more propaganda for alpha-17: - he takes no shit from anyone he will kick ass - sassed obiwan the sassmaster multiple times - oh god oh god oh god oh god i love him i love him i love him

[fluorescentbalaclava]

Since I'm free from exams here's a very quick Jecki Lon 🥺

[ginkgodoodles]

I love the gag that Kit Fisto just really loves swimming at any opportunity and will walk around shirtless, completely oblivious.

[izzystizzys]

There is a scratch mark on the floor of the Council chambers that Mace has never noticed before. Not a deep one, mind, quite shallow. This matters because it’s making the white-hot pulse of agony stabbing through his eyeballs ebb momentarily. Then, he chances a glance upwards at the fidgeting Knight in front of them, and it returns in full force.

Huh, he’s never seen Oppo Rancisis’ face turn that colour before.

“Hmm”, Master Yoda hums, deep and scratchy. His expression is unreadable even to Mace beyond a baseline gremlinness, and the force with which he grips the edges of his seat is making his bones creak. Master of the Order you should become, they said. Follow the calling of the Force, you should. A fulfilling purpose, it will be. Mace is going to hunt the little goblin for sport when this is all over, and he’s going to laugh the whole time.

“Show us the livestream again, could you, Knight Parvo?” Yoda asks. Mace bursts a capillary, he’s pretty sure, and so does poor Knight Parvo, whose orange Mon Cala skin tips all the way into blood red with stress. “Most unusual, this is.”

“Absolutely not!”, Ki Adi intervenes before Mace has to, thank the Force for little mercies. Plo Koon’s tusks tremble slightly with either suppressed laughter or abject horror, maybe both, and Stass Allie has her head in her hands. “The holo stills should be enough”, Ki Adi proceeds to add, and Mace has to reconsider all feelings of grace he just felt towards his fellow Councillor.

He never wants to watch Yoda zoom in on someone’s abs again. Or Depa raise her eyebrows at the curve of thighs bent over the dripping front of a speeder.

“Speeder Wash For Our Troops”, his former padawan reads out loud from a still of what has to be hundreds of the things gathered in the public senate parking lot. “Fund Our Boys And Get A Wet Seeing-To!” The series of images features dozens of Coruscant Guard troopers in various stages of unkitted, gleaming and shining with soap suds and water. The fact that the whole thing is also massive shatterpoint after massive shatterpoint is, quite frankly, insulting.

“Well hello- oh dear”, Obi-Wan’s blue form crackles to life in his chair, followed by several sounds of choking that are definitely not him. Good, Mace thinks acidly. If he has to deal with this, then so does kriffing Skywalker. “I’m sorry, why am I looking at Commander Thorn using a washrag like a lasso on top of a speeder?”

“Oh, the Guard’s little fundraising project”, Bail Organa says, as he steps into the Council chambers. Normally, Mace likes the man well enough. Now, he just smiles and adds on, “I’ve already donated, in mine and Breha’s name. Remotely, of course.”

“The Guard’s fundraising speeder wash?”, Obi-Wan repeats, edges of his holo form flickering with what Mace suspects is Skywalker very unsubtly trying to edge in. Force, but the man really is horrible at any and all stealth, like kissing his secret wife in an open arena in front of his Master. “And they are fundraising for…?”

“GAR budget allocations have to come from somewhere”, Organa shrugs. “And with the tide of public opinion turning, they’ve been tending towards cuts. The Guard feels them more keenly than any other sector - they’ve been reduced from half to quarter rations, and medical supplies have not made more than a token appearance in the last draft. The Chancellor has cancelled three consecutive meetings on the matter, and thus it was agreed that a more hands-on approach was needed. Any surplus will go into the Army fund.”

“Surely it can’t be that dire”, Oppo protests, a slightly less concerning shade of purple now. Senator Organa shrugs again, jostling the smattering of cracks slowly building around his person in a way that makes Mace wince quietly. “It’s all publicly available data, Masters.”

It really can be that dire, as it turns out. And quarter rations is only scratching the surface of how dire, considering the Guard has apparently never had access to bacta in all their posting, and also includes requisitioning forms available to the Senate for reconditionings and decommissionings, two words Mace has only heard Ponds whispers amidst shuddering in the early days of the war before Shaak Ti went off and just about tore some throats out over it.

“Alright”, he concedes, rubbing at his temples. “Fair enough, we have failed to tackle a massive blind spot in the Guard’s well being. There is no Jedi assigned to Coruscant, and that’s an oversight on our behalf. But how in the everloving kriff did this get past the Chancellor and Commander Fox?!”

Who have both signed, black on white. Bail Organa smiles cryptically. “Well, if you scroll a bit past that one image, up to the industrial speeder in the back - Commander Fox is currently having credits stuffed into his codpiece in the back, I believe.”

“HE’S WHAT IN THE WHAT NOW”, Commander Cody screeches through the speaker of Obi-Wan’s holo image, and Mace has to summon every bit of Jedi-serenity he possesses in his body to keep from dropkicking a cackling Yoda through the chamber windows.

[purplezombietumbler]

Every friend group Jedi Lineage should include:

A bimbo:

A mean bisexual:

An even meaner lesbian:

She/theys:

He/theys:

A token straight that’s on thin ice:

An astrology bitch who has everyone’s birth chart memorized:

A short king:

[skykind]

I gained some new followers—hello!—after sharing my "A Clone Wars Episode Deep Dive" post, and wanted to let folks know that I do have another Star Wars meta post in the works. Have a few paragraphs from the intro as a teaser in the meantime:

Symbolism and the Anakin-to-Vader Transition in Revenge of the Sith and The Clone Wars

The scenes in Revenge of the Sith and The Clone Wars that show Anakin becoming and being Darth Vader also feature an interesting narrative transition: the audience watches the character of Anakin Skywalker, who can usually be interpreted literally (as well as symbolically), transform into the character of Darth Vader, who is primarily symbolic. Narratively speaking, original-trilogy Vader doesn’t really exist as a literal person with a normal, day-to-day life that’s implied to unfold when he’s off screen, while prequel-era Anakin does.

[You have to wait to see what I think about all of that]

...

To set the stage for analyzing the epilogue of “Victory and Death” (The Clone Wars S7.E12), let’s quickly explore what’s happening when the episode's dialogue ends at minute 15: Ahsoka and Rex desperately jump out of the 332nd’s Venator—marking the final time they will serve aboard a Republic ship with their troops—and watch the ship proceed to crash, as all souls aboard are lost. As the crash unfolds, Anakin has already left the Republic and its ships behind to fight for the Empire.

While we’ll see all three characters again in “Victory and Death," and even at the same graveyard, none of them will speak. Removing the dialogue isn’t just a structural choice that creates greater room for visual storytelling—the quiet also symbolizes this pivotal end point they’ve reached. Ahsoka, Rex and Anakin will never return to the story that was told on Republic Venators over seven seasons; childhood, tens of thousands of Jedi and clone lives, and the age of democracy have just come crashing down through fire and smoke. The quiet also literally expresses Rex and Ahsoka’s shock and grief.

[wool-hat7]

Here’s 52 seconds of Mark Hamill being a dork because I can and I will 🫶🏻✨

[shootingstarpilot]

Do you have any advice for writing Mace Windu?

Hello friend! I've been sitting on this for a while, because everyone's got their own interpretations, but mine is based on an idea I was struggling to put words to.

(Caveat that I have not read Legends material, that people can write what they like, etc. etc.)

The way I see it, Lucas specializes in writing stories in terms of themes and archetypes. This is why certain dialogue choices or the development of certain relationships can be... clunky, let's go with that. Characters (Obi-Wan and Anakin fall into their own category, sure) are written primarily as archetypes. You have Yoda as the wise old sage, Sidious as the ultimate evil-

And Mace Windu as the ultimate good.

We see this in the Chancellor's office, right? During the final showdown. This is the moment where Anakin makes his choice- stay in the Light or Fall- and the characters visually representing that choice are Palpatine and Mace. He's the Master of the Order. He's raised a Padawan who sits on the Council with him. He's an incredibly skilled swordsman- hell, his fighting style of choice (Vaapad) epitomizes how clearly he's mastered the art of internal balance!

All of that to say- his whole character is built around the idea that he is the Good Guy. That would be the one piece of writing advice I would give. If you're wondering how to write him, start with that idea- that he is written to represent the absolute opposite of Sidious. He's the ultimate good. He is the illuminating Light to Sidious' corrupting Dark. This is why antagonistic portrayals of him never ring true to me- they're coming from a foundational understanding that I simply do not subscribe to. It reeks of a fundamental misunderstanding of his character and of the whole saga's themes.

(And also racism. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the racism that too often plays a significant role.)

All of that being said, what might it look like to write from the foundation of Mace being the representation of ultimate good? The good thing about characters being written as archetypes is that it gives us fans a significant amount of freedom in determining what those characters look like when they're written as characters. Different people will have different takes, but for me:

Well, first off- he's the epitome of a Jedi. So all of what that entails- he is fundamentally kind, fundamentally compassionate, and fundamentally in control of himself.

He's funny. I think he has a very dry sense of humor, and that he finds joy in the smallest things.

He loves so much. He loves his Padawan, he loves his friends, he loves his family, he loves the Republic- he loves the galaxy enough to go to war for it, and he loves the men who'll kill his people.

There will never be a situation where he has the capacity to help and chooses not to.

And last but not least, I choose to believe that this man can bake pastries with the best of them. In my heart of hearts, he's a stress baker, and he mends his socks with purple thread.

Hope this helps!

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

"Luke is different from the dogmatic PT Jedi! He saved his father with his attachment!"

Wrong. Luke didn't save Vader with his attachment, Luke saved Vader with compassion. Y'know, the unconditional love that is central to every Jedi's life.

Luke being attached to Vader would imply that Luke needs his father in his life to be happy. It would imply that, when Anakin asked his son to take off the mask, Luke wouldn't do it and would keep dragging Anakin to the shuttle. Perhaps that would have saved his father's life.

Attachment, despite looking like love on the surface, is not only a different thing, it's love's complete antithesis! Attachment is selfish, self-centered, it focuses more on your happiness than the other person's wellbeing. It's fear of loss, greed of wanting to stop the inevitable, and anger and hate when it eventually fails.

But… Luke doesn't do that. Luke stops and listens, and follows with his father's last request. In a way, you could argue that Luke killed Anakin, because he took off the life support that prevented Vader from dying. Luke does that because he respects his father's wishes, what his father wants, and puts it above his desire to have his father in his life.

When Anakin dies, Luke grieves for him, mourns for his father and for a life lost because he's that much of a saintly, kind-hearted soul.

But then he sees the Force Ghosts of his father and his Jedi Masters.

Luke smiles, his spirits lifted, and joins Han, Leia and the rest of the rebels on the celebration.

Because that's what compassion, true unconditional love is, not needing people in your life, being able to be happy without them, but loving and caring for them anyways.

That's what the Jedi believe, and that's what Luke embodies more than anything else.

[noramsblog]

Jedi leia organa save me... save me jedi leia organa

[reedsues]

jedi june 2024 — 30 instances of jedi bonding day 7: kit fisto & nahdar vebb

the clone wars, 1.10 lair of grievous