#indigenous anakin defensive

[underwaterspiderbird]

👏🏼FUCKING THIS👏🏼👏🏼

I don't wanna hear anyone arguing that the Jedi order was oh so good and caring towards Anakin but he was such a problem child who never listened.

This is an excerpt from “There is always another”, one of the CANON short stories in "Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View: the Empire Strikes Back":

This is extra significant because it's Obi-Wan who's talking. Obi-Wan - who never dared to question the wisdom of the Jedi order and was hard on Anakin for failing to do the same - is now the one who finally admits the truth after death, at least to himself.

Anakin was morally flawed and chose to do awful things of his own free will, but he did not fall because he was inherntly weak or wicked (Obi-Wan used to judge every fallen ex-Jedi like this). He fell because any Jedi in his position and with his trauma would have fallen.

Anakin’s trauma of surviving slavery meant that his traumatized mind would inevitably interpret the Jedi’s philosophy of “transcending selfhood” as “obliterating selfhood”.

And for an ex-slave; the concept of obliterating the self is the most terrifyingly triggering shit EVER.

Anakin and the Jedi order operated from completely different worldviews and lived realities, and it was inevitable for them to clash horrifically unless both of them were willing to understand each other and compromise.

And when we're talking about an institution of care and an individual under the care of that institution? The ultimue burden for reaching out and compromising falls on the institution, not the individual under their care.

And here's the tragic part (the part that Obi-Wan finally admitted to): It was only Anakin who made any real effort to reach out and compromise. He went to great lengths to re-shape himself to fit the Jedi order's needs. The Jedi order - in return - did very little to meet him halfway. There was no real effort on their part to understand Anakin's trauma, and they did not compromise or change anything about how they approach healing to fit Anakin's needs.

Their mantra of "letting" go" was great in theory and a wonderful solution in practice, but the Jedi did not bother to remove the mental blocks in Anakin's traumatized mind that prevented him from emotionally internalizing this wisdom and acting upon it (and isn't that the classic tension between religious/spiritual institutions and religious/spiritual people suffering from unhealed trauma?).

The Jedi order was too arrogant, too rigid, and too closed-minded that they did very little to even address the root of Anakin's trauma with slavery, let alone give him any practical tools to heal from it (and they even carelessly retraumatized him at times).

Anakin would have turned on them eventually, even if he never fell to the Dark Side. It was, sadly, an inevitable outcome.

[doopcafe]

The Clone Wars: Water War (4x01)

Summary: I have no idea? Squid things fight against Ackbar’s people underwater and nothing makes sense. 

Comments: Let me start off by saying that a shirtless Kitt Fisto was something I really didn’t need to see. 

Let me next say that twenty seconds of spoken exposition is insufficient to get me to care about what’s happening. 

Since the last series of episodes introduced a Cardboard Tarkin, this episode felt the unnecessary need to introduce a Cardboard Ackbar. 

The fish people don’t fare very well against the combined droid and squid army, but survive the first few minutes of confused battle. The squid people then bring in their secret weapon, an electric jellyfish that just sorta slowly floats around? 

Being secret and non-indigenous to the planet, only characters who have read the script know what it is, so we get this confused bit of dialogue:

Fish Prince: We have no defense against those. Anakin: This isn’t going to be easy.

But... what? What are those things? What do they do? Are they dangerous? What is their method of attack? 

Without knowing any of these things, the Fish Prince claims they can’t defend against them. Okay? This later proves to be true, as their blasters are ineffective against the jellies and they’re forced to swim away. If he already read the script, why didn’t he immediately swim away? Why did he wait to give the order to attack until the jellies were right on top of them? 

Our favorite ham sandwich, Anakin Skywalker, loses his helmet to a random soldier who’s smart enough to pull it off of him. Anakin flails around but gets distracted by other soldiers attempting to finish the kill as his helmet drops into the abyss and he starts to drown. There’s no point here, I just wanted to mention that with some bare minimum of writing ability, it is possible to set-up scenes where the main characters are in jeopardy. Of course, this is The Clone Wars so any chance at tension is dissolved by frequent cutaways of Ahsoka driving around her stupid speeder bike thing towards Anakin. 

Also, why do the blaster bolts not create steam? You know, vaporized water? Same question regarding the lightsabers. Did the animators just not want to bother? Coming from a show that doesn’t know how DNA works, it’s more likely they don’t understand phase changes of water? 

There’s a scene where the fish people are floating through a tube that gets cut in half and there’s a cutaway scene looking back at the section that’s falling towards the ocean floor. But like, the fish people that were on that side of the tube are like flailing around screaming like they’re falling out of a building... but like, they’re fish? They’re fish. In water. Everything’s water? The people are fish?

The worst part of this episode is when it ended, because the “story” hadn’t completed, which means I’ve gotta sit through probably two more episodes of this decrepit omelette of a television show. In a way, I almost miss the standalone episodes; this serialized shit sucks. 

In conclusion, the fish prince is alive with Cardboard Ackbar and a handful of troopers. 

[underwaterspiderbird]

they’re catholics with the facade of buddhists if anything, fuck outta here

The problem with a lot of the arguments in Star Wars fandom is that it’s like trying to criticize the material on the grounds of it being a bad historical documentary.  When you point out that it’s not a historical documentary, that it’s a space opera/fairy tale, you get back, “Apparently we’re not allowed to criticize anything anymore!”  Babe, no one said that.  They just said it’s not a historical documentary, meaning that if you’re going to criticize it, do it through what the story actually is, rather than by trying to jam it into a genre it was never intended to be. Anyway, that’s what it’s like trying to say, no, the Jedi aren’t Catholic, they’re Buddhists, and attachment means the desire to cling to someone so much that you’d sacrifice a thousand lives to possess them.  Nobody’s stopping you from criticizing them, we’re just pointing out that using a framework that they’re not a part of goes against what they actually are and that criticism should come from their actual content, not something they never were.

[underwaterspiderbird]

*whispers in your ear* the jedi aint as holy and pure as you mfs thought ;)

Me: Opens a YouTube poll on who you would prefer to have as a Jedi Master, Anakin or Obi-wan.

Some dude in the comments: “ Yea anakin was very open and level headed he knew that attachment was good he was just at odds with the councils dogma and hypocrisy”

Me:

Bonus Points: He also said that Obi-wan realized Anakin was in the right about “the mistakes of the Order” after Anakin KILLED HIM.

….

WHAT MOVIES DID THIS GUY WATCH!?!

….

At least the poll show the majority wanted Obi-wan as a Jedi master. But just why are some people like this?

[underwaterspiderbird]

Full offense, the Jedi fucking suck. Their temple and philosophy are placebos that hide the real evil the Jedi stand for. And their “found family” dynamic reads WAY more like kidnapping and assimilation when you’re an Indigenous person who’s child ancestors were actually kidnapped and assimilated by Catholic ppl JUST like the Jedi, who thought they were “just doing the right thing”, but no, they tore millions of innocent children from their parents arms, stripped them of their culture and fundamental identity even if they didn’t speak it out loud, and the Jedi are no different to me.

You cannot change my mind either. Fuck the Jedi, fuck your religious apologism, fuck your temple, fuck your younglings, fuck your found family, fuck your wishy washy “there is no emotion, there is peace” bullshit, fuck your victim blaming of a FORMER FUCKING CHILD SLAVE WHO NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO EVEN DEVELOP AS A PERSON OR HAVE A SINGLE SENSE OF NORMALCY, fuck your victim blaming in general, fuck your covert Catholic-dickriding, and fuck you. 🖕🏼

Why do people try to tell me lies on my autistic pro jedi post???

Like...uhhhh the jedi didn't deserve genocide BUT

And Jedi say emotions are EVIL!!! Like that was never ever said whatsoever in Star Wars. Being mindful and careful or how you react to your emotions does not equal 'emotions are evil.'

Also, why the fuck would u comment on someone's post that specifically says they're pro jedi and expect the anti jedi sentiment to be listened to seriously??? Like I don't go commenting on people's anti jedi posts, I know spending my time there isn't worth it.

Anyways, the Jedi fucking rock. Their temple is super cool, and the Buddhist-inspired philosophy is actually really nice and comforting. And their found family dynamic is absolutely lovely.

You cannot change my mind.

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

Ah, I gotta say that the way of defining colonialism in this context was intentionally vague; vibes are just feelings, impressions, associations.

I feel in need of a rewatch before I can substantially weigh in on Naboo's worldbuilding, but I do have one addition I want to make off the top of my head, which is that even if the humans and the gungans were not in conflict, only the humans were represented in the republic, and the whole planet were considered theirs in the republic. The Gungans were subject to Senate laws and Senate decisions, very weighty decisions in TPM, without representation. I feel like that's relevant.

As for Tatooine, people have been picking up colonialism 'vibes' about it just about forever- fans and legends writers and now disney writers have looked at it and thought, hmm, that looks a bit like settler-indigenous conflicts, let's go with that.

I want to point out that that the Tuskens were heavily influenced by the Bedouin people and the massacre was filmed in a Bedouin village, and that a lot of the filmotography in that part of AotC is very heavily influenced by 'The Searchers' with the Tuskens occupying the role of the Comanche people....

All of which to say that if Anakin's defense that the Tuskens are animals is meant to be taken literally, I think that might just be the single most racist interpretation of GL we can come too. Because that is racist. So. =/

And I suppose I don't really think it's all that strange for Padme to respond differently to genocide in two different contexts- 'not strange' , not meaning 'good', - if she's interacting primarily with Anakin's motives and emotional state. His mother was tortured to death and he was crying about it all in AotC, meanwhile he was grinning at her and promising her an empire in RotS, motivated by vaguely prophetic dreams. It doesn't land the same for plenty of the audience- I have people trying to justify genocide under a crime of passion defense right now in my notes as we speak- so it doesn't surprise me that it might not have landed the same for Padme either.

There's definitely something about the how the colonialism vibes of both Naboo and Tatooine, and Padme and Anakin when they discuss The Massacre, do all sort of fit together to paint a picture of some sort. (I mean Naboo was quite extraordinary really, they weren't even in contact with the indigenous people.)

and the way that fits with the whole picture of the republic and Padme's role

And it does have me sitting there squinting about how much was intentional commentary occasionally

[miss-nerd-alert]

I get that people get defensive over the Tuskens because of their Indigenous coding, and yes massacring an entire village is objectively bad, but this tribe in particular weren’t just innocent victims.

Anakin didn’t kill them for funsies, he killed them because they kidnapped his mom and tortured her to death. Should he have done it? No. But they shouldn’t kidnap and torture people, either.

Everyone likes to talk about how bad it was when Anakin killed the tuskens. And it was, don’t get me wrong it was most definitely a bad thing to do. But I get it man. If I found my mother strung up like a piece of meat and having been beaten and tortured and who knows what else for a month, and then she dies in my arms I would have absolutely gone as apeshit as he did and burned down the whole camp. It’s definitely bad to kill an entire village but it’s also very bad to kidnap and torture people, which it’s implies that the tuskens do a lot