#it doesn’t mean the jedi council are evil and that they deserve what anakin did to them and all those innocent children under their care

[phoenixyfriend]

In Which Palpatine Leaves the Door Open

So, @purronronner suggested this on discord:

au where anakin finds out about palpatine during clone wars era like, coming in for a visit and overhears a conversation with Dooku about war planning he’s been pulled between palpatine and the Jedi/obi-wan/various things but I want to see him pulled between palpatine and his men could go either way on the sith part of the reveal even

palpatine is not aware! unless anakin’s course of action is to go “hey palpatine I must have misunderstood something right? :(“

(This was a group effort but there's a thing I wrote that requires this context so please bear with me.)

I'm just imagining Anakin backing out, closing the door, and turning to the Corrie Guard by the door to say a thing... and not finding words.

Eventually "Did you guys know he was evil?" "He's a politician, sir." "But like the evil ranting..." "He's a politician. Sir."

He's willing to use his men to save R2, but that's because R2 was part of the team and helping, not arranging battles to make things worse.

Anakin: Normally, I'd go to Palpatine to talk about my problems, but right now he is the problem... Obi-Wan and Yoda are off-planet.... Anakin, phoning up Padme: Help?

Per @atagotiak we also have some Intense Thoughts

Oh hey. The deception arc. And the subsequent argument that we don't see and stuff. Like there's all the ways you could justify it especially from an opsec standpoint (If Anakin acts like that around Padme why would anyone assume he can keep a secret about anything?) And it was a pretty tactically important thing for the war as far as anyone knew. But just. I've heard some people say that perhaps also Obi-Wan reasoned that hurting Anakin is an ok price to pay to make sure someone Anakin cares for doesn't die for real which seems plausible enough.

Anyways. My point is. Anakin gets a front row seat to sheevception when he actually sorta knows whats going on. Gets sidetracked halfway through yelling and stuff to think about how convoluted this whole mess is.

For more clone-centric things all the times Palpatine's like "I wish I could do more, it's truly regrettable, but..." Would just seem awfully fake now.

Anakin, belatedly: Wait, does this mean that, behind all the layers of bullshit, Palpatine was the one trying to kill Padme at the start of the war???

WHICH IS WHAT LEADS TO A WHOLE LOT OF FUN and yes this is the part I'm sort of proud of.

Okay so: Anakin's a shit liar, yes?

After he meanders over to Padme and has a breakdown, he then goes off to tell the Council about all this. I imagine she goes with him as moral support, and also because she wants to protect him from them calling him out on his legitimately terrible decisions. They're trying to come up with a plan to take Palpatine down without tipping their hands too early, because they need to investigate; for the sake of this plot point, we'll say that Palpatine mentioned a contingency plan while talking to Dooku, even if he didn't directly name the chips.

Someone mentions that Palpatine is going to ask to see Anakin, because he does regularly. And, as experience has shown, there is very little that will stop Palpatine from insisting that Anakin come see him. They can stall for a bit, maybe, but not for long.

"You could send me to the other side of the galaxy," Anakin suggests. "Short notice, so sorry, won't be around for a bit."

They point out that won't work forever.

"So... arrest me, or put me on a mental health hold?" Anakin tries. "Say I got violent at civilians or the clones for no reason and you need to make sure I won't hurt him, and then even if he visits me in the cell, I don't have to act normal 'cause he'll EXPECT me to be upset."

Palpatine presumably has spies all over, so he'd know that hadn't actually happened. Also, Anakin's too important to the war effort for anything short of a cold-blooded murder of an innocent, and they can't just take him off the field without an absolutely massive violation of the Code or his orders.

"Tell him I Fell," Anakin offers.

A Sith Lord would be able to feel that from across the galaxy, if it had happened, especially with the amount of time that he's put into grooming Anakin.

"Oh," Anakin says, and his stomach drops out as he realizes that he can either keep his secrets, or keep people alive.

He thinks about how Palpatine had targeted Padme already, and how if Palpatine thinks Anakin's betrayed him, then he'll probably do that again.

He thinks about 'a Sith Lord would know' and realizes... well.

Anakin values his freedom, but he also values his men, his padawan, his master, his wife... the wife that's in danger if Palpatine knows that Anakin caught him out.

The Order has to keep Anakin away from Palpatine. They need an excuse to arrest him. They need an excuse to hide him away, one that Palpatine won't question too hard.

A Sith Lord would know if Anakin fell. Even if he came back afterwards.

"So... so tell him you found out about the Tusken Massacre."

The what.

"...tell him you found out about the time I actually did Fall," Anakin says, squeezing Padme's hand. She knows. She's the only one who knows, on Coruscant, other than the Sith they're hunting. "On... on Tatooine. You can claim it was an anonymous tip. He already knows about that one. He's one of the only two people outside Tatooine that do. He might not question it."

(He won't question it.)

What did you do, Skywalker.

"I killed... a lot of people. A Tusken tribe. Including the children. Right before the war hit."

----

It's a hell of a way to fall on his figurative sword.

(Mace is... both impressed that Anakin would take the hit to make sure they can handle the Palpatine problem, and horrified about the Massacre, because... who wouldn't be.)

(Mace is unfortunately Anakin's main handler on this project.)

Anakin puts in so much effort, all the time, into not Falling, so it’s surprisingly (terrifyingly!) easy for him to fake a 'near miss' with the Dark just by thinking really hard about things that make him angry. Nobody wants him actually Falling for the ploy if they can help it, but they need to sell the bit, and Anakin's... well. He's Anakin. It's easy to think about his own emotional volatility until any control goes out the window.

He's sacrificing a lot for this mission! It's fine! He's fine!

(Padme, the council is judging you so hard right now.)

Palpatine comes to visit Anakin in prison, and it is very easy for Anakin to disguise his anger as... a different anger. I have a very intense mental image of Anakin working himself up into a frenzy when Palpatine comes to visit, and then at some point in the following conversation he just snaps something about how "you said they were animals who deserved to die."

The Council can even eke it out a bit, make it so they don't want to admit why Anakin's in prison or under a psychiatric hold or whatever they claim it is, so their "I'm hiding something vibes" look like "I'm hiding the fact that one of our most recognizable war heroes just came clean as a mass murderer and we have no idea how to handle it" instead of "I'm hiding that we know you're a Sith Lord and are working to take you down."

Obi-Wan comes back from an off-world mission to find out that Mace arrested his former padawan and Ahsoka hasn't stopped crying for three days because nobody will tell her what's going on.

(The Council decided this couldn't be risked on even an encrypted comm.)

(They maybe tell him soon enough? But also they might treat it like the Hardeen thing and use his reaction as fuel to keep Palpatine convinced.)

SKYGUY GOT ARRESTED AND NOBODY'S EXPLAINING WHY.

Rex is overwhelmed because it's been his job to keep her calm.

Anyway, padawanship has been temporarily transferred to the grandmaster. You were half-training her anyway.

Insert a subplot about Obi-Wan being horrified and betrayed and aiming the feeling at Padme because she knew about the Tuskens and never told.

[willowcrowned]

One of the things I love about star wars time travel AUs are that they allow you to stick characters together and manufacture the situation for Maximum Chaos. Some of my favorite iterations of this are:

Leia gets sent back to the prequels. Because she’s Leia, she verbally eviscerates everyone she deems either incompetent, downright malicious, or both. Because it’s the prequels, that means she verbally eviscerates everyone. Please imagine 5′1″ Princess Leia Organa staring down 6′4″ Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and telling him that he’s an idiot. Please imagine him losing the stare-down. Please imagine her repeating this process on the entirety of the Jedi Council, before shooting Palpatine while giving him a withering look. Palpatine technically dies from the blaster shot, but everyone agrees that it was the glare that really did him in.

Obi-Wan gets sent forward in time to about a week a week after ANH. Vader, who has presumably been doing his brood-in-his-evil-futuristic-hyperbaric-chamber thing, suddenly feels Obi-Wan again. This does not surprise him, because Obi-Wan disappearing just as he was about to get sliced in half is a little too convenient for a man who faked his death on four separate occasions. When he hunts Obi-Wan down, Obi-Wan is young, ginger, and under the impression that Vader is a Sith Lord that he’s never met. Vader’s fury that Obi-Wan is somehow alive is only matched by his fury that Obi-Wan doesn’t even remember barbecuing him, and, as such, he cannot figure out what to do. Queue Vader standing stock-still, having an existential crisis while staring at Obi-Wan, who just wants to know what the hell is going on.

Luke from just before ANH gets sent back in time to the height of the Clone Wars. He and Anakin get captured and stuck in a cell together, but neither of them reveal their names. Eventually Luke starts talking about his dad, the spice freighter pilot, and how he died in a tragic brakes accident while on Tatooine. When he does mention his dad’s name, Anakin’s only reaction is a horrified “I die on Tatooine????!!!”

Luke and Han get sent back to AotC and end up on Kamino. In between Han trying not to punch every clone he comes across (they all look like that bastard), Luke makes friends with a lot of the future officers. Since he’s technically a Jedi, when he suggests overthrowing the Kaminoans, they decide to follow him. What ensues is the shortest revolution in the history of ever. The Kaminoans have no defenses, and they can’t activate the chips themselves. When Jango Fett gets back, Han actually does punch him in the face, because hitting a kid is beneath him and this guy is technically also a Fett, so it counts. Luke, Jango, and Han start a union for the clones. Whenever Palpatine tries to conscript them, he gets thoroughly and politely told off, until he makes the visit himself, at which point Luke tosses him down a reactor shaft.

Padmé from the Clone Wars gets sent forward in time to a year or two after RotS. She finds Vader, convinces him to kill Palpatine, and goes to find her babies. She spends her days splitting time between building a new Republic, helping Anakin through his redemption arc, and playing with her kids. Also, she gives Obi-Wan a hug. Because he deserves it.

[gch1995]

Anakin killed the kids because he was ordered to and was too lost on the dark side and his fear to lose Padme to think rationally at this point. Not because of the environment he was raised in.

Your ‘friend’ went on a weird off topic rant, probably to deflect because they couldn’t answer my question as well. I was just asking if you had any evidence to what you were claiming to be true, which you don’t seem to have.. I mean, of course you can’t give an actual headcount (not was I was asking at all), but do you have an example? A mission that went wrong where a Jedi murdered a kid?? A reference? Something other than “I know it’s likely to have happened”.

Also Anakin was 22 when he became Vader, how can he have “spent over 30 years of his life in environments in which children soldiers of 6 (once again, proof? Why 6??) and older were treated no differently from the adult soldiers/Jedi” ? That doesn’t make sense

And once again, where/when exactly has Anakin been taught that children/padawans are “expendable collateral damage”?

You keep saying factually false things and expect people to jump in your “actuality it’s the Jedi fault” bandwagon. I mean, you thought Maul was Yoda’s apprentice…

No, Anakin was not taught to kill kids personally by the Jedi. I’ll grant that, while he does struggle to believe he can just say no to Sidious with a slave mindset, lack faith in his own already compromised agency, and lack of faith in his own morality under a lifetime of conditioning to take orders and back up the beliefs of abusive, corrupt, oppressive, and manipulative authority figures, seeing human rights violations, child abuse, child endangerment, child conscription for weaponry, child abandonment, child sacrifice, and endangerment and/or murder for that purported “greater good” after being recruited by the Jedi to the end of his life, there also was a personal selfishness when he took those orders and/or carried out what he was taught to do with the dark side by Sidious in the Empire. He also committed those horrible crimes to deal with his anger, paranoia, self-loathing, fear of being hurt, fear of being defied, fear of having no one, and/or fear of losing loved ones in the heat of the moment with his troops, innocent families, and/or kids, too. He didn’t revel in committing those crimes. Ultimately, he hated himself for committing them. However he still committed them anyway because he didn’t think he could stop after being groomed to view these atrocious deeds as “necessary evils” for “the greater good” throughout most of his life, he’d spent most of his life being conditioned to serve, and after going dark and losing Padme he became too deeply entrenched in his own anger, fear, and self-loathing to even try. He felt he deserved this fate after pushing away Padme, and contributing to her death when he choked her in a blind rage, even if inadvertently.

Anakin was a lifelong victim with deeply compromised agency, but he also did become a villain with an atonement arc at the end that was possible because deep down he always knew the means he’d taken to justify the ends for these authority figures and/or out of his own anger and paranoia were reprehensible. He did become a coward, regardless of the severely compromised agency of learned helplessness, grooming, and limited options under abusive and corrupt authority and PTSD symptoms. Therefore, he does hold at least diminished responsibility.

The point is that from a psychological standpoint it makes sense that Anakin could learn to justify killing kids with that whole “greater good” excuse in mind because he spent a lot of time being endangered as a child himself on missions with the Jedi, saw other kids he grew up with being life-threateningly endangered in the Jedi, saw other padawan being left behind got trained to be a weapon himself as a child, saw the Jedi Council was willing to execute his 16 year old padawan for a war crime they had limited evidence of her committing, then exiled her with nothing, and/or saw kids being used as combatants or left behind in missions and/or war “for the greater good” in not just the Sith/Empire but the Jedi Order/Republic, too.

The point is that Darth Vader is not just a creation of Anakin’s own bad decisions. He’s also a product of decades of systematic abuse, crime, grooming, and human rights violations against both children and adults, regardless of their guilt or innocence, “for the greater good,” that was enabled and/or perpetuated in both the Jedi Order/Republic and the Sith/Empire for much of his life.

Anakin’s not innocent, far from it, but it is not as simple as him being evil incarnate who had this darkness in him all along, nonny. He had to learn it from somewhere, which is the case with a lot of people who become abusers and criminals as adults in real life, too. Yes, they had a choice to be better and do better, even if they weren’t fully aware of it under shitty circumstances with limited to nonexistent healthy support and safe options, which is the case with Anakin. They knew what they were doing felt wrong, so in that sense, they are guilty of their crimes. However, they also often weren’t just born inherently corrupt and evil who had it in them to become that way all along, no matter what. Many adults who become perpetrators of abuse, crime, and injustice often had to learn how to be that way themselves, and how to normalize committing those atrocities and injustices because they are/were often victims of abuse and injustices themselves under authority figures who conditioned them to normalize enabling and/or perpetuating those sort of toxic behaviors and/or mindsets, whether intentionally or not.

You certainly wanted a story that simple, though, considering how much you want to see the other Jedi adults of his time as “blameless.”

The point I was making is that we hold responsibility for our own choices as adults, for better or worse, so long as we can sense right from wrong, regardless of horrible circumstances, but we’re also often influenced and shaped by our environments and relationships with other people in adulthood, for better or worse, too, so those who have/had power and influence over us are also responsible for helping shape our beliefs, our emotional/mental health, and making sure we’re safe. Aside from his mother, none of the authority figures who held power over him throughout Anakin’s life used that power kindly, mindfully, and wisely, so they have a hand in helping create Vader, whether intentionally or not, which means Palpatine’s not the only one at fault. Obi Wan and the Jedi Council are too, even if they never intended to help create a monster.

Yes, Anakin made very bad decisions that hurt a lot of innocent people who didn’t deserve it, including children, which he knew felt wrong, regardless of the hell of a life he had of deeply compromised agency under abusive, hypocritical, manipulative, and oppressive authority, limited to nonexistent healthy support options, limited to nonexistent safe escape options, and very poorly treated/neglected emotional/mental health PTSD symptoms. He did stop trying after going dark, and, while sympathetic, his motives for going dark were also partially personally selfish, too.

However, you also can’t deny that he’d probably have become more like the ideal hero his son Luke was in the OT movies if he’d been able to grow up with that healthy and stable family and home life for his first 18 years of life before getting involved with the Jedi, and hadn’t had such a horrible life of constantly compromised agency under abusive, corrupt, hypocritical, manipulative, and oppressive authority figures who conditioned him to serve as a powerful weapon or tool “for the greater good” instead.

[gch1995]

^ This! I don’t think he’s this entirely innocent snowflake who never did anything wrong, and shouldn’t be held accountable for his crimes as an adult. Anakin was selfish, and he knows it. However, to act like the Jedi Order and Palpatine didn’t have a hand in turning him into the exceedingly desperate, validation seeking, deferential, emotionally unstable, and reckless broken mess of a man by emotionally abusing and neglecting him more often than not when he was under them, is insane to me.

The thing that gets to me with Anakin is, unlike with most characters with terrible childhoods, his childhood wasn't the cause of him doing the wrong thing in the end, it was actually the arguably better circumstances he was in after. With most characters it's "I'm evil because tragic backstory of abuse, etc", but with Anakin, he would probably have been better off left on Tatooine as a slave and that says a lot.

Yes, but i’d also like to add that Anakin’s childhood role in his own downfall works as a reminder, even if an unintentional one, that ignoring something doesn’t make it go away. That any philosophy or way of life, even one as benign as the Jedi’s, when taken to extremes can cause harm. Yes, so many terrible adult behaviors are the result of unhealthy childhoods but Anakin’s case take us one step further by showing us that taking a child from a traumatic situation is only half the battle.

Unlike those who subscribe to the “Anakin was whiny/spoiled” theory, I don’t believe Anakin had a pampered life as a Jedi. I don’t believe Qui-Gon’s rescue saved Anakin and made his childhood okay. Better than poverty and slavery? Yes, Gui-Gon gave him a childhood free of *those* traumas, but not a childhood free of (all) trauma. Being forced away from everything and everyone you know and love can be just as traumatic as being bullied, beaten and starved.

As you said, it’s pretty evident that Anakin was happier as a slave than he was as a Jedi, and once we realize that truth it’s impossible to not recognize the damage the Jedi life inflicted on him. Unlike so many fictional antagonists, Anakin’s story doesn’t tell us that bad childhood breeds bad people, it doesn’t try to excuse his current behavior on his past. In turn, It tells us that unhealthy upbringings and untreated trauma are damaging to *everyone*. The problem wasn’t in Anakin’s childhood, it was in the society that dismissed and ignored all the warning signs. We could say it’s a cautionary tale. It forces to look at our own responsibilities as humans and as citizens. We can bury our heads in sand and pretend everything wrong in the world is the result of one person’s actions or we can own up to our choices and acknowledge our role in it all. Anakin’s fate is the result of his actions as an adult but we can’t pretend his actions as an adult weren’t shaped by everything that happened in his life. the sad part is that, for Anakin, the most brutal part of his life was the most happy and that his formative years were spent surrounded by adults who were trying to manipulate and use him or were simply ignoring his issues (or their true source).

That’s why I believe it’s fair to say Anakin’s childhood, as traumatic as it was, wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was that as a child/teen Anakin was surrounded by people unable or unwilling to help him heal. He was removed from a terrible situation but he wasn’t “saved”, he wasn’t helped. At least, not in the way he truly needed.

This is also why it’s so frustrating to see people put everything on Anakin’s shoulder. Idk, it reminds me so much of the dismissive nature of our society (and most fictions) on the subject of mental health. Oh the person was removed from immediate harm? Then everything is fine, they get to live happily ever after and behavior that deviates from that is labeled as weakness.

Anakin didn’t made bad decisions because he was stupid, crazy, weak or arrogant. He made them because he was ill, because he needed help, counseling and no one around was capable/willing to provide him the help he so desperately needed. Don’t get me wrong, Anakin made some terrible things and he absolutely should be held accountable for his own choices as an adult but to dismiss all the trauma and abuse he survived throughout his entire life is, in my opinion, unspeakably cruel.

[stonefreeak]

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing alright in these times. If not, I hope that maybe this can at least be a bit of cheering up. Er... that I’m updating, I mean.

When Obi-Wan gets the comm message from Anakin, asking to meet, he immediately checks with Blast regarding his schedule. No doubt is Anakin upset regarding Palpatine's arrest and needs support.

Which, of course, Obi-Wan will take time out of his busy schedule for Anakin. Anything else would be unthinkable. 

He makes sure his schedule is freed up for the rest of the day and then he sends Anakin an affirmation. Obi-Wan would have prefered to have this conversation in the Temple, at home, but Anakin’s message was urgent enough that Obi-Wan doesn’t want to cause any unnecessary delays.

He can only imagine how hard this must be for Anakin, after all. He’s always looked up to and trusted Palpatine implicitly. Regardless of Obi-Wan’s feelings regarding Palpatine in particular, he knows it’s hard to have your trust betrayed.

When Anakin finally arrives in Obi-Wan's office, he's pale faced and the Force around him roils with anger and sadness.

Obi-Wan suppresses a wince at the uncomfortable feeling. Perhaps he can lead Anakin through some meditation to help him deal with it, but he cannot be sure. Anakin has always been rather private about his meditation, uncomfortable with doing it in front of others. Obi-Wan has always tried to be respectful of that, even when he's wanted to make sure that Anakin is managing well, but as Anakin’s grown older Obi-Wan has had to accept his independence and trust his words that his meditation goes well.

One of the hardest things for a teacher is learning to let go.

Until you do... you can never become a master. Learning to let your student go, letting them choose their own path, is an important step in becoming a Jedi Master. Only very rarely does anyone receive the title without having taken a Padawan for that exact reason. For most, the act of letting your Padawan go is the first time you’re ever truly faced with such a decision.

"Obi-Wan! Have you seen the news?" Anakin goes straight to the point, as always.

Obi-Wan smothers the smile that wants to break out on his face at his friend's predictability—he's well aware that it would not be well received right now.

"I have. Come, sit." Obi-Wan takes a seat on the sofa and pats the spot next to him. Anakin may want to pace, but Obi-Wan has always harboured the suspicion that rather than expend energy, it only makes Anakin twist himself into knots of increasing frustration and manic energy. If he can just help Anakin calm down, this conversation is no doubt going to go far better than otherwise.

“How are you, Anakin?” Obi-Wan knows that the answer may be quite obvious judging by how Anakin feels in the Force, like rolling thunder clouds spewing lightning everywhere, but he’d much rather ask than presume. Better to let Anakin use his own words—especially as he may not even be here to talk about this in particular.

“Angry. I’m… so angry.” Anakin’s face twists up in a snarl as he speaks, but he does take the offered seat, hands clenching in his trouser legs. 

Obi-Wan lays a careful hand on his shoulder, but says nothing. Best to let Anakin get his thoughts sorted out properly and verbally expressed before Obi-Wan gets involved.

“I can’t believe they’re going to pull Mr Palpatine in front of a jury on corruption charges. It’s ridiculous!”

Obi-Wan hides a wince at those words. It’s… not ridiculous. Not at all. But Anakin doesn’t know just how not-ridiculous it is, because Obi-Wan has not had the strength or courage to explain it to him yet.

He’s let his fears of Anakin’s reaction hold him back, but he’s simply not certain if Anakin is ready to hear it.

Anakin idolises Palpatine in a way that seems neither healthy nor… earned, really. It makes Obi-Wan uncomfortable, and in his attempts to not drive Anakin away, he’s tamped down on his own unease around Palpatine.

He’s always been very careful of how he speaks of Palpatine, and he wonders now if that has been a mistake. If he’d been more frank about his unease while Anakin was still a child…

The past cannot be changed, and Obi-Wan must live with and accept the choices he’s made. Perhaps being more frank about Palpatine—regardless of how uncertain Obi-Wan was in his position as Jedi Knight in comparison to the most powerful man in the Republic—would have helped give Anakin a clearer view of the man… But there’s no saying whether or not it wouldn’t have the opposite effect, and instead drive Anakin away from Obi-Wan and the Jedi.

Anakin has had his doubts, but he’s always come back to the path of the Jedi in the end. Obi-Wan wouldn’t have wanted to sow hurt and mistrust, doubt and shame, when it wasn’t necessary. So he’s been careful, especially as he’s never truly had the ability to stop Palpatine from gaining access to Anakin. There’s never been anything odd during the visits he’s supervised, and many of them happened while Obi-Wan was not even on Coruscant in the first place.

What has been, has been. What has been done, has been done. Obi-Wan has to live with it as it is now. And if the fallout is grave, then he must be prepared to deal with it.

“I’m sure the investigators have good reasons for what they’re doing,” he says gently, eyeing Anakin closely.

Anakin whose mouth drops open and whose face drains of blood.

“How can you say that?” Anakin snarls. “They’re pulling a man who’s given everything for the Republic, who put off his retirement from a high-stress and high-pressure position due to public support in front of a jury on made-up charges!”

Obi-Wan flinches back. Made-up? Why in all the Core Worlds does Anakin think that whatever charges that will be brought up against Palpatine are made up?

He flounders, uncertain how to voice his thoughts in a way that will not make Anakin angrier or even worse: defensive.

“I… Anakin. There are Jedi taking part in the investigation, they wouldn’t—” He’s not allowed to finish his sentence before Anakin cuts him off.

“Hah! They don’t trust politicians either, just like you and the Council, most likely. So if some other part of the investigation fakes evidence, they won’t question it! I’m sure of it.”

Obi-Wan stares at Anakin in horror. Where are these horrific thoughts coming from? Obi-Wan knows Anakin has always tended to keep himself separate from his peer group, and his close friends have always been few. But to actively distrust his community members to this point...?

How badly has Obi-Wan failed to help him integrate into the Jedi culture if he cannot imagine them taking their jobs seriously and working to look beyond their biases in a situation as critical as the investigation of the former Chancellor of the Galactic Republic…?

“You truly believe that your fellow Jedi would let their supposed biases blind them so completely that they wouldn’t be diligent in an investigation of this much importance? That they would allow for the investigation to proceed in bad faith?”

Anakin blinks, stops, and starts rubbing his forehead as if it’s hurting.

“Yes. No… I don’t… No. No, I don’t.” He sighs explosively and grips his hair with both hands. “I’m just frustrated, I suppose. I know Palpatine isn’t corrupt, and it just feels like they’re pulling him into court for something really small, or something made up.”

Obi-Wan sighs, partly in relief though his disquiet remains.

“For your sake, Anakin, I hope that there is nothing to find, that what I found was just coincidences.” However… Obi-Wan is almost entirely certain that it was not. There are just too many coincidences for it to seem real. The notes on the missions leading to the investigation into Jedi missions which has borne fruit, Obi-Wan’s findings that started the investigation into Mas Amedda and Palpatine which has led to so many arrests already.

Surely it cannot be a coincidence. All of it… it must be connected somehow. Somehow this all leads back to the Sith Lord, and Obi-Wan is becoming more certain that Palpatine is being manipulated by him. At best. 

He cannot help but fear that Palpatine is not so much manipulated as an active collaborator.

Judging by the twisted grimace on Anakin’s face, however, that is a thought Obi-Wan should keep to himself for the time being. Best to lead him into this slowly rather than overwhelm him. If he ends up doing something inadvisable in a fit of emotion… The fallout could be too terrible to contemplate.

~~~~

Anakin had… had almost forgotten that Obi-Wan started this whole investigation. Of course, he isn’t sympathetic to Anakin right now. He probably thinks this is what Palpatine deserves, or some bantha shit like that.

“You started this.” He doesn’t mean to say it, but the words fall out of his mouth before he can stop them. None of this would have happened if Obi-Wan had just let it be a regular power handover. But he didn't, he decided to go after Palpatine, accuse him of things...

"You started this whole thing," Anakin whispers again, staring at Obi-Wan. "None of this would have happened if you hadn't..."

"Anakin..." Obi-Wan both looks and sounds horrified. "I did my duty. I saw things that did not add up, and I reported it. If I had kept quiet about it... If I had done nothing, looked the other way... Anakin, that is precisely how corruption flourishes. How evil flourishes. By everyone else looking the other way and doing nothing."

Evil? Did... Did Obi-Wan just call Palpatine evil? Palpatine who's been by Anakin's side since childhood?

"How dare you!" he roars, taking some pleasure in watching Obi-Wan flinch backwards.

"Anakin, please, calm down." Obi-Wan raises his hands, a gesture of peace and proof of no ill intentions. Typical Obi-Wan, always so calm and bloody reasonable. As if he’s never had an upset emotion in his entire damn life.

He opens his mouth to say something else, but Anakin is beyond listening now. He flies to his feet, rage is flaring up inside him so hot he cannot breathe past it; with every exhalation it pours out of him in a stream of angry words.

"I should have known you carry a grudge against him! That's all this is, isn't it? You're angry that he was there for me when you couldn't be!"

Obi-Wan rears backwards again, as if slapped in the face, but Anakin refuses to back down. He's not going to let Obi-Wan's feelings derail this argument. It's too important for that!

"Palpatine is trustworthy! He's done so much for the Republic, and you and the Council just refuse to see it!" he snarls. "It all just comes down to your dislike and distrust of politicians, doesn't it?"

"Anakin, please, that's not it! You don't understand," Obi-Wan pleads, hands in the air, spread and reaching, but he stays back, doesn't move closer to Anakin. Like he’s afraid.

Good.

"If you're so wrapped up in your dislike of politicians that you can't trust him, can't you at least trust me when I say he's trustworthy? He's been there for me for over a decade, Obi-Wan. I know I can trust him!" Anakin‘s heart pounds in his chest and he can feel his own pulse in his neck, heavy and wild.

He stares at Obi-Wan, hopes so much that he will just... See what Anakin sees. Understand that Palpatine is not the enemy, he's a good politician, one of the few of them. Anakin is sure of it. This whole corruption investigation will come away with nothing and Obi-Wan will feel foolish then. Yeah, it's going to trial, but Anakin just knows it's going to prove Palpatine innocent. Who knows what will happen with Mas Amedda, but Palpatine will surely be fine. If only Obi-Wan could see that!

"Anakin..." Obi-Wan's voice is heavy and he can't meet Anakin's eyes.

Anakin's heart drops to his stomach and his chest aches. No. No. Things were going so well, they were mending the gap... and now... Obi-Wan just refuses to...

Oh.

"You don't trust me." The truth of it is like a lightsaber through the chest.

Obi-Wan doesn't trust him.

"Anakin! What are you saying? Of course I—!" Obi-Wan begins, but Anakin cuts him off again, can’t bear to hear him try to lie his way out of this conversation.

"No. You care, I have felt in the Force how much you care about me, I'm not stupid so I know that's true... But just because you care about me doesn't mean you trust me." He tries to swallow around the lump in his throat. He wishes it wasn't true, he does, but he knows it is.

"That's not—Anakin, please, that's not tru—!"

"It is! You don't trust me! The Council doesn't either!" His rage keeps building in his chest, and he can feel a headache coming on with how hard his pulse is beating. "But it doesn't matter right now. I want to know why you refuse to trust Palpatine. You trust Bail, don't you?" He has to make Obi-Wan see that his position regarding Palpatine is ridiculous. How can he distrust Palpatine simply because he's a politician if he trusts other politicians?

"I do, but Anakin—!"

"And you trust Padmé!"

The briefest of hesitations.

Anakin's heart plummets.

"I d—!"

"You don't trust Padmé either." It feels like a betrayal. A complete and utter betrayal. Anakin's chest hurts. How can Obi-Wan distrust Padmé? Anakin has to know. It's like he's woken up in an upside-down galaxy where everything is just a horrible farce of what it should be; so very very wrong. "Why? You brought her in on the investigation regarding Jedi missions. Why would you do that if you don't trust her? That makes no sense, Obi-Wan!"

"I did trust her, Anakin. Even so that is not the point. Regardless of whether I trust you, her, Bail, Senator Ha'han-ash, Senator Chuchi or anyone else has no bearing what so ever on whether or not I trust Palpatine. I have my reasons, Anakin, it's not just... Anakin?" Obi-Wan steps closer.

Anakin can't listen to him anymore. His mind has centred on one thing and it's all he can think of.

"Did."

"Pardon?" Obi-Wan sounds baffled.

"Did. Not do. You did trust her." Anakin stares at Obi-Wan, his stomach is fit to boiling with anger and upset and soon he can't bear to even look at his friend anymore. His eyes fall away.

"Anakin..."

"I can't do this right now, Obi-Wan. I just... I need space. Come back to me once you've got your head on straight so you're actually capable of trusting people again. I cannot believe you, I just... No."

He turns on his heel and stalks out of the room, ignoring Obi-Wan calling for him.

He can't stand to even look at him anymore.

How could he?

Everything was... Everything was...

How could he?

—

(Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi masterpost)

[sirikenobi12]

Well then, you’re lost! - Jedi Rant

This is in response to someone who posted on one of my other blogs. Apparently there is a character limit on responses on Tumblr, so forgive me - I didn’t want to post this in multiple responses!   I never meant to imply that you condone mass murder, that was not what I was trying to say. My comment was meant to simply bring up the fact that one cannot compare the light side of the Force to being just as corrupt as the dark side – as soon as someone is “corrupt”, they are no longer following the light side of the Force (hence Dooku) which is the point.

You said that you are speaking about the Force in the Star Wars universe, well, that is exactly what I’m talking about as well. You say it is an “Essence” and isn’t “good or bad”, but I am sorry to say that is actually the opposite of what George Lucas has said about the Force. That is why I quoted him, he is the creator of Star Wars and he has the end all/be all authority on this galaxy – because he is the one who created it. George Lucas has REPEATEDLY stated that there cannot be a gray area in the Force, it is either light or dark (good or bad) and ANY darkness throws the Force off balance. In terms of the Force itself, straight from the man who created it there CANNOT be any gray and the light side is inherently good.

Now, let’s also take a look at it from even a moral standpoint and not a fictional standpoint – does anyone ever say “I’m really worried about him because he’s being too good a person”?? (If so, then I’m a little concerned for society). No, but we do worry when someone is acting selfish or letting themselves lose themselves to an obsession.

Now, were the Jedi perfect? No, and I never said they were, but did their “failure” mean they deserved genocide? Absolutely not. To say their order deserved to “fall” (aka be wiped out) that is victim blaming of the highest level. Even IF the Jedi were “corrupt” as people say they are that doesn’t mean they deserved what they received. Also, it does not keep Sheev or Anakin away from blame – two “wrongs” don’t make a right.

By the end of the Republic the Jedi were in a trap created by the Sith, all of the points you brought up (with the exception of “taking children” which I will address later) were perpetrated by the Sith. Sidious designed this trap so the Jedi would be painted in a corner and have no way out. But they still tried their best to do what was right despite all of this. For example, you bring up the use of a clone/slave army – well, what was the alternative? Please, tell me what the alternative was because no one who throws that accusation at the Jedi have an answer and I’d love to hear a legit one. Sidious gave Sifo-Dyas a vision (much like the ones he gave Anakin) which caused him to create an army without the Council’s knowledge or approval – in fact he had gone to the Council first demanding the Jedi create an army and they emphatically said “no” because of the moral implications of it. But, now here they were in the middle of being slaughtered on Geonosis and Yoda brought the army to save them. Then, the Senate (whom the Jedi were beholden to) decided to use the army to fight the Separatist, the Jedi instead of hanging back knew it was their duty to not only defend the people Republic, but also to destroy the Sith (who was in charge of the CIS army) so they joined in. Most of the Jedi ended up treating their men like the sentient beings they were (and were the first ones who did), which was not true of many citizens of the Republic. And had the Jedi NOT taken control of the GAR what do you think would’ve happened to the Clones?? Do you actually think the Kaminoans would’ve let them go free? – no, the Kaminoans are selfish business people and would’ve either destroyed them or more likely sold them into actual slavery.

Now, the Jedi code seemed to work for everyone else EXCEPT Anakin Skywalker, why does no one see that?? Sure, the Jedi were not allowed to get married and have children, it wasn’t because they “weren’t allowed to love” on the contrary they were encouraged to love, you don’t think they didn’t know Anakin loved Padme?? Jedi were trusted to not let it become an attachment because attachments lead to jealousy which lead to anger and given the type of power they possess that is dangerous. They are also committed to the Jedi order, think of it like they are married to the Jedi Order. If they were to go out and get married to someone else there is no way they could give 100% commitment to both the Jedi and their family/spouse. But, they are given the option to leave if they want to choose a family/marriage, is it a difficult choice? Yes of course, but that is an option. Anakin decided he was better than EVERYONE else and lied to the Jedi because he couldn’t give up the power/status that came with being one.

Going back to the Jedi “taking” children that is just the most absurd falsehood I hear going around. It is 100% the parent’s choice to give their child to the Jedi. Being a Jedi is an honor in this galaxy and it brings incredible honor to the family I’d imagine, but the Jedi have NEVER in any canon been shown to put pressure on a parent to give their child up. In fact in the Clone Wars we even see a mother saying “Master Ropal said I have more time with him” to a bounty hunter who was actually there to kidnap the child (for the Sith might I add). This statement means not only that she agreed to let her son be trained, but the Jedi in their compassion gave her more time with her baby. Also keep in mind how difficult raising a Force Sensitive child must be, I can bet that most parents welcome the help/training. And as I mentioned the Jedi ALWAYS have the option of leaving if the Order isn’t for them, it’s not a prison.

I honestly don’t understand why you (or other people) can’t see that the Jedi are good…I am baffled by this trend. Like I said, they are not perfect but no one is – and frankly the Jedi themselves don’t think they are perfect either. In fact contrary to what is usually written in fanfics the Jedi allow/encourage their members to question their rules, they constantly tell one another to “search their feelings” – the love and compassion they have for all beings in the galaxy is truly something more people should aspire to be. I know you said it’s “okay to be selfish” and I am sorry, but I disagree. There is a difference between being selfish and self-care. Selfishness is inherently not a good quality to have, and maybe beyond that it’s actually dangerous for a Jedi (or someone with the Force) to be selfish – that is where the Sith come in. The Sith only think of themselves, that is the definition of selfishness. And when you have extreme powers that are affected by your emotions you need to be more mindful, which is what the Jedi teach.

To believe that the Jedi failed makes me so sad…they didn’t, they were slaughtered - it would be like saying the people of Alderraan deserved to be blown up because there were a few criminals on the planet. If you are going to quote Luke in THE LAST JEDI about the legacy of the Jedi being failure, then you really need to take into context where Luke is in his emotional journey when he says it. He even later admitted he was wrong. – the point of the movie/saga is the Jedi are good and the Sith are evil.

The Jedi and Republic were all “deceived by a lie” and I stand by my post that it looks like Sheev deceived a good chunk of the audience as well.

Thank you for the lively debate, I appreciate hearing your thoughts!! 😊 May the Force be with you!

[dgcatanisiri]

So... Let’s see how this works. We’ll adjust the format as needed if this doesn’t work, but hey, here we go.

Welcome to DG’s Listing of Wish These DLC Existed, where I theorize, speculate, and just kinda generally throw ideas at the wall about DLCs for games I love that never happened and never will happen, but damn, I’d like to see them anyway. 

Because I have ideas, I can’t get them made as mods, I don’t have time to make them into fic, and they’re never going to happen anyway, so why not put them up in a public place? After all, they’re tie ins to games I have no control over anyway, so it’s not like I’ll ever make money off of them anyway.

Our first installment takes a look at Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic. Obviously, as this game predates the modern DLC model (there was the Yavin market, but that was maybe a grand total of ten minutes tops of content, if we’re generous), so there are some awkwardnesses involved in making DLC for this - if nothing else, when the game ends, it ends, to keep playing, you have to start a new character. On another, there’s the level cap, stopping our leveling up after hitting Level 20. As the game presently exists, that should happen after being locked into the endgame combo of the Unknown World/Star Forge, but adding more content means that cap gets hit sooner. 

So understand that we’re assuming that there is the ability to play post-game and a higher level cap, as well as other quality of life style additions (in this case, probably among them are various additions from KOTOR 2, but that’s a subject for another day). I’m also willing to assume that there is content for characters (even if the respective voice actors have passed, retired, or just wouldn’t return), in the same style as modern games. The assumption here is that these DLC ideas would have been written, produced, and published during the active production cycle of the respective games.

As this is the inaugural edition, let me explain the format. There will be a name for the DLC, a brief synopsis, a reference to when this hypothetical DLC would become available/if and when it becomes unavailable (unless it’s part of a hardwired point, like the above mentioned point of no return of travelling to the Unknown World, as an example), and then an expansion/write up of the ideas going in to them. Some ideas will have more expansion than others, because I’ve just plainly put more thought into them - in a lot of cases, I wrote them down just on the basis of ‘this idea seems pretty cool,’ and then gave them more context later on.

And a further note - I reserve the right to come up with more ideas for any given game that I have already written up, naturally. I haven’t decided how I’ll handle that yet, but it’s entirely possible there will later be more ideas.

Okay, housekeeping matters out of the way, let’s get down to business!

The Yavin Excursion

Yavin 4 was the site of Sith Lord Exar Kun’s power base. In understanding more about him and his fall, the Jedi Council believe it may be able to shed light on the fall of Revan and Malak. But the secrets of the Massassi temples hold more than just the ghosts of the past, but a threat for the present...

(Available after Dantooine)

Tack this on to the existing content of the market in orbit of Yavin, I suppose. But the connection to the Tales of the Jedi comic seems like a good starting point here – investigate one Sith Lord to examine the motivations of another, find out why the first guy fell to the dark side, which will hopefully explain why the other guys did.

I see this as both a lore exercise – to offer the players more exploration of this era, considering that the Tales of the Jedi comics have been harder to come by as time as gone on, so allowing some more in depth portrayals of the time – and a chance to kind of approach the question of what drives someone to the dark side. Exar Kun fell by an overwhelming curiosity, Ulic Qel-Droma, his apprentice, fell by a desire for revenge, and later lost his connection to the Force (put a pin in that fact – we’ll be back to that come the DLC for KOTOR 2). Millennia later, Anakin Skywalker falls because of his fear of the loss of those he loves. Two of these people were redeemed, one refused to give up his power.

If anything, this would be a good chance for some foreshadowing of Bastila’s eventual fall (so perhaps this would be locked to before the Leviathan catches the Ebon Hawk), on top of asking the question that later drives KOTOR 2 – what were Revan’s motivations in turning to the dark side? Obviously, this is up in the air from a character perspective (and, honestly, so far as I care, from the player’s too, because I despise the whole “the Sith Emperor warped their minds” BS, and I’m ready and willing to disregard it, even in acknowledging The Old Republic). The first KOTOR never really focuses on the why of Revan’s fall, since Malak is the game’s big bad, and the Revan reveal is a plot twist – since this is DLC, the player would probably be expected to know it going in, so why not explore that, right?

As for what this threat is... I’m a little shakier on this. I’m thinking a Massassi warrior/beast of some kind, the same kind of Sith alchemical abomination we see in the terantatek or hssiss, only a much more powerful end boss kind of thing, a living relic of Exar Kun’s evil (given that, canonically, Exar Kun’s spirit survived to the Jedi Academy novel trilogy, he certainly can’t be the final boss), perhaps fed and kept alive by the powers of the remaining Massassi who worshipped Exar Kun as a god – in this case, looking to take advantage of the Ebon Hawk’s arrival to spread their master’s will across the galaxy and speed his return. Sith alchemy played a part in a lot of the Sith portrayals from this timeframe, and it’s kind of disappointing that KOTOR never really utilized these mutants, just had them as mindless high level bosses.

Vector

The rakghoul plague infested the lower levels of the planet of Taris. When the planet was bombed by the Sith, it managed to escape among the many refugees as well. With their experiences on Taris, facing the rakghouls, the Jedi Council sends the crew of the Ebon Hawk to investigate its spread to the planet Ralltiir – and stop the Sith from obtaining it as a weapon!

(Available after Dantooine)

The rakghouls were just kind of dropped into KOTOR with no explanation – they were a threat as a creature and as a plague in the Undercity of Taris, but no one ever spoke about what the plague’s origins were or where the rakghouls came from. And then along came the Vector mini-series of comics (hence the name for this) that put the creation of the rakghouls down to a Sith Lord, Karness Murr. Sith alchemy, the gift that keeps on giving.

But either way, considering that the rakghoul plague is something that even the Upper City of Taris was concerned about, that clearly says that it could easily have gotten off planet, especially in the panic of the evacuation. And really, with the added knowledge that this was originally Sith alchemy, it’s almost certain that some aspiring Sith would discover this and try to twist it to their advantage.

I pretty much pulled Ralltiir’s name out of a hat, primarily because it’s a fairly common named planet, but with little actually associated with it. It also makes a great place where the Republic would demand an immediate concern, because it’s a Core World and an economic hub. It’s a great place to have a plague that Republic heads would say would draw in the Ebon Hawk, whose crew had familiarity with the rakghoul plague, despite the threat of Malak and the search for the Star Maps.

I also see this as a way to give Mission and Juhani more content – Mission is a hard character for me to really justify remaining with the crew after Taris, given that she’s a teenager, I feel VERY uncomfortable taking her around on what is effectively a commando mission, while Juhani was very nearly hacked out of the game. Both of them grew up on Taris, in the lower levels of the planetary city, where the rakghouls aren’t just a distant threat. So give them this additional portrayal and focus because they’re familiar with the plague, maybe even knew some people who were infected and transformed by it.

The villain would be a Jedi-turned-Sith, someone who had turned to the Sith at some point after being a Jedi historian. A part of me wants to draw on one of the Jedi who would later show up in the Exile’s vision on Korriban, mostly because those were the Jedi we see recruited by Malak, and so less aware of Revan’s face, though that seems a touch much. Regardless, they’d previously acted as a historian, and is driven by the potential power of the rakghoul plague – Muur’s talisman is lost by this point (again, see the comics), but the rakghouls themselves remain, and, while I’m ignoring the whole “the Sith Emperor did it” thing with Revan, I also like the concept of the rakghouls evolving into the nekghouls, gaining sentience.

This is also a way to add a little bit more of a question to the results – do these evolved rakghouls deserve the consideration of being considered more than mindless beasts? Are they at all a continuation of the person they once were? Or are they just violent creatures that need to be put down? Is the guy trying to control them being corrupted by the dark side, or was he always evil?

So the central question here would be asking “what makes a monster?” Is it the mindless savagery of beasts, or the knowing cruelty of intelligent beings, and where is that line?

Sleheyron

The volcanic world of Sleheyron holds a Star Map. The Ebon Hawk and her crew set out to discover the secrets hidden there, but must be cautious, for the planet also holds a group of Darth Malak’s most powerful apprentices, who have, in their isolation from their leader, created their own plan for the fall of the Republic...

(Available after Dantooine)

Sleheyron was planned to be part of the hunt for the Star Maps – six environments are described in the Rakatan ruin on Dantooine, the life-giving worlds (oceanic – Manaan, grassland – Dantooine, arboreal – Kashyyyk) and death-giving worlds (desert – Tatooine, volcanic, barren – Korriban). Sleheyron was the volcanic world, but got cut for time, early enough that there really wasn’t a lot of material that made it out, with the planet just becoming part of Yuthura Ban’s back story. So, hey, free reign to develop something here.

Honestly, one of my big questions is, if Malak was with Revan as they travelled the worlds to find the Star Maps, why doesn’t he do something about the fact that these locations led to the big secret weapon that gives the Sith Empire its power and forces? Wouldn’t he have thought that maybe some form of guard or another would be a good idea? Sure, the Korriban one was guarded by virtue of being in the tomb of Naga Sadow, but the others? Here, we get a chance to have a group of Sith having taken control of this planet where there is a Star Map that can add to what our heroes have assembled (but, being DLC, this isn’t required to take on). They’re specifically there to guard the Map.

This becomes a bit of a game of cat and mouse – how to act before the Sith apprentices (probably former Jedi themselves) can find them, capture or kill them, hand them off to Malak. (Probably also means that this should be a later stage planet to visit, but hey, player choice of direction, right?) How do these Jedi move around a planet while the people in charge are out to get them? Draw on the mechanic from KOTOR 2, where the people on Dantooine recognize if the Exile goes there while a lightsaber is equipped, maybe.

Actually, I’d like to see some mechanic that tracks how much the player uses the Force while wandering around – the more they use the Force, or the more powerful the Force effects they use, the more likely they are to summon Sith execution squads or something. Sort of like KOTOR 2 and Nar Shaddaa, where the Exile’s actions drew the attention of the Exchange and Visquis, only in reverse – the player and company need to avoid catching the attention of the Sith until they’ve raised a rebellion against the Sith overlords, or at least gained enough public goodwill that the Sith can’t just openly take them away and execute them, something like that.

I like this idea because it allows an opportunity to play more with non-violent approaches, alternatives that aren’t “murder everyone because combat gives more experience!” Here, the idea is that you WANT to fly under the radar, avoid combat. And, if combat happens, you also have incentive to not use the lightsaber for a stretch – gives players a reason to put points into blasters or non-lightsaber melee combat, because I don’t know about anyone else, but the second I get a lightsaber in these games, I don’t ever use a different weapon. Here, the player is in the position of HAVING to switch up their play style, or, if they don’t, have to be that much more cautious in their actions here. This is a story piece that hinges on what you do with your words.

The ultimate confrontation with the Sith and the Star Map, in my mind, takes place in a cavern of an active volcano (or maybe one that has been dormant, but, because what’s the Sith without random acts of evilly evil, they’re managing to coax back to life). Here’s where there’s a pretty big question in the construction of this DLC – are we working in the confines of the game engine of the time or with newer, more modern systems? Cuz I’d kinda like something that took place within the volcanic areas of the planet, given that’s what the planet is described as. But I don’t think that KOTOR’s original engine would really be able to explore that to its fullest, given the limitations on it. My big idea would be to have the climax of the planet’s arc have the threat of a volcanic eruption, potentially with the base of operations for these Sith being flooded by lava.

If that is an engine limit... I really have no idea what the alternative would be, but, hey, since this is pie in the sky as it is, why not call for the engine advancement that lets it be a thing, where we have to outrun a lava flow or something.

Echoes of the Past

The strike team that fought Revan is being targeted by Malak’s assassins. The crew of the Ebon Hawk take a journey to the graveyard of the attack on Revan’s ship, the battle that led to the defeat of the dark lord. But the dead don’t rest easy, especially amongst the ruins of the Sith Lord’s vessel...

(Available after the Leviathan)

The strike team that captured Revan is kinda the forgotten element of the game as is. This is a team, and yet we only hear about Bastila’s involvement. Which, sure, she is the member on our squad, she does have the Force Bond with Revan, but... Who were the others? Where have they been during the war?

And it seems like Malak would think of them as a threat period – they were the Jedi who were there to face off against Revan, the Jedi thought they’d have a chance against this great Sith Lord, the leader of the Sith forces of the time. But Bastila is the only one the game ever concerns itself with, and doesn’t even mention if the others lived, who they were, why they were chosen... None of that.

So here we get to explore them. The added bonus is that I see this as a post-Leviathan mission, one that we play with full awareness of our player character’s identity. How much of that awareness we pass on is one thing, and it really allows us to explore the idea “who was Revan before, who is Revan now?” Because that’s going to come into play when dealing with the people who were at one point sent in to kill Revan – sent to kill us, the player character.

I also like the set piece idea of a graveyard of ships, where the characters are walking through the husks of dead vessels – the Harbinger sequence in KOTOR 2 is still a favorite of mine. Granted, this would probably be a bit of a conceptual retread of that part of that game, but hey, why not get some variation of the same old gameplay, right? Plus, it’s different here for the fact that this will have some personal connection to Revan – this was their ship. Did they consider it a home? Just a place?

That leads to the bigger plot element, though. These Jedi know Revan as a threat. They’re going to be suspicious of Revan the whole way through – “are you the Jedi the Council thought you to have become, or are you the Sith we were once sent to kill?” Like I’m sorta thinking this is a case where we’d get these teammates as companions proper now that I’m considering this in detail, and this all builds to the main confrontation. Like we wouldn’t take our Ebon Hawk buddies on this one, but two of these guys.

That confrontation would involve the assassins being revealed to be loyalists to Darth Revan, with their mission having begun with attempting to avenge their fallen Lord, but now, with Revan returned to them, having tested their skill over the course of their luring Revan back to them, they are willing to take up their banner once more, leading to the choice – be Revan, the Sith Lord, or Revan, the Prodigal Knight.

And yes, I know, this is the same thing we see with Bastila later. In some ways, that’s the point. Choosing the light or the dark is not one you make once and are one that path forever. It is a constant, repeated choice, one that must be made, again and again. It’s something that has to been affirmed and reaffirmed, because it will always come up again. Here, it’s just “we offer you power and loyal servants,” while Bastila has the offer of their Force bond – hell, if this were real DLC, I’d say patch in some element to the endgame of Bastila trying to use their bond to lure Revan over to her side on top of things.

What Remains

Darth Malak’s assault on Dantooine was meant to destroy the Jedi. The Ebon Hawk is the one ship that might be able to break the Sith blockade and rescue the people trapped behind their lines, as well as recover irreplaceable Jedi artifacts hidden away at the enclave. And Revan has a need to confront the Jedi Council...

(Available after Leviathan)

This one has always been in my mind as something that, in many ways, we needed to see happen. I look at this as being the necessary confrontation with the Jedi Masters that we need, because they’re using Revan. Revan was reprogrammed to be their weapon against the Sith, and what exactly were they going to do if and when the war was over and they’d no longer had need of Revan?

A mission to Dantooine, done by the ship that could escape the blockade of Taris, to attempt to rescue and recover the Jedi, break the people there out of the iron grip of the Sith, at first does seem somewhat at odds with the portrayal of Dantooine in KOTOR 2, but it still makes sense if you think of the first priority being to evacuate the Jedi and the relics they were saving – the Jedi become the reason that any rescue comes, not the people stuck there. The Jedi and their artifacts are prioritized over the people now under the thumb of the Sith.

Especially if the only real encounter we have is with the Jedi themselves, seeing them in the midst of their exodus, dealing with the Sith occupiers and executioners, all of whom would have once had friends here – I see this also including a Republic military outpost to Dantooine prior to the attack there, because there honestly should have been one anyway (this I chalk up as much to the more limited engine of the game as anything else), and that providing some extra characters to events, which makes it all the more devastating having their former comrades in arms now there to kill them.

As much as this is about confronting the Jedi for the way that they intended to use Revan, this is also an exploration of the divide of Republic and Sith, that those now calling themselves Sith were once the best and brightest of the Republic. Yes, the Jedi failed to come to the aid of the Republic in the midst of the war, but that doesn’t explain the violence these former soldiers engage in against their own people. What made the rank and file Sith soldier agree to this?

That examination of motivation would, I feel, be a part of why the resulting confrontation with the Jedi would matter so much – what drove Revan? What drove the Sith? What drove the Jedi? Because they mindwiped Revan and implanted them with a personality to use them as a weapon. They didn’t “turn an enemy to their cause.” They violated Revan in an effort to use them. When the war was over, what did they really think would happen?

Specifically, we need to confront Zhar, who, given Kreia’s utter disdain for him in KOTOR 2, I get the impression that he was the major proponent of this idea. His actions may have been justified as “for the greater good,” but it always seems like the greatest of morally questionable actions are justified with those words. Do we confront him with rage, forgiveness, or... something else? Because this is a case where I can see both condemning him to death and condemning him to live as a punishment. I could even see this being a case of him bowing to Revan’s judgment, and no option having a light side/dark side shift, because this isn’t about the Force. This is about justice.

Whether or not the Jedi admit it, a life was taken the day they implanted a personality into Revan’s body. The Jedi need to be called out and recognize that they do not have clean hands after what they’ve done.

Revan’s Shadow

Although Revan’s legacy, the Star Forge and the Sith army, have been defeated, there are still questions of Revan’s journey. There was more to it than Star Maps. The crew of the Ebon Hawk reunite on the planet Belkadan to find out more of the Rakatan Empire, and its ties to the dark side of the Force. And along the way, Revan will find more of their lost past...

(Post-Game)

The fact is, we get very little of Revan in the game proper, little about who they were as a person before the fall. This is conceptually to hide the fact that the player IS Revan, of course, but... It creates a lot of little issues for me – I mean, like half of these prospective DLCs are about expanding something of Revan’s motives and past. Obviously, this is a blank slate for the player, because they wanted to leave this open for us to decide, but they DID make a few definitions of who Revan was with the existing content, with the case of the Star Map on Kashyyyk.

And for me, personal identity is a big lingering question for this character – again, I’m choosing to ignore the handling of Revan as a character in The Old Republic, and I’m gonna include the tie-in novel in that, so no one is allowed to say “the novel said [x]!”

This is someone whose entire concept of who they are is in question once they learn that they are a constructed self, created by the Jedi Council as a weapon. Who ARE they? Who have they chosen to be, and, if they could reclaim the parts of themselves that they lost with the Jedi’s mind wipe, would they? Obviously, there’s no time in the main plot to focus on these questions, but I feel like this would eat at them afterwards, leading them to having to find answers. And what kind of friends would the others be if they let Revan do this alone?

I picked Belkadan pretty much because it’s an out of the way planet that has been identified as part of the Rakata’s Infinite Empire, so it made as much sense as any planet to be the site of this. I mean, the involvement of the Infinite Empire is certainly a good option for a place that questions who Revan is.

This would be a place where Revan had gone, after the Mandalorian Wars, a place where they were trying to connect to the Force, to understand the questions – why did the Jedi Council believe they shouldn’t be involved in an existential threat? Why is Revan drawn to these Star Maps and the destination they point to? What awaits them if they go, and what will change about them? What answers are to be found in asking an energy field that can offer no direct response?

Obviously, I’m thinking in terms of finding recordings of Revan, so requiring a voice for Revan – Rino Romano did the little soundbites when male Revan interacts with things, while I don’t know who did the voice bites for female Revan, so they’d be options, or new VA’s altogether. While part of me does want to go forward and make Revan a fully voiced protagonist (because I’m just used to that nowadays), I could accept this as being something only for old!Revan, not present!Revan.

The idea is simply to explore the driving motivations of Revan and decide plainly who Revan wants to be now. I kinda see the ending reach a point of ‘hey, you can reclaim your old memories, you can decide what personality is dominant, what do you want?’ and Revan being able to choose who they will be from here on out.

This is also a good place to require at least Bastila and Carth. Obviously I’m kinda leaning more into the light side ending for this, but... Well, the dark side endings tend to be untenable for future content anyway – Revan as the reclaimed Sith Lord, leading the army against the Republic was never really a viable future, because the Republic had to survive. So yeah, we’re gonna take the easy route and assume light side here. So Bastila and Carth, as Revan romances, would also have a contribution to make, building on the questions of “I’m in love with the person who was Darth Revan, can I accept this?” Like I said, a lot of questions that the game sidestepped, and this one matters for the sake of the relationship being able to continue after the ending of the game.

The Rakatan Prize

The Unknown World – Rakata Prime, Lehon – has become a subject of a great many conversations. Now that the Star Forge is gone, the planet is accessible, and many are eager to investigate its mysteries and forgotten technology. Having had firsthand experience, the Republic has asked the crew of the Ebon Hawk to return...

(Post-Game)

And then, there’s the Rakata. Not that Star Wars isn’t full of ancient empires that rose and fell millennia ago, but this was KOTOR’s contribution. And really, they’re almost superfluous – hell, if the Unknown World were rewritten so that the Rakata had gone extinct, the only thing that really would be necessary would be finding a way into the temple. I kinda think that would even tighten things up a little, especially given how often I’ve hit the level cap before meeting the Council of Elders.

The Rakata are a mystery, and the idea here is to investigate that. Build up the whole element of the Rakata having lost their connection to the Force, and the fact that they’re trying to explore this (because we’re assuming light side against here and that the Elders survived, including the scientists investigating this).

Because this is one of those things that stands out in Star Wars lore, when beings are stripped of their Force connections. Ulic Qel-Droma, the Exile, this is something that is traditionally a case of an individual, not a species.

We also have the remains of a galactic empire to examine here. If a species once ruled the galaxy, it’s inevitable that there are those who would see that empire be reborn. The threat of this DLC becomes this group who aspire to reconquer the galaxy using the mind transfer technology that puts the Rakatan prisoner in that white space box that would allow them to trap the minds of Jedi and other Force users to take their bodies and use them to go forth and conquer the galaxy.

Ultimately, the question’s going to be whether or not to restore their connection to the Force – do the Rakata, a race of dominators of the galaxy, whose humbling by the forces of nature has not managed to truly change them, deserve a second chance, or should they have their attempt to restore their own connections to the Force wiped out, leaving them vulnerable to an inevitable extinction?

Because this is one of the big things with Revan, the idea of redemption, change, second chances. Does Revan extend this chance to these people, people who clearly have more than a few members who have no interest in peaceful coexistence? But if not, do they deserve to be condemned to extinction?

And, as a bonus...

Romance Content – Bisexual Carth, Bisexual Bastila, Gay Canderous, extended Juhani romance

Because Carth and Bastila should be bisexual, and Juhani’s romance deserves to be more proper. Meanwhile, Canderous should totally be an option as well, and yeah, I’m gonna be selfish here and say that he should be gay, rather than bi (because, again, I’m ignoring the novel, there is no wife). Because this means that there’s a favoring for same-sex romances, and that never happens. My list, my way. Star Wars is gay culture.

[padawanlost]

Why people think Jedi way is not the right way? I mean why they say Jedi are corrupted?

Becausethat’s what was portrayed on screen? I mean, the OT jedi were put on a pedestaland the fandom ate it up, as it was supposed to. At that point, that was all wehad. So when the PT deconstructed the “myth of the Jedi” and exposed then asflawed heroes, a lot of fans had trouble conciliating the two ideas and so theyturned on the prequels and its fans. George made it pretty clear (with the storyand in interviews) that he wanted the prequels to portray how democracies fall,and how *everyone* plays a role in it. And, for that to be possible, the Jedihad to be fallible.

It’s not aslight on the Jedi. it’s a necessity of the plot. If they had been theseperfect god-like do-gooders the fandom wants them to be, then pretty much allthe narrative would stop making sense. If they had been perfect, the plot wouldnot have ever moved forward. Also, it’s important to keep in mind, acknowledgingthe Jedi made mistakes and talking about them doesn’t mean people are “antis” ornegating their roles as “the good guys” of the story (like some hardcore jedifans would want you to believe).

Why people think Jedi way is not theright way?

Experience. On paper, it’s lovely butonce you acknowledge the reality of how the Order operated, you start to seethe cracks. Not being overwhelmed and controlled by hate and anger is a goodthing. Living without ever experiencing anger or hate is unachievable and unhealthy.Instead of saying “don’t become obsessed with love”, they said “don’t love”.That’s why so many people criticize what the Jedi Order became. Their ideologyis considered harmful because it denies human nature and punishes those who can’tregulate or hide their emotions. Not only they say “don’t love” they ostracizethose who fail to live by their impossible standards.

And that’s without going into howthey went about putting their Code into practice. People also have a troublewith them removing children from their families during early infancy to keepthem from bonding with their biological families, and everything related tothat practice (indoctrination).

Anakin is the living proof the Jediway is not the right way. All we have to do is look at how a sweet, lovinglittle boy became an anxious and troubled young man after 10 years of their “perfect”teachings. I’m not saying they would harm everyone, but the Jedi way – asportrayed on screen and on the EU – can be terrifying, especially for those whostruggle with mental illnesses.

why theysay Jedi are corrupted?

before weget into this, let’s keep in mind that corruption is more than embezzling moneyor bribing officials. Corruption is dishonesty, it’s failing to live by society’srules and our own rules. Have you ever stole something from work or school? Haveyou ever cheated on a test? That’s corruption too.

In the Jedi’scase, they corrupted themselves when they, by choice, failed to perform theirduties. The Jedi Order maintained its status by promising to defend theRepublic and all its citizens. When they failed to act on that promise andstill claimed the rewards that function provided, they became corrupt. They wereno longer providing the service they promised they would but they still werecollecting the rewards of that position.

Theycorrupted themselves when they failed to stop slavery; when they allowed therampant corruption in the Senate to go unquestioned, when they failed to investigateclaims about criminal activities; when they caused mass starvation; when theyrefused to return missing children to their parents; when supported untrustworthypoliticians to maintain their own political status; when deployed children intowar zones; when they refused to send any kind of help to protect people fromcriminal activities; when they expelled their own members without a properinvestigation or trial; when they put political prisoners in secret prisonswithout trial, investigation, legal council, visitation or change of parole;when they allowed themselves to become militarized; when they played a role inthe enslavement of clones; and when they lied and withheld information from theSenate.

These areall examples of the Jedi council putting what *they* thought was right abovethe law and above their own initial role in the Republic. It’s them breakingtheir promise to the Republic. Palpatine kept pushing them into making terribledecisions, and to keep their position, they wielded, thus, they corruptedthemselves. Ahsoka’s trial is a perfect example of this. All the evidence was circumstantialand they were not entirely sure she was guilty but because of the politicalpressure they were under, they expelled her and forced a 16 years old to face apotential death penalty by herself. That’s corruption. That’s putting your own interestsabove the interest of the greater good. It’s doing harm to keep your status.

Anakin’srelationship with Palpatine is another great example: it was forbidden forpadawans to leave the Temple with a Jedi companion, especially to spend alonetime with a political. But, the moment Palpatine used his influence, theywielded even though Palpatine had no legal claim over Anakin. But, becausepleasing the Chancellor was more important than keeping tradition, the ruleswere broken. It is another example of them forsaking their own rules and traditionfor political gain.

Look, I’vesaid this a thousand times before but I’ll say again because I’ll always getpegged as a Jedi-hater: none of this means the Jedi are evil, that we hate themor that they deserved their fate. It means they are flawed, as interesting charactersshould be. Again, it’s a slight on the Jedi. It’s a praise for the narrative.It turned something that was black/white, something that could go stale veryquickly, into something that’s colorful and vibrant and still keep usinterested 20 years later. The Jedi being flawed and corrupted is a good thing.It means, George, Filoni and everyone writing for SW did their research andunderstand how politics, people and societies work. It shows Star Wars is morethan laser swords and cool ships, that it has depth and value beyond it’svisual and technological achievements. And, of course, it makes the charactersmore relatable.  

[thefudge]

TLJ thoughts, post-viewing

sooo, i have a lot of feelings about a lot of things. also the subtitles didn’t prepare me. for a lot.

this movie is made up of many quiet, non-verbal moments and rian johnson lets those moments sink in and dwell with you and that’s great

rey exploring the workings of the force, for example. there’s a really cool sequence where she’s trying to find out who her parents are and she lowers herself in the embodiment of the dark side and it’s very trippy and cool. it’s not rushed and it’s v atmospheric. she gets the incentive to do that thanks to kylo. his revelations about luke and his general aura of “troubled darkness” inspire her to dig deeper.

i think what i liked most about reylo was its sense of gratuitous intimacy. what i mean by this is that they seemed to connect without effort, without having to manipulate the plot to make it fit. they seemed be in their own little movie, dealing with things beyond the usual surface level of star wars ‘good vs. evil’. kylo’s philosophy about letting the past go is definitely flawed, but the way the movie frames reylo, they do seem to “let go” of their surroundings and circumstances when they’re together. it’s sort of timeless. 

i will say, i don’t think the romance was that "romantic”, if that makes sense? and i think it’s a good thing. their bond is very real, but it goes beyond “romantic drama” and your usual hero/villain trope. it has shades of that, ofc, and there is palpable sexual and romantic tension, imo. but i sensed something more mature and interesting between them. it could go either way. do i want reylo to have a future in ep 9 and after? yep. is it possible they won’t? also yep. mainly because kylo let rey down. and here’s the kicker: it’s not rey that really rejects him. it’s him that rejects rey. because she tries quite a few times to bring him over to her side, and i think her anger and sadness stem from the fact that, ultimately, kylo didn’t choose her, and ergo the light. he’s still v much conflicted and i think she can sense that. but rey is hungry. she wants all or nothing. she can’t have half of him. so she doesn’t reject him as much as tell him straight up that she won’t stand for being second. for instance, she expects him to fold to her side immediately after taking down snoke. when he doesn’t, she’s quite literally in tears. this hurts her on a deeper level than “oh no, the dark side won and the resistance lost an important ally.” no, this feels like her parents all over. leaving her, deserting her. that’s how i read it, tbh. 

and kylo does some reprehensible shit in the latter quarter of the movie, lol, like i won’t woobify him, since i like my antiheroes to be antiheroes.  but he's not quite villain level?  if u look at snoke, if u take that cool, collected snarky asshole - that’s a villain. he knows who he is, and what he wants. kylo is hopelessly confused and always looking for validation. he tells rey that she’s the one always looking for father figures - but oh, benny ben. it’s actually you. he wants someone to really see him, and that’s why he’s drawn to rey. but just to clarify: he doesn’t have it in him to kill his mother. he has an open, unambiguous chance and he stops. he is willing to destroy her when she stands behind walls and is shielded by the resistance. yet when she’s in the open, no. that was my read on it. 

his fight with luke is...very much one-sided. luke appears as a force-hologram to fight him and kylo just wants to obliterate him for very, very personal reasons. kylo is not the cool, collected new emperor who is going to “kill the past”. he lives so much in the past that he doesn’t even realize luke isn’t even there. 

and btw, kylo doesn’t kill luke, though he wishes he had. early on we get this foreshadowing. when the first force-bond happens between him and rey, he goes “no, you’re not doing this. the effort would kill you.” meaning that, to transport yourself through space via force (without a bond) takes a looooot of energy. luke goes on a suicide mission, basically. he knows using the force like this will kill him. he’s almost having fun toying with kylo at the end. 

when kylo realizes he’s a force-hologram, luke smiles and says “see you around, kid.” not exactly anakin vs obi-wan, if u know what i mean.

and then back on the island, we see luke peacefully give himself over to the force and vanish. it’s v tranquil and quite satisfying and the original star wars theme is used so well, imo. do i think we could’ve had more of luke? sure. but he went out on his own terms. that’s the whole point - kylo didn’t kill him. he killed himself.

again, i want to emphasize that kylo is still very much an antihero, dipping his toe into villainy (and failing - which makes him more angry, which only makes it harder to be the villain he wants to be haha). he’s not a Good Guy. many posts will crop up in the tag about what a poor, lost soul he is. yes and no. rey actually understands him when she closes the falcon door on him. she knows him and appreciates him. he will never really be ben solo and that’s a good thing. trying to be ben solo so hard is what got him in this mess. he isn’t supposed to be a Good Guy. so no, i don’t want him to “turn” (see my thoughts on “turning” below). i want him to truly move beyond the past and reform himself on his own terms, just like luke. because hey fam, luke isn’t a Good Guy in this movie either AND THAT’S GREAT. anyway, i certainly won’t be romanticizing him (kylo). he’s a compelling antihero who definitely has baggage and trauma (luke did try to kill him as a boy, though he has a wildly dramatized version of the event lol) but he is also someone who has to help himself. ultimately, rey’s goal isn’t to “save” him but to push him to save himself. honestly, if kylo had followed her and “turned” and reluctantly joined the resistance, it would’ve been a total let down and a betrayal of his character. him “turning” wouldn’t help him. he’d still have that darkness and that anger inside of him, multiplied. boy needs therapy - aka working through his issues, not ignoring them and joining the Good Side. 

Other things I liked: 

- admiral holdo’s arc - beautiful, well-done and surprising. laura dern kills it. 

- benicio del toro!!!!! no small parts with this man. he is delightful. imagine rick from “rick and morty” but way hotter lol. he was probably my favorite addition, after rose. he’s the middle-ground guy, he’s more han solo than fucking han solo. he doesn’t believe in good guys vs bad guys and he shows both finn and the audience that the two sides err because they believe their path is the only path. he perfectly encapsulates the very real contradictions in modern-day ethics and how our “pure and wholesome” activism often shields us from some terrible truths. he does have a semblance of a heart underneath his cynicism but i love that in the end he doesn’t suddenly discover the power of friendship with finn and rose. he’s a jaded asshole with shades of good, who’s probably seen some rough shit. BUT, he has this super cute moment with rose before things go to shit regarding her necklace and it’s !!!!!! it shows how much he understands human nature. i kinda ship them. aaaanyway. i definitely think he will return, his arc is not done. 

- ROSE TICO SMILING AND BEING HAPPY. ROSE TICO RIDING THAT KANGAROO CREATURE AND ENJOYING LIFE. i treasured those scenes a lot. she’s a great combo of feisty and childlike, tough and innocent. gosh, she reminds me of bonnie bennett so much ;___;

- general hux. yall, it’s true. it’s all true. hux may have won me over. hux in TFA was just a lite over-the-top villain imo. but here??? he’s such a fun, dynamic character, rian gave him a lot of fun, humorous moments. and honest to god, he’s also given some humanity. when kylo takes over, he is genuinely affected and disturbed by his level of aggression. and he’s....idk, much less evil in this one. probably because of the humor. he just seems like a man dead-set on fulfilling his mission, brainwashed to the core. and underneath the brainwashing, he seems to be your average overwhelmed white dude. i don’t think he’ll be redeemed or anything but...it’s weird how at the end of TLJ he is probably the MOST reasonable dude from the first order???

- there’s this great little message about failure. i think here TLJ was inspired by Rogue One. because a lot of the characters in this movie learn to let go and accept defeat. you can’t always save everyone, you can’t always fight back. sometimes, the brave thing is to retreat and treasure the ppl you love. so i def liked that.

- GODDAMN GHOST YODA. i honestly thought i’d hate it because...gimmick, amirite? but that scene with luke was SO emotional and also funny and visceral and just - i was a bit teary-eyed, ME, THE GRINCH. i was suddenly nine again, watching star wars for the first time. ANYWAY. 

- luke skywalker deserves a separate entry. mark hamill did so much with this character in the last few scenes. also some of the stuff he says about the force in this movie is legit beautiful and i love how he criticizes the vanity of the jedi - because this was what was missing from the prequels. anakin fell because the council was tone-deaf. the jedi are often responsible for their own doom and so they must always be vigilant - which is a goddamn thankless job. i love that luke acknowledges this. 

-luke/leia moment. GAAAAH. HE KISSES HER FOREHEAD GOODBYE AND SHE KNOWS HE’S NOT COMING BACK FROM THIS. I DIED.

- in that order of business, leia finally FIIIINALLY gets to show off a bit and use the force in a pro-active manner. it’s also clear to me that episode 9 would’ve been the story of her and “ben” and i think she would have been the catalyst for his eventual development. but sadly, we’ll never see that ;____; 

-there is some gorgeous cinematography and visual direction in this movie. particularly in the third act, on that salt planet? the red trails? shivers. 

-i didn’t hate any of the new creatures like i thought i would??? probably because they were used sparingly and with a sense of humor.

Stuff i kind of didn’t like:

- phasma. phasma, phasma, phasma. WHAT was that??? like tell me that wasn’t anticlimactic as hell. she was, sadly, a pointless character. unless she somehow survived the fire and destruction, which i doubt, i really don’t see the point of casting wonderful gwendolyn christie just to stand there in armor. 

- MAZ KANATA. is barely in this. i call bullshit. 

-sigh, okay so i loved rose to death, but her arc revolved way too much around finn. on the one hand i get it, on the other hand.... i was hyped because ppl were saying she gets this big moment to shine. and granted, imo, she shines every moment she’s on screen. but i think her climactic scene was... *fart noises*. it’s completely centered around finn. she saves him basically, and it’s definitely heartfelt and lovely but also...it’s finn’s moment 100%. because it’s him who has to learn about his own worth. i do think they make a good team and i ship them a little bit, but the one-sided kiss was not satisfying and i’m tired of having to watch my darling woc give their love and devotion freely, only to be  tertiary characters in their own story. like, imo, it should’ve been rose who flew straight into that cannon and tried to take it down for her sister. she should’ve been the one determined to take it down. and it should’ve been finn to save her and tell her they must find meaning in other things. finn definitely cares for her and in the last scene we have of him, he’s tending over rose and waiting for her to wake up BUT. will rose ever be number one for anyone, like the white girls, i wonder? eh, i’m probably just grumpy old aunt. she does get to have an internal world, she’s a believable human being, she matters. the thing is, white girls in these movies can bend their little finger and they’re considered worthy and complex. rose has to jump through hoops to be seen the same way. anyway.

- i liked poe dameron’s arc, which is “hey, maybe i should stop posturing and listen to women more lol” which is “learn when to retreat and stand down” but...honestly, you hire gorgeous oscar isaac who can give you real emotional weight and you just...kinda under-utilize him. yes, he did a lot of stuff, but he...didn’t take time to internalize it. this dude feels like he’s got a lot of demons and conflicting desires and a rich inner life, yet we only skim the surface of that. like, he’s aways in go-mode, we rarely get a quiet moment with him. like pls fix this, episode 9. 

-luke’s reaction to han’s death is pfffffffffffff. maybe we’ll get more in a deleted scene? 

- also....can we stop pussyfooting and legit talk about han as a dad? because they keep hinting he wasn’t a good one, nor a very good husband to leia. but...it’s very unsatisfying to keep hearing about it without good storytelling to back it up. 

- the world-building & the origins of the first order. i had problems with this in TFA and, big surprise, i still have problems with it here. basically, why has the first order taken over the new republic? how did they gain support? were there remnants of the old empire that survived and thrived as the first order? what about the knights of ren? luke mentions kylo took some students with him when he destroyed the jedi temple, so....what about those guys? like, this very fraught and war-torn landscape doesn’t have a solid history. how did A become B? why is every corner of the galaxy oppressed? why are some planets thriving more? are they all arm-dealers??? i find that hard to believe. yeah, we have the expanded universe for that, we have books and comics etc. but i need these movies to give us a sense of their own universe. i’m...still not convinced. 

-lolol, snoke dies like a bitch. and it’s so anticlimactic and duuuumb. dude, a five-year old coulda seen that coming but your ancient super powerful ass couldn’t? laaaame. he’s like “oh, yes, i sense no more conflict in you, kylo ren. just a deep certainty”. YES FOOL, because he’s decided to remove u, because he’s confident he wants rey, and not you, by his side. it was soooo lame. but i guess we had to remove him to make the audience think kylo was turning good for a second there.

-which reminds me... and you probably saw this coming, i hate the idea of “turning”. rey keeps talking about ben turning to the light. and this verb annoys me to no end. it’s made clear that they both already have a lot of light and darkness in each other. it’s about finding balance. where’s my grey jedi??? episode 9 pls????

Extra Reylo stuff i didn’t see mentioned which i adored: 

- during their first force-bond moment when they sense each other, kylo ren runs out of the medical unit and into the corridor like a goddamn luckless teenager, expecting to see rey pop up in a prom dress.  it’s precious. i love awkward!kylo. also rey tries to shoot him bc she thinks he’s actually there and kylo bends down, thinking he was shot. it’s a rly cool moment. and it doesn’t feel malicious like, he doesn’t expect anything less from her. 

- there’s so much charged electricity between them and it’s not all sexual. it’s kinda mystical and i dig it. i’m weirdly reminded of xavier and magneto??? as in two enemies who have such a rich history and whose bond transcends human morality. 

-OKAY. i saw no one talking about this but THAT GODDAMN SNOW WHITE SCENE. so rey decides she’s going to turn kylo to the light because that’s their one hope of defeating the first order etc. luke tries to stop her, but she’s like i’m going after my man. okay. she gets on the falcon, then she puts herself in this casket-like pod and AND. we get this lovely, breath-taking sequence of her arriving at the first order base, slipping gently into the hangar in her casket. and she’s def nervous. AND THEN. she looks up through the glass and there’s steam at first and through the steam we see kylo’s face, looking down at her wistfully. IT’S SO WEIRDLY FAIRY-TALE WTF. and then ofc the guards come in to shackle her. BUT JESUS. the prince looking into the casket to find snow-white WHAT ARE THESE AESTHETICS. it felt like a nod to the infamous scene in TFA where he carries her bridal style. it’s very fairy-tale-esque. 

- i love that in the scene with the multiple reys, when she reaches through the mirror to see her parents, the shadowy figure who appears and touches her hand seems at first to be kylo and then she realizes it’s herself. i also love that she talks to kylo about that experience. GAH. 

- i just rly loved that there was so much humanity in their interactions.

Reylo stuff which sort of bothered me/left me wanting more: 

- like excuse u rian,  during the praetorian guards fight, i needed more moments where kylo looks at rey and is worried for her sake. i needed that fight to be a bit more visceral and about the two of them and their survival. they do fight together and it’s great but then...they’re sort of separated and carry their own small battles (i did love how rey saved him with that lightsaber throw)

- the whole “you come from nothing, you are nothing.” yea yeah, he’s a dummy who doesnt know how to express his feelings, he’s mr. darcy x 1000 of faux pas. but i still think adam driver’s acting went a little much there. the way he delivered that line was a bit off for me. ofc, he follows it with “but not to me”, because he’s basically proposing to her, but i needed a bit more, an extra line from him confirming her importance. or maybe no extra line, but a bit more feeling. did i mention i love wrecked!kylo? the “please” killed me haha. 

Final thoughts:

- enjoyed it more than i expected to, and it does operate with way more nuance than TFA but it stiiiill fell short with some characters. it didn’t have the weight of rogue one for me, but it’s more lighthearted and entertaining, which i appreciate, cuz it reminded me of my childhood. and ultimately, whether we like it or not, disney does operate on nostalgia. all in all, it’s a worthy star wars movie, 8/10. rian deserves an A-. (he also wrote this thing and whoaaa...i wonder how much more ambiguous and dark this movie woulda been if he’d been given full non-disney freedom)

[sanjuno]

NRT+SW: That We Answer To Our Stars

Just remember that you people asked for this and if I end up posting a story concept that you love and want to see as a fic? Be well aware that all of these outlines only have one thing in common:

I HAVEN’T WRITTEN A SINGLE SCENE FOR THEM.

Which means I won’t be turning them into fic for a year at least so... *handwaves* Encourage me IRT your favourite WIP of mine, because finishing one of those will clear up space in the docket for a new story to get some attention.

Now, these outlines can get kinda disjointed but at least you’ll get to see a bit of how my brain works when I plot out stories.

THE SCENE!

>Kaguya’s multiverse trip goes wonky b/c best crossover fodder scene

>Uchiha Clan dumped wholesale on Rim World/Wild Space World in SW’verse. All the Uchiha Clan. All the Uchiha since ever.

->World is XL planetoid version of TG44, with added biome options b/c YOLO (unless you’re in the Uchiha Clan I guess b/c then you get to Live All The Times?)

>Indra, Madara, and Sasuke separate ppl w/ wiggy chakra resonance. V disorienting.

->Ninshu gets Dialled Up To Eleven = Force Bonds! Force Bonds everywhere!

-->Entire Clan gets Highlights Reel of Historically Important Memories (also so much purposely induced trauma wow WTF.)

--->Mass Meditation required to untangle/unfuck heads

>Entire Clan now Force Sensitive BTW

->WTF w/ crazy Nature Chakra infesting everyone? Uchiha are Not Pleased.

-->Upside: Force Bonds/Ninshu Super Connection can be used to awaken Sharingan w/out Psyche Destroying Trauma so yay for that

>All Uchiha now have Kaguya’s est. life span. Also nubbin horns and forehead sensory organ b/c aliens are a SW thing I can do this now (don't know if want full-on third eye or just funky Clan Marking thing? Hm...)

THE PLOT THICKENS/ACTUALLY STARTS BEING A THING!

>Sep. forces land on new Uchiha Homeworld b/c shenanigans and The Force Likes To Meddle

->Sasuke introduces said forces to Kirin b/c is reminded of T7 mission to Land of Iron? Or Snow? Dunno which but Naruto’verse says machines = bad juju so Sasuke is 100% justified ok thanks.

>212th follows. Obi-wan is v concerned by the Uchiha

->Entire Pop. of Planet is FS WTF is this nonsense?

-->Clones v impressed at least. Free-range jedi are badass why were they not informed of this being an option? (Clones made for jedi = have a hard time leaving GAR b/c existential dissonance when no jedi for retired soldiers? Also Kamino sucks and slavery sucks more but now the Clones who don’t want to be soldiers or recycled can Take A Third Option! So much Clone chatter about the Uchiha thing wow.)

>Madara is sent to be Senator b/c Jedi are Very Insistent that this Planet be part of the Republic.

->Madara terrifies all the politicians b/c Uchiha Hate Politics (they're too blunt and the see too much) but Madara is best at it v good at lying without saying anything untrue.

-->Madara knows Palpatine is skeevy b/c Uchiha See All The Things and You Can’t Fool Me With Such A Weak Illusion, Foolish Human and now there are clashing manipulators and Your Attachments Make You Weak and this is going to get out of hand so quickly I just know it. 

>Sasuke is apparently still best Prophecy Child Bait and Anakin is Conflicted b/c how can he be attracted to someone not Padme?

->501st would like to adopt b/c last time Anakin fucked off without backup Sasuke came back 5 minutes later with Anakin hogtied over his shoulder and the Seppie base on fire. Sasuke is so unimpressed b/c That’s Not How You Infiltrate Enemy Lines, You Moron

-->Sasuke is still 100% going to seduce Anakin and Padme b/c his life is Not Complete without an Idiot to yell at and a Crazy Berserker who likes to pretend she’s The Sane One to ride herd on.

--->Obi-wan is Done With All Of Them b/c Sasuke isn’t even pretending to try and hide his intentions b/c if they get fired Sasuke can just take them back home for a proper marriage. Mikoto is So Proud of her boy. 

>Madara and Mace have ‘sip and bitch’ IRT Palpatine being an evil fucker

->At some point Madara will wonder out loud what Palpatine is grooming Anakin for? Mace is Concerned by this revelation. Madera is not.

-->Sasuke had Issues IRT not sharing well with other children. BTW Mace Sasuke is planning to steal away Anakin and marry him. Don’t worry he will be returned eventually and so will his wife.

--->Mace thinks Anakin had it coming. WTF was the boy thinking? Did he really think he could hide anything from a temple containing several thousand telempaths? Jedi can get married, it’s just considered polite to ask first and go through the counselling with the Mind Healers beforehand. (Idea! Coruscaunti Jedi treat marriage the same way the Japanese treat Gun Control. Lots of paperwork and regular mandatory psyche evaluations and pervasive low-key terror at the idea of having one.)

->Madara will hear the “too much fear in him” story and cackles

-->Slaves have to please their Masters to survive. Anakin was freed to be a Jedi so if not a Jedi then he’s a slave again? No Fear = Be A Jedi (Not A Slave) and now Anakin is The Hero With No Fear

--->Therefore everything the Council dislikes about how Anakin acts was initialized by the Council. Mace hates Irony so much. Madara is still cackling in his face.

->Madara wants the aged out Initiates who still want to fight (or even just the Initiates who don’t suit the Jedi lifestyle)

-->He has a Clan to maintain! About 25% of the Uchiha never fell in love or fell in love with non-Uchiha so they need Marriage Options. (Uchiha don’t fall out of love easily either so new potential spouses need to be Impressive As Fuck and the jedi know how to be Impressive.)

--->Species doesn’t actually matter Uchiha’s Forest of Death planet has lots of different options despite being mostly Giant Fuck-Off Trees and the higher your Force Sensitivity the higher your chances are for successful cross-species hybrids. (Madara is planning to keep Obito and Itachi away from the aquatic species for a while b/c they have a concerning fondness for fishes.) Hybrids are viable though b/c The Force loves grand babies.

>Izuna is there as Madara’s Security Chief and he’s having Far Too Much Fun getting to be paranoid for a living. Plus all sorts of time to spend with his wife! (Need to pick name and develop Izuna’s wife beyond terrifying DFAB genderfluid interrogation specialist but at least they’re happy together.)

->Izunami (Izuna’s daughter) and Kagami are tiny children again b/c weird cross-dimensional space-time fuckery is like that

-->Shisui is super amused to be ‘older’ than his grandfather.

->Kagami approves mightily of Madara-shishou’s friendship with Mace (reminds him of Tobirama-sensei!)

->Izunami is 100% in favour of actually getting to ‘grow up’ with her Mom and Dad around this time (although she only really listens to Madara b/c he was her Parental Authority Figure and old habits don’t break) Jedi actually find this comforting b/c even if Uchiha crazy about attachments there are familiar bits there in how they arrange instruction even if the three students at a time thing is weird.

-->Both Izunami and Kagami are So Relieved that their Spouse is the same age as them b/c while they would be willing to wait until the other grew up this is much less creepy.

>Speaking of age fuckery Itachi is smol now and just about permanently leashed to Mikoto’s side.

->Sasuke is v amused b/c Aniki deserves this.

-->Mikoto and Fugaku are the first Uchiha couple to make a new baby and it’s Sarada b/c she’s the only good thing about the Next Gen (Except for Snake Fam but they aren’t a part of this fic boo)

>Obito is Madara’s primary assistant b/c some of the Uchiha are Not Over the whole Killing Us All Off thing.

->Obito runs into Quinlan Vos. Results are hilarious.

-->Brainwashing to the Dark Side ep. goes v differently. (Need to re-watch this ep for details but yes) Obito will rampage over everything b/c dude has No Chill

>Shisui is v jealous of his relatives b/c Itachi is too smol to play with and also has been hijacked by Isami (who will hold her death over Itachi for the rest of forever but again Uchiha don’t really fall out of love so she’s also learning Itachi wrangling skills from Mikoto now.)

->Everyone else is finding Jedi favourites and Shisui misses his ANBU team b/c it’s not like he really had time to make any other friends

-->Sulking Shisui trips over Feemor while waiting for Madara. Apparently Uchiha and Yoda’s Lineage have A Type. 

>BIG PLOT POINT: Uchiha Remember

->’Curse of Hatred’ spun by Madara as ‘plague’ caused by ‘non-native invasive plants’ (Blames it all on Zetsu and says plant was toxic to non-Uchiha) Says is why there are no non-Uchiha in TG44′s population despite stories otherwise.

>Uchiha think the Jedi Code is silly but the Clones are the Best Thing. All Clones look different to FS/Sharingan

>Uchiha have a habit of “stealing” spouses.

->BTW Shisui has No Patience

-->Upside: Feemor is v flattered by the attention and TG44 has a v interesting ecosystem. TF is in everything on this planet like WTF how does this work?

->Kagami is So Proud. Look at his Grandson, so proactive.

-->Starts to ‘hint’ that maybe Madara-shishou should think about settling down.

-->Mace has been meditating and consulting with the other Masters of the Order.

--->War changes everyone. Plus certain contracts between the Jedi Order and the Senate have been voided by the drafting of Jedi Generals. (Look up the details of the Ruusan Reformation for more info on disbandment of Jedi Military Powers and what it means when Senate gives them back the right to raise levy forces.)

-->Jedi don’t need to look harmless anymore just need to look less dangerous than the Seppies and the Sith.

>Uchiha Clan FB keep any of them from Falling to the Dark Side.

->Sasuke finally gets his hooks in Anakin and Padme. Notices the ‘nightmare vision’ problem first time he sleeps over.

-->Kidnaps Obi-wan to ‘repair’ the stress fracture in Anakin’s only familial FB b/c having his partner be so alone in his head is creeping Sasuke out and it’d only get worse if the bond to Obi-wan breaks completely.

--->Obi-wan is too tired to even object and now Anakin is freaking out b/c he’d been so focused on Padme maybe-dying in childbirth that he hadn’t even noticed how sick his Master looks.

---->Oh and also there is a Sith Energy Parasite attached to Anakin’s FS and it’s been poisoning his bonds. Sasuke just facepalms while the Jedi have panic attacks and drags in the genjutsu expert hostile deprogramming specialists.

----->Upside: Uchiha now know what Sith Master’s chakra signature is and can hunt him properly. Also help Mind Healers check all Jedi for similar problems, starting with Active Duty Generals. My the Council Chambers look so much Lighter now. 

>Then some stuff happens where Palpatine is exposed as the Sith Master and there are explosions.

>Plot Twist is that Madara and Mace have been banging and rewriting the Jedi Code of conduct since like their third date and no one picked up on it.

->Mace: *stares Anakin in the eyes* And that’s how you hide an affair, Skywalker.

*jazz hands* And this is how my fics look before I start writing them.

[gch1995]

Luke was not macho in the sequel trilogy

Maybe, not. However, his entire arc was ruined of realizing that the Sith were evil with their whole thing of galactic conquest via mass murder, but that the Jedi Order’s practices of no close attachments and “conceal, don’t feel” were also incredibly unhealthy mindsets, too. Not to mention the fact that he almost killed his nephew, rather than trying to talk to him.

After Obi Wan and Yoda die, and Luke takes over as head of the Jedi Council to reform the system in episode VI, we’re left with the sense that the new generation of Jedi has fixed the past generation’s flaws in the system. If Leia and Han’s kid ends up going down the same road as his grandfather Anakin Skywalker, partially because the current system of the Jedi Order failed him, too, and partially because they emotionally neglected him when he was growing up, then aren’t they just contributing to recreating all the same mistakes that the OT and PT series set to point out was wrong and ultimately fix?

Also, the fact that it’s so easy for Obi Wan to break the order’s rules in TCW by having a missed opportunity love interest he gave up for the order, only for him to intensely criticize Anakin for getting married to Padmé in secret with no empathy for his situation at all, annoys me. Like, first off, he never needed a love interest to be a relatable male character in the PT or OT series. The tragedy of his character was that he wanted to break the rules that he knew were bullshit in the system for the Jedi because he grew to love Anakin as a brother, but very rarely, if ever, did, because he’d been brainwashed by them, too.

Everything they did to Anakin’s characterization in TCW annoys me. Like, he was an awkward and emotionally unstable young man with fluctuating self-worth in the PT series. That doesn’t mean he’s entirely innocent for the crimes he chose to commit, or that the Jedi deserved what he did to them. He knew what he was doing was wrong, and he deserved punishment for those crimes. Not to have all his limbs cut off by Obi Wan, left to burn alive, operated on awake without anesthetics, and forced to be Palpatine’s slave, but like a more humane and swift death penalty or long term/lifelong imprisonment in a jail or prison cell. Even if it was harder to do, Anakin should have made the choice to leave the order for the well-being of himself, his family, and the entire galaxy when he was an adult.

However, I don’t like the fact that TCW flanderdized Anakin’s possessive side, made him into this calm, cool, collected, and suave macho antihero™️, and took away most of his completely valid personal issues with the Jedi Order. It undermines the tragedy of his story by making it seem like his fall was more inevitable because he was always just this inherently bad person all along, whereas in the PT movies, it’s more sympathetic because he’s clearly this deeply traumatized boy/young man who’s fall could have been prevented at any time, not just by himself, but the entire Jedi Council, and Padme. Instead, both Anakin and those closest to him often pretended like he was okay and/or that he would get better if they believed he would until it was too late in the PT movies.

I don’t like how they made Padme into a strong woman™️ Yeah, she was naive about Anakin in her love for him, and she enabled him a bit too easily in AOTC. However, that didn’t mean she deserved what he did to her in the end. She also wasn’t a manipulative or two-faced bitch. She was caring, kindhearted, and optimistic.

I consider the first six live action movies of Star Wars canon for the SW universe, but everything else is EU.

[gch1995]

Disney pretty much shit all over the years of complex, relatable, and meaningful characterization and development for Luke and Anakin/Vader that was written by Lucas and the original EU writers of Star Wars, so that they could badly rehash the same story all over again for some forced ass romance between Rey and a bratty Darth Vader wannabe.

Btw, Ben/Kylo doesn’t work as a tragic hero/tragic villain type like his grandfather did because he has every reason to not be an asshole/stop being an asshole working in his favor, and he doesn’t want love, safety, or acceptance like him either. He just wants power for its own sake to be badass, even if it means pushing away love of family and chances for redemption over and over again.

Anakin tended to hold onto love too tightly in his fear of losing them until he pushed them away. He became too terrified to do the right thing because his agency to do better safely was always compromised, so eventually he gave up trying to fight to do better, and just gave into being that monster “for the greater good” because, at least doing the wrong thing seemed to offer him some small measure of security, even if it made him miserable and ultimately pushed away the same people he loved by him holding on too tight.

Yeah, they both committed a lot of murder and other war crimes that cannot be excused, but while Anakin wasn’t entirely innocent because he was selfish in his desperation, he knew he was wrong, and he did stop trying after going dark until Luke came along, you can’t say it’s all on him for becoming Vader and remaining that way either when the odds of him and/or his loved ones ever being safe with him trying to do the right thing were always going to be incredibly dangerous and risky, eventually had nothing (even if that is partially his own fault from RotS), and the Jedi Council, Republic government head, and Sidious were all abusive, corrupt, oppressive, and/or hypocritical people and/or institutions with power over him who he could never feel safe escaping.

And yeah, I don’t like how they make no mention of Padme/Anakin. They obviously weren’t healthy at the end when Anakin went dark, they obviously rushed into the marriage, Padme tended to overlook negative things that Anakin did when they didn’t affect her and/or her Republic negatively, and she sometimes brushed off Anakin’s attempts to reach out to her about his concerns of her being in danger or his expressed desire to leave the Jedi because Padme had that personality flaw of wanting to pretend like everything in her life was okay until it wasn’t. It doesn’t mean she deserved what Anakin did to her at the end of RotS, that she deserved to die, or that she was evil. She was a good person who had a bit of an arrogant, naive, and selfish streak, though, and it ended in tragedy. Anakin had a low-key possessive side and took his anger out on her in a blind rage high on the dark side when he thought she brought Obi Wan to kill him, which was awful.

However, if you ignore that OOC Clovis arc in TCW, Anakin and Padme didn’t start out as abusive as a couple. It wasn’t like there was nothing genuinely good about them as a couple at all before Anakin went dark. Anakin fell in love with Padme, not because she was rich, a Queen, or a Senator, but because he recognized that she had a kind heart. Yes, he was also attracted to her beauty, but it’s not the only thing that attracted him to her or the main thing. He was attracted to her intelligence and kindness above all else. They both related to each other as child prodigies who everyone else in their fields counted on to achieve great things. They both wanted to help other people in their jobs. While a little unintentionally creepy at times, due to social isolation with a temple of monks who never taught him about how to court women for the past decade, Anakin did quickly learn to respect Padme’s agency in AOTC, and they didn’t get together until he left the ball in her court, and she decided to pick it up.

I can’t believe They really broke up Han/Leia by killing off Han. No, they weren’t exactly healthy at first either until Han backed off and grew up, but they ended up being a pretty solid couple after that.

Also, Luke was thirsting after Leia in the OT movies until he realized that she was actually his sister. The man should have been allowed to have a girlfriend/wife. He was supposed to fix the system and do things right after his predecessors fucked up. That was the whole point of his arc in the OT. He wasn’t going to be like them.

Ughh…Disney!

Disney Wars have a cynical view of romance they make no mention of Anakin/padme, broke up han and leia's marriage, shoved a two second gay kiss and called it rep, did not give luke a love interest even tho lucas intended him to have one, sidelined finn/rose, outright tried to erase finn/rey, tried to ship poe with a purple haired jerkass, and paired rey with an abusive fascist with a last second redemption.

[theabominableblogger]

Rewatching “Revenge of the Sith”

Ohhhh yeahhh, I’m going there.

My apologies in advance because this post is so long...

*silently boogies out to 20th Century Fox jingle and ends up throwing popcorn everywhere*

*mouths along to opening theme*

WAR!

“Evil is everywhere.”  Dude, this is Star Wars we’re talking about...

Just a heads up, I am so freaking glad that we have The Clone Wars because honestly, it has a lot more flowing character development when it comes from jumping from “Attack of the Clones” to this movie, especially Anakin.

Lens flare!

Holy snot how many Republic ships are there?!?  Did the Separatists come with every single ship imaginable?  Is that why?

Aaaaand that’s a dead body.

The hell are those things?

“Nothing too fancy.”  Says the man [Obi-Wan] who dramatically drops his robes whenever possible.

*imitates the buzz droids*

“IN THE NAME OF-”  Finish the sentence, Obi-Wan!

R2′s taser thingy looks like the Twelfth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

What if they didn’t notice the shield in time?

Boom!  End of saga.  Cue end credits music.

Ohhhh this asshole.

WHAAAATTT’SS THE SITUATION, CAPTAINNNN???

*imitates the droids saying “Roger roger”*

How come Anakin and Obi-Wan aren’t getting jostled around when the elevator car first stops?

*quotes the entire “No loose wire jokes” conversation in the elevator*

Is that the same freaking chair that’s gonna pop up in “Return of the Jedi?”

Anakin and Obi-Wan fight Dooku but every time their lightsabers clash, it’s Obi-Wan going “Hello there”

Did Dooku just backwards kick Anakin away?  Oh my God...

DEW IT

 *Anakin kills Count Dooku*  Well done, prequels.  You done didn’t use your Christopher Lee effectively enough.

ALL BATTERIES FIRE, FIRE!

Wilhelm Scream!

*imitates droid saying “Reversing stabilizers...”*

Holy crap, you can actually see Grievous’s face kind of twitching with anger when he commands the droids to level out the ship.  Dang.

Freaking Obi-Wan’s little yell of horror when he wakes up...

*ugly cackles*

*quotes the entire ray shields scene*

I cannot freaking believe that the TV show took the time to make freaking sure that Anakin never met Grievous until this movie.

Actually, yes I can.  They have a goddamn script continuity department.

How come one of them didn’t take one of the electrostaffs?

The Separatist flagship just tore in half when it entered the atmosphere and yet I remain completely unfazed.

“8 plus 16...”  Pfftt, what the heck does that mean?

Guys, I think I found the origin for the Dramatic Hair Flop of Angst in TCW

Pretty sure that’s the Millenium Falcon at the bottom hangar

“Oh, I’m not brave enough for politics.”  *cough cough*

Obi-Wan gets a whole freaking bus to himself.  Chaos will ensue.

How has no one noticed Padme just hanging out next to one of the pillars?

“There were whispers... that you [Anakin] had been killed...”  Really?

Anakin’s reaction to Padme telling him that she’s pregnant is actually really good.

Wasn’t there like a deleted interaction where Anakin first accused Padme of sleeping with someone else while he was gone but then they decided that was not that great of an idea?

The music that plays when Grievous exits the shuttle is pretty sweet

*imitates Grievous saying “Yes, Lord Sidious?”*

*claps with each word*  This is not how you write romance, [George] Lucas!

Oh I didn’t realize that you could actually hear Anakin’s robotic arm move when he puts his face in his hands

“How long is it gonna take before we start being honest with each other?”  You [Padme] should have asked that before you two got hitched in the first place.

Ladies and gentlemen, the absolute worst therapy lesson in the history of Star Wars:  Yoda telling Anakin to basically get over himself and accept the sudden, incoming death of the people he loves.

“What must I do, Master Yoda?”  MOTHEREFFING IGNORE HIM!

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”  NOOO, OH MY GOD...

There’s actually a whole video by Pop Culture Detective that went into detail how terrible the Jedi Council were when it came to giving Anakin emotional support.

“Be careful of your friend Palpatine.”  And your pal, Friend-patine.

I just noticed that there are less chairs in the Jedi Council room

“The Council doesn’t like it when he [Palpatine] interferes with Jedi affairs.”  Then why the heck don’t they confront Palpatine about it?

Holy crap, I just realized that this movie came out 13 years ago.

“Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo...” Was that really “holding” though?

Anakin’s delivery of “At last!” sounds like Darth Maul when he said “At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi” in the first movie.

This entire opera scene should be a dead give away to Anakin learning about Palpatine being the Sith Lord.  The minute Palpatine even said the word “Sith” should have raised a few red flags...

This entire Darth Plaguesis explanation is so good and ominous.  Just the minute Palpatine finishes the story and tells Anakin that there are other ways to gain that sort of power, you can just gradually feel the dread setting in for the rest of the movie.  You just know something bad is gonna happen (besides Anakin becoming Darth Vader)...

Look at the way Obi-Wan’s sitting in his chair!

Oh my God... the Wookies just did a Tarzan yell...

Headcanon:  he’s [Anakin] checking for updates about the Siege of Mandalore

OK, everyone craps on the Utapau storyline with the fight scene between Obi-Wan and Grievous but I actually think this is one of the best parts in the movie.

I love the design for the Pau’ans

GUYSSS I LOVE BOGA SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!!

Someone get me a plush animal of her on my desk pronto!

HELLO THERE!

GENERAL KENOBIII... YOU ARE A BOLD ONE...

That pose though!

That spinning helicopter move Grievous does while stalking toward Obi-Wan was always really cool to me.  A little extra, but still cool.

ARMY OR NOT... YOU MUST REALIZE... YOU ARE DOOMED!

Oh I don’t think so!

*imitates Obi-Wan using the Force to throw Grievous*

Wait, so how many times has Cody had to hold onto Obi-Wan’s lightsaber when Obi-Wan freaking drops it?

Death Star plans?

Big question:  so how old is Anakin here?  He’s 19/20 in “Attack of the Clones” and there’s at least a one or two year time jump in S3 of TCW.

Yo, that means he was like late 30s/early 40s when he died in “Return of the Jedi.”  Well shoot, man...

Yeah, Obi-Wan, let’s freaking kick the crazy homicidal cyborg.  Great idea.

Is Grievous just covered in gasoline or something because he just went up in flames *snaps* just like that.

Ohhhh this scene with Anakin and Padme looking at the windows of their respective places is really good...

Look at freaking Anakin here! 

George Lucas deserves any and all sins for the bad dialogue for Anakin because Hayden Christensen can really act when he’s not given any dialogue and he’s just told to react. 

So, with that, henceforth, there shall be no dissing Hayden Christensen on my blog.

I AM THE SENATE!

Dramatic window break!

Palpatine’s lightsaber just freaking deactivated as soon as Windu kicked it out the window

Wowwww... the prosthetics on Palpatine look.. bad....

UNLIMITED.... POOWEEERRRRR!!!

I just realized that Anakin kind of walks over to Palpatine on his knees before he pledges himself to Palpatine

Why Darth “Vader” though?  Is there any special reasoning for that?

AN:  Holy crap, there’s an hour left and Anakin has just turned to the Dark Side...

Pfftttt....

THESE SHOTS THOUGH

Man, I need to download more tracks from this soundtrack...

You can tell that that’s green screen behind Cody

*in best Palpatine impression*  Execute Order 66!

Nooooooooooooo, Boga!

Aaaaand everyone dies and it sucks now!

Ughh, Aayla Secura...

NOOOOOOOOOO PLO KOONN!

What planet is that?

Here’s my question:  in Rebels, how the heck did Thrawn get Gree’s helmet?  Was there an imperial campaign out on Kashyyyk and he found it somewhere?

That small matte painting shot of the Jedi Temple burning is actually really pretty now that I see it again

Yooooo can we talk about this padawan though?

Kashyyyk has twin moons...

So what happens to Chewie after this and before the Han Solo movie?

Heeeyyyyyyy I know that kind of ship!

“Have faith, my love [Padme]...”  Uhhhh... Padme should have picked up on how... off that line was

How has NO ONE in the Senate (besides Organa and probably Mon Mothma) picked up on Padme’s pregnancy?

*imitates Palpatine*  Mustafaaarrrrr....

“Could be a trap.”  It’s Star Wars.  There’s always a trap.

What’s that planet right next to Mustafar?

Random xylophone scales!

Yoda is taking no prisoners!

Where are the lightsaber/balster holes in the younglings?  Yoda said that they were probably killed by lightsaber so where are the marks on their bodies?

Yellow eyes...

“So this is how liberty dies:  with thunderous applause.”  Best.  line.  Ever.  Someone send flowers and chocolates to Natalie Portman.

“I've recalibrated the code, warning all surviving Jedi to stay away.”  Aaaagghh and we see it in Rebels and in the Last Padawan comic!

Don’t mind me casually dying

I just noticed that gradually throughout this movie, you can see Obi-Wan get grey hairs in his sideburns

*Obi-Wan sneaks onto Padme’s ship to Mustafar*  Where did he come from?!?

“You [Darth Vader] have restored peace and balance to the galaxy.”  *in best Anakin voice*  OK... now what?

“And together, you [Padme] and I [Anakin] can rule the galaxy! We can make things the way we want them to be!”  Wow, “The Last Jedi” is just smackin’ me in the face right now

Anakin... you’re breaking my heart!

That is just extremely bad timing on Obi-Wan’s part

YOU HAVE DONE THAT YOURSELF!

Your new Empire?!?

DEMOCRACY!

“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”  A what?

That’s a pretty nasty lisp you have there.  Might wanna do something about that.

You know how this Yoda vs. Palpatine fight could be more amazing?  Just add helium

Honestly, for the BIG DEAL fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan, it just goes on for a little bit too long.

Plus when it’s intercut with the Yoda vs. Palpatine, the latter is way more entertaining (hello, two most powerful peope going head to head with actual Force lightning being involved?)

Are they [Anakin and Obi-Wan] just kicking each other with the Force now?  Wow...

NOT EVEN HITTING EACH OTHER!

Seriously, they’re just banging their lightsabers together and calling that a fight.  C’mon... actually try to hit the opponent!

Duel of the Fates!

*Palpatine throws the Senate chairs at Yoda with the Force* So I threw the Senate at him!

Honestly, you could cut out this whole balance thing on the sinking balcony and mining buildings/walkways

Commander Fox?

ExPLOsions...

Noooo... cut this out...

“Into exile, I [Yoda] must go.  Failed, I have.”  And yet people complain about Luke doing the exact same thing in the sequel trilogy

You’re not even trying to hit each other!

FROM MY POINT OF VIEW, THE JEDI ARE EVIL!

IT’S OVER, ANAKIN!  I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!

YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!

“You were my brother, Anakin.  I loved you.”  Uuuggghhhh....

I actually read somewhere that Ewan McGregor actually asked George Lucas to change the line to past tense instead of the original present tense.  Which is sad, so thanks Ewan.

Can’t you just put out the fire with the Force?

How did 3PO and R2 get an unconscious Padme on board?

Where is this?

*Palpatine’s shuttle lands in Coruscant*  It was a dark and stormy night...

Y’know, at this point, me comparing Anakin being repaired and transformed into Darth Vader and the creation of Frakenstein’s monster is almost inevitable at this point...

Stupid question, but what’s the significance of the names “Luke” and “Leia” concerning the themes present in the movies?  Or is that up to people like me who enjoy the meta to find that out?

He [Darth Vader] just killed that medical droid next to him...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Do not want....

“...[Qui Gon] learned the path to immortality...” In the TV show!

I like how the last line in this freaking movie is “Oh no!” and it’s from 3PO...

Triceratops rams!

The design for Padme’s funeral garb is actually Iain McCaig’s favorite concept art

How did they develop TIE fighters so quickly?

Oh my God, the dude they got to play Tarkin... oh God...

Definitely not Peter Cushing

*gasp*  Leia’s theme!

Random eopie noise!

Oh my God, “Binary Suns”...

Obi-Wan’s like “Great, now I gotta help a pair of random, separate Force-sensitive teenagers and their astromechs in the near future...”

Wait, they put Ewan McGregor in top billing?

“With Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu”  Thamuel El Jackthson!

Holy crap, I forgot Joel Edgerton plays young Uncle Owen

[padawanlost]

The main problem of the Jedi as an institution, as an "Order" was that they became too entangled in their own dogmas and so-called rules. What should have been guidelines to help giving directions was treated as absolute truths that had to be followed even if it brewed sorrow and pain. Ironically, this made the whole fear-anger-hate-suffering mantra Yoda gave in TPM something the Jedi themselves practiced without noticing. When Obi-Wan in RotS speaks of the Sith dealing only in absolutes, 1/2

2/2 he’s right in principle, but forgets to mention that the Jedi fell into the same category and it was their own inflexibility and inability to adapt which made it possible for the Sith to undermine them far enough to cause their downfall. I won’t go as far as some Jedi haters go and say they are entirely guilty for their own demise nor do I present a case for Sith apologism as the Sith are always worse than the Jedi, but they did partly make it too easy for their enemies to dupe them.            

“Theprequel Jedi have systematized their methods at the expense of spirituality andintuition. They are more ‘Order’ than ‘Jedi.’” – Pablo Hidalgo.

The pointof the prequels is that Empires rises because everyone somehow failed at theirjobs. It wasn’t just the Senate or Anakin who failed the galaxy. It waseveryone. It was the corporations, the politicians, the citizens and the Jedi.Everyone is to blame. Yoda himself admits as much in Rebels. The Jedi Order didmake mistakes and in their arrogance they did make a terrible situation worse(the clone wars).

Tbh, thatpart has always be obvious to me. But after creating this blog I realized howmany people had trouble realizing this, to the point they attacked fans and officialcontent creators (George, Filoni, EU authors, etc). I worry people don’tunderstand the difference between a character being flawed and being evil.

Youmentioned “Jedi haters”, but I got tell you, I haven’t seen many of those. . WhatI have seem is mischaracterized opinions, person A say one thing and person Bhears another. Speaking from experience, I once say Obi-wan was flawed andpeople came at me asking why I hated Obi-wan :/ This is what some jedi stans extremistsdo A LOT, you say the Jedi are flawed and they hear the Jedi are evil.  

There’s alot of people here willing to admit the Jedi made mistakes, that they failed theRepublic and themselves. But I’ve only seen one or two people claim there’snothing redeemable about the Jedi Order or that they all deserved their fate.On the other hand, I have seen plenty of people make light of things like  slavery, physicalabuse and child endangerment, practice victim blaming and sent death and rapethreats in a attempt to make the Jedi look better than they were portrayed on screen. If we are talking about extremism, there’s more fans on the “jedi didn’tdo anything wrong, ever” than on the “jedi are evil” side of the spectrum.

Personally,I believe a balanced approach is the best option. The Jedi Order did both goodand bad. They definitely played a role in their own demise but that doesn’tmean they deserved their fate or that they had no redeeming qualities. I thinkit’s also important to separate the Jedi as a group from the Jedi asindividuals. The Jedi choices that led to their demise was the Order’schoices (the group). As individuals, most of them had little say on thematter. 99.99% of the jedi had no idea of what went on inside the Councilchambers. We can blame them for personal actions (like we blame Krell for his crimes)but we can’t blame Jedi like Aayla or Quinlan for the schemes of the JediCouncil. which is yet another fault of the Jedi Order, that for all they preachedabout democracy they didn’t have one.

What I’mtrying to say is that I agree with you. The Order’s problem was institutional.Over the years they made some political decisions that made them vulnerable tomanipulation but that doesn’t mean they were the villains of the story. Infact, ROTS wouldn’t have been a tragedy if they had been. Also, this idea thatthe fandom is separated between Jedi fans and jedi haters is infantile AF. Inthis house, we have no time for that high and mighty crap. We will equallydiscuss jedi praise or criticism when praise or criticism due, so please don’tfeel like you need to explain why you like or dislike the Jedi. I get bothsides because they did good and bad. I just don’t like when fans hurt otherfans to validate their opinions :)

[i-aim-to-overanalyze]

In Loco Parentis

tfw you cant come up with a fancy title so you just use that latin phrase you learned from a Series of Unfortunate Events

Hello! This is basically my take on a SW AU where Anakin accidentally time-travels twenty years into the future and runs into Luke. It takes place between ANH and ESB. Featuring an angsty Anakin lol what else is new? and the smol-angry cinnamon roll Luke who is ready to f i g h t for his father’s honor. You know, fun stuff :D

He didn’t know how much he missed the light of another force-sensitive until it hit him. For weeks, he’d been wandering in this hellish nightmare. In an universe with no stars. Only the oppressive darkness that towered over him. There was the Force, but the Force felt…dimmed to him. Perhaps it was because he could no longer sense the lights of the Jedi. Empty dead space occupied where the untarnished, ten-thousand strong Jedi once stood.

The light was almost…blinding. It was rippling with power—power that rivaled the lights of the Jedi masters of the old Republic. Was this what his presence felt to others? Because he could easily see how some believed he was the Chosen One.

As the presence drew near, he could sense the anger that crackled against their force-shields. This presence, though powerful, was a novice. Their shielding was that of a young padawan. Even Ahsoka could shield better than that.

The ground vibrated as angry footsteps headed his way. The sound awaked him from his thoughts—his hand resting on his hilt. The presence wasn’t angry at the storm troopers swarming around the place. Its’ anger was directed at him.

“YOU!” A voice roared as an ignited lightsaber was directed towards his face, “Why are you using the name Anakin Skywalker?!”

Anakin’s mouth ran dry as he stared down into hardened blue eyes of the young man.

He regretted using his real name. He regretted it as soon as he figured out that this nightmare—this force vision not a vision at all. He’d learned after the Republic’s fall, he had become something of a legend in the galaxy. Oh, the Empire tried to keep things hush-hushed. The Jedi had been evil. The Jedi had tried to take over the Senate. Facts that Anakin desperately believed had to be wrong.

But the Empire couldn’t control every mind of the galaxy. There were whispers when the Imperials weren’t around. Whispers of the old days. The days where Jedi upheld peace. It was then people spoke of the heroes of the old Republic. Most notably, The Great Negotiator and the Hero With No Fear.

Anakin wasn’t supposed to be alive. He should be dead. He had failed them. He had failed the Republic, he had failed Obiwan, he had failed Padme. His sweet, sweet Padme. He had let darkness take control of the whole galaxy. He had trusted Palpatine far too easily—let that kriffing charlatan ruin the whole galaxy. If he had been wiser—had seen the warning signs—he could’ve saved the whole galaxy. He supposed, he deserved this. He deserved to see how his ignorance destroyed millions of lives. It was his punishment—to wander without rest.

“Answer me!” The young man yelled.

He force-pushed Anakin into the wall. Anakin had let him—didn’t try to resist him. His backside screamed in pain. But Anakin ignored it. He was used to pain. He instead looked up at the heaving figure.

Anakin couldn’t explain it. There was an uncanny familiarity about the young man. His hair was blond—almost had a sandy quality about it. As his short stature loomed over Anakin’s collapsed figure, he realized something. He reminded him of Padme. There was barely a physical resemblance and yet—

Anakin took a deep breath.

“I use that name because—“ He winced as he pulled himself up, “I am Anakin Skywalker.”

“Lies,” The man trembled, “Anakin Skywalker was killed by Darth Vader’s blade years ago—there’s no way—!”

This was obviously a touchy subject for him—it was personal. Anakin poked around on the edges of his shields. The young man was angry, angry that he had dared to use the name. Anakin’s name held meaning to his life. The fact that a stranger was using it was disrespectful in his eyes.

He dove a little deeper, past the shield’s walls. He was angry, but it was deeper than that. It was…grief. The all-to-familiar emotion enveloped Anakin, choking him. It wouldn’t let go until Anakin retreated to his own mind.

A glowing blue light was swiftly brought at his neck.

“What did you just do?” He hissed.

Anakin found it hard to look the man in the face. He had invaded his mind and the young man had realized it. Anakin felt almost guilty about it. His eyes drifting slowly down to the man’s lightsaber. It was hard to tell when both of his hands were covering the hilt but well…

The kyber-crystal sang to him through the Force. It was his lightsaber, he realized. The only he painstakingly crafted until it was perfection. An exact replica as the one that was attached to his belt. He wanted to feel angered at seeing it in this novice’s hands. But he could sense that this lightsaber had bonded with the young man.

A lightsaber was an extension of the Force—it was tool that helped conduct a Jedi’s power through it. As such, Jedi often crafted their own to suit their own unique strengths and weaknesses. It was uncommon for a Jedi to become attuned with a lightsaber that was not their own.

“Your shielding is weak,” He commented as he leapt into a backflip and ignited his light saber.

“Shielding…?” The young man furrowed his eyebrows, genuinely confused.

“You don’t know what shielding is?” Anakin asked, confounded himself. He had figured he was untrained—but not this untrained.

“Wh—It doesn’t matter!” The young man shook his head, “You still haven’t answered the question!”

“Why does it matter to you?” Anakin asked, “Why does it matter if I use the name of a legend to fight against the Empire? To inspire hope for millions? If my name isn’t truly Anakin Skywalker, that is.”

He could tell that the question threw him off-guard. He was itching for a fight. For a chance to prove himself. The young man knew that he was inexperienced. Knew he was the furthest thing from a Jedi. It reminded Anakin of the day he first arrived at the Jedi Temple. How crushed he was when the Council turned their noses up at him.

“Because,” The young man raised his lightsaber, “I will not let you use the name of my father like that!”

Although he was the master in the room, Anakin barely blocked his first attack. The sudden shock threw him off-balanced. The young man paid no heed, continuing to relentlessly attack with his sloppy jabs.

Padme had died. She had died amid the Republic collapsing—the cause of her death was unclear. Perhaps mudded by the Empire’s intervention.  His angel was so focused on upholding liberty—he wouldn’t doubt if she had been assassinated. He knew her well to know she wouldn’t have kept her voice silent.

He’d found the holo-recording of her funeral. He knew he should’ve not watched it. He tried hard not to. But he couldn’t ignore the temptation. What hurt him the most other than seeing her lifeless body was her obvious rounded belly. His lady had been pregnant when she died. With his child.

But his son was here—fighting in honor of his name. This child had never even met Anakin and yet—he was willing to risk his life defending a dead man’s name. He didn’t know how this was possible. But the Force rang true with his son’s words. He had a son.

However, he had no idea how to convince him of this fact. Time travel, by the Force or other means, had not been proven. There had been many attempts over the years but never any successful ones. He doubted there was any in this time either. He hardly believed it himself.

“You leave too many holes in your defense,” Anakin remarked as his lightsaber glazed his son’s shoulder.

His son flinched from the pain and he grimaced as well. He didn’t want to cause him pain. He had already caused him pain enough. But his son was insistent on fighting him and there was no accessible escape in sight.

His son didn’t respond to his comment, charging him once more. He was not used to lightsaber combat. It was understandable as there wasn’t many force-wielders left in the galaxy. His son was probably self-taught no doubt. But this meant that he was very clumsy and sloppy with a saber. He had an immense power, but was too untrained to harness it.

Anakin blocked his lightsaber and reached a hand outwards. He effectively launched him away with a force-push. His son’s lightsaber clattered to the ground, dis-igniting on impact.

“What,” Anakin heaved, “is your name?”

“My name,” He stared defiantly at him, “Is Luke Skywalker.”

“Luke,” He mused, “That’s a good name.”

Anakin sighed, shaking his head as he shut off his lightsaber.

“I don’t want to fight you—“

A screeching noise interrupted Anakin, echoing through the hallway.

“R2?!” They both called out at the same time, before looking at each other in mutual surprise.

The blue and white droid came urgently sliding down the hallway. He was babbling in binary about some danger at Luke’s ship. Anakin felt relieved to see that the droid had survived the old Republic’s collapse. That at least one of his friends was still present.

“R2, what are you doing here? I asked you to stay behind and watch the ship.” Luke frowned, as he laid a hand on the droid.

“It appears something happened to your ship and he came to alert you about it.” Anakin spoke up, staring at the droid.

At the sound of Anakin’s voice, the astromerch turned to face his former friend. He was silent, quietly analyzing Anakin no doubt. He abruptly slid directly at Anakin, running his foot over with his front leg.

“Ouch!” Anakin clutched his leg, “What was that for?”

R2 let out a low whistle. For leaving me.

There was a lot of people in the galaxy that believed droids had no feelings. But Anakin Skywalker was not one of those people. He had worked with enough droids to know they developed individual thoughts and feelings if you let them. That’s why he never wiped R2D2’s memory on anything. It seemed that the droid had remained that way, too.

“I’m sorry, pal.” Anakin hugged the droid tightly, “I’m sorry for leaving you.”

“How do you know R2?” Luke asked.

His son’s anger had lessened, but he still remained highly suspicious of him. He had realized there something more going on here.  Still, he wasn’t about to trust a twenty-something claiming to be his father just yet.

“He was—he was my wife’s wedding present to me.” His voice cracked.

It felt odd speaking openly about Padme in such a way. For so long he was used keeping it a secret, that it felt wrong to admit it. It was something he imagined that he would freely speak about.

Though he never imagined that anything that happened these past few weeks to be a possibility. Things like holding a conversation with his future son was quickly becoming the new norm.

“Wedding present?” Luke’s eyes widened.

The kid probably never knew the Jedi code—he doubted Luke would defend him if he’d known. However he still flinched when he heard his reaction. It reminded him of how he feared the others would react. How Obiwan—who had been like a father to him—would react. The Jedi knew love. They knew how to be compassionate. It was how he rationalized that his love was justifiable. Still, he knew deep down that the Jedi wouldn’t hold much love for him if they knew the truth.

He opened his mouth. He wanted to explain everything. How he’d fallen in love with Padme. How beautiful their wedding had been—just the two of them and their droids.

R2D2 let out an urgent whistle, shaking from side-to-side. Anakin didn’t need the Force to understand that trouble was heading their way.

“It seems like those Imperials who discovered your ship are heading our way,” Anakin mused as he fingered his blaster.

He didn’t like the bulky thing. It was nothing compared to his trusty lightsaber. However he had learned that a lightsaber attracted a lot more unwanted attention these days. The Storm-Troopers may be a joke compared to the clones, but they still greatly outnumbered him.

“What are you going to do?” Luke asked, as he pulled out a blaster of his own.

He was still guarded around Anakin; unconsciously wrapping what little of his shields tighter around himself.

“Look. I realize you have no reason to trust me. But it’s a bit of a long story and there isn’t enough time right now to explain. I’ll explain as soon as we knock these imps off our tail.”

Luke slowly nodded, “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

He relaxed a little, perhaps sensing the honesty in Anakin’s words. He wasn’t going to try to kill Anakin—for right now at least. Anakin didn’t know the first step in parenting but he believed that a good step towards the right direction.

“Good,” Anakin smirked, “Now, let’s go teach those imps a lesson.”

[throwingideasatthewall]

The Clone Wars         Duchess of Mandalore

                Season 2 Episode 14

......

You know      I want to believe     this is going to be an episode    focusing     on Duchess’s actual character        . . . .      But the track record     of writing female characters    (Never mind blam   ing trauma for their personality )

Doesn’t     leave     much       Good      Faith      Or     trust       . .          (especially how often their    Characterization gets to     Ret-conned.   to fit the     episode,)

(Padme turned into a nag,               Ahsoka      In     unchildlike     abomination       that goes with a plot needs    her       to)

Duchess;

From     Relat     iv-ely        Reas        On      Able     Leader         .  .   .       Turned        exquisite          and       Ex-      - cess         -ive         (Pe        tty)

Con      trast-      With      Semi-     Constant      Smart   “laziness”       avoidant      Obi-wan       And     “Do      It     Sky   wal   -ker-

 I don’t expect this to     stick

     (Al-ways     the female  characters,”

Any. Way

And war,  truth is the first casualty,

[It’s actually   accountability    but good try]

 Deluding them selves of the     goodness usually comes after the bad action

 Any way.

The     terribly designed ship

(I’m sorry but that thing doesn’t even look even slightly      aerodynamic) 

(The shark    ship at least had that)

   ?

[it was one apparent smoke bomb and she wasn’t allowed to        do anything to try and fix it,]

  But sure...    let’s go with that        .      Allies

[Never got a feel for that and    one dude was always    snarking at her,] No  shit 

everyone can see that

And     it was one dude

  [They haven’t     heard of this yet]

 [This plot-     isn’t very good]

Right     -      ok now they’re   im-portant-

 Sit and and wait 

 As Duchess makes her case that this is just one splinter group that she can handle

Some thing you wouldn’t think would     need a trial

[Only     becoming a problem when it affects other people]

        [suffering from the Luminara               problem, where if she doesn’t meet up to      high unreasonable standards.             In an unreasonable               amount of time                    (Little)                     Instantly lambasted by         her colleagues.                             With the     nar-rative showing no signs of painting this is wrong                                Or the fact of the   male characters can feck around     screw       everything       up,        And that   isn’t considered      serious

    [Narrative’s              a           Cheater. .)

        How long

These are   actual good evil minions    

(No this could actually be good with them becoming something like the clone troopers to the, Darkside

   Making up for a lack        of human faces in the ranks         up to this point,

   Establishing that while they may be the          instigator of tox,          Actions are about   ~now~          Less abhorrent than the     Empire’s            /       Coun-       cil-

‘the       Plot,’

 Completely irrelevant

   (And stupid)

Relying on everyone   being a complete       un-     accountable-       Idiot.

  Great plan you got there      Dooku,

 How’s Duchess’s explaining that’s-not-at-all-what-happened-and-we-don’t need a foot hold and all security,     going?

Like you think he’d be more mad   Considering what seems like the only plot,          Intercepting the        vehicle in transit,         Failed       horribly,

   Unless, the guys didn’t tell     him - And he still thinks they have      Duchess -which would make     sense...because of course they sent troops for the lost     foreign    leader

    (Would’ve been a     good episode for both        of them)

    (Not sure that would cause      a riot though-)

   (-Which would make sense if Obi-Wan was the last         one they saw around here-      Thinking, that a Jedi      captured their leader,

]

 But I’m getting ahead of myself      let’s focus on the       actual plot.    .

Whoa rows

To Coursant

I thought you just said to    . . .sit still and leave.

         What?                ...     

          What

Oh so we’re focusing on another     cliché plot instead of the actual characters

  (*Note;           Cliché             As              in              a           badly        established           already       done plot              . . .           There’s        nothing          wrong           with          doing         repeat          plot           so           long                as         you          do        them         well

    What you bring     into it is the fun part           (Ideally)

     Aight?

      How?

They’re just         there

Also yeah you already know that there there you already know what they’re doing you still haven’t done anything about it

    So?

      [I was about to say where is the courier guy     but he’s dead]

     R.I.P shortly lived villain          Killed off for a shitty       written romance-

 -He deserved         better

    Ok

  Whatever 

    Why

 [i’ve seen that image multiple times        but I never realized the city was in the ball

     [also how is this the palace     where several important officials meet         And the nice forest is supposed to be this            mining hell hole

The environments-           They’re-

  So yeah we know it’s there, but like last time we’re not going to do anything about it

   [like I said Saltine did get back at some point and          everyone’s logic was just ok let’s go complain to the council        for no reason,]

           [I     dislike this logic)

          Why?

           Just...?            Why

             Also yeah who’s in charge     while she’s away?

               I mean we’ve already got like a lot of      senators’ sus

    What?

    Things         Happen          Ing

    Also yeah palace   right back to the way it was,

    I guess it was a smoke       bomb. .

   Right?

    You left     the Boomer in control?

     Also, so yeah I’m surprised he didn’t run out to be a     mastermind either

     Like, yeah        That        can happen

  But given the      “legacy and proud of everything      thing,”

     You’d think he’d be the main target

    [Makes a lot more sense than Random     Sen   ator       #4

   And he was the only one in that     hallway with Obi-Wan-

 -

During their   argu-     ment-

Prime      Minister-      It      Makes      Sense          -

You found     the deathwatch     armies         -    isn’t   hard         -           It   was like five guys last time

Now just like them, you have allowed, the situation       to get worse

Good job     smart guys.

Battle

Really because they seem like the same group of nerds

?

What?

??...

   ?

  Deathwatch will never be strong enough

 Yeah, no shit  

 Guess you      shouldn’t do anything stupid

     [how long until something           stupid happens?]

       Beyond          the normal               . . .

       Here

Seriously how does this   plan make any sense?

Jedi- come here      - everyone-         Loses         their         shit  

  How?                - like      I know it be unpleasant to have some guys     stomp into              Your               House

         But there’s literally no need for     that..

    Considering         the situation            isn’t out of control

     And       Satine should be fully capable of handling the situation

       - And telling the Senate to feck off

       - And don’t tell me he’s doing this because she’s       passive because he’s been everything but passive in defending her passive beliefs,

   [Something        not really      elaborated          on]

  Stop

  NOT BE        AN IDIOT!

  Also,

    [I really don’t like this      plot        it makes no sense,”.     ]

Whelp-

  Fuck-

  That        Got        Dark-

[but possibly make sense if this is how she   sees members of the republic,        As a dark   brooding force that will hurt everyone if     she’s not careful,

Significant deadly threat

How?

They-     smoke bombed one building

[That’s   juvenile]

  [The situation is not out of control]

 In the narrative’s attempt to over blow this isn’t done     ,correctly

   You need to have         self     aware     ness.

Bumper cars

Good

[Also you had to come to the      Senate to say that]

(This could’ve been an email)

  Or a photo       op/        State       -ment-

    ?

  Duchess why did you come here   you knew they were going to pull this shit

Like this helped     nothing

And the narrative,

What was a good     situation that was supposed to come out of this?

You stand before a council of people who decided to fight, saying I don’t fight

   [ and these are toxic people         mind you]

There was   no way this is going to end up good;

And I don’t.. know what the     narrative?

Padme?

Also what is with the weird bumper car      rules?

Because it seems like anyone can come up at any time and ask   any question?

    [Like,      how is that not chaos?]

   Wo rking under           toxic assumed authority.       .

 “People-

   ‘ I call to the stand        Obi-Wan (Kenobi)          and Anakin             Of the Jedi         order, to      provide testament,”

      That’s all    that had to be said..

        On top              of;

“My government will submit to peace keepers   actual peace keepers -      Un-armed-        For        Eval     -uation,’

   That would make sense

 And work off     Satine’s      Ad-       vers         Ion-         To Obi-Wan,    and the Jedi Council,

   True

  Dick,

  -Jedi

Yeah, she didn’t reject, she allowed the Jedi to do a full   investigation,

Also as     brutal as the scene is,    it is a good show of you     reap what you   sow       and enablers  turning on a enablers

 Even though Satine   should’ve known better than     to argue peace     with a war   council...

Obi-won      says   nothing         . . .

  Fuck        You          (Good)

     Bad         Ass

    Lots of politicians            speaking,

     Wait-

     Dick-

   Appro      priate-

   Ser-iously       touching         someone     without         their        consent?

       Dick       entitled         move.

   Spec.    Ifically.

   After        he      stood        by       and    watched      that     happened     -       Senate          -         Yeah cause you were there       and you did nothing

Better;

  Saltine calls Obi-Wan as a witness        (Both Obi-Wan and the others.        (Anakin) standing watch      over her       home planet

    They failed to respond         due to being in the middle of some thing

   Or just distracted

    This makes looks     Satine          Look     extremely        bad,           That           Jedi            are            not     Re-sponding           On         her home planet

     The vote gets passed

    Satine is more than     distressed

    When Obi-Wan     Coms her                  In

       They            argue,           Satine           Sni,pping.               A.                Bro-ken           Promise

        “You said            you’d be there              for me                (This                Time)]

    “You’re never there when I need you,”

   “You’re never there when it         matters          most,”

       With that,        the conversation ends

       Satine possibly getting ready to defend herself against the   republic

     Coming to invade   her home

        Im-bittered               Sweet

Didn’t help at all but    okay,

We’re friends

 Good

[To be fair        the romance was so forced,      that friendship is honestly best,]

Ah,         Lady,           You just got a friendship last   block,

  No need   to act       surprised.

  Nothing        More

    Good because there was no chemistry    between you      up to this point,

   State of mind  

  ....

  What?

  What state of mind?

  ...

 She’s       fine!

  Yeah she      over reacted to the dude

   But - got everything together when it         mattered-

   THANK YOU!

 That was an         asinine statement

    Hysterical

No   they wouldn’t be

That isn’t a   compliment.

That’s      Invalidation.

  Dick   Obi-Wan

  Point!

  So much  

point in this!  

  I am so  

pleased.. 

 (Though

   regular,”    

 I only - 

 Gas-    

lighting

 “I’m-  

 Yes!

  Mhm

This is some  

Bomb ass tea

De-licious

(I just realized       my phrasing           of words             I’m so-)          

     It’s good is the point

(Doesn’t it make up what happened in the   previous episodes,     

   But,           Makes                it           easier            to              forget                        . . .    

 Accoun-           tability                 -                 Is        the     word        you’re        looking         for        (The    character,       not       the     writer,”)        They’re          doing          good                   .    ... You   live with a child       groomer          (Are           One)

Does make sense.  Obi-won closest to the problem       (Groomed       specifically       in benefit of it)            Still sad      that they just gave up

     Even if he does   have a point   That Two generations    have essentially         grown up          Anakin        and   their time   as the present     is over

   Bit too late to have a     regrets

    (Only   when it   screws      you over..

  Not      the     future   generations)

    And...

    My     sympathy        is    officially       gone         (Not       the   storytelling’s      fault,             I         think       they           work      -ed       this   conversation      pretty         well            -          Just         the        facts          to        narcs          arguing              -             Still         made          me           think        about         what       exactly         what         was        wrong             -           That’s       good       (narc)Con   versation,

Any way,

  I love       this song

   Obi-Wan gets roasted for all his bad         behavior 2.0...

  It’s nice

Crusade

This   Convo was good

      (It made me feel better about all the times the   writers used cheating tactics)

        *Not for                      giv-ed

just- better

?

[That expression-   was concerning]

 There

Aight

That-      Was-

  Chilling

[You just spent the whole time getting yelled out      for his deeds, just continued on,    emotion     less]

The       “respectable”          kind       (Approp-riate       for an           adult)

Aight

  [Oh- no are they going to have the Obi-won rescue her and that proves that all her opinions are wrong?

 Not actually; she made some really good   points

  But in the       narrative   treating?

    (I don’t    want to see     that)

Okay,    whelp,

Coursant has the   worst security ever,

  How?

Damn      Frick

  Is a     bad day for her,

  Filed

Some random dude   hijacked your car

Who are you going to     sue?

Bitch

Queenie,     dude’s��obviously an asshole

Leave

Also if there was no proof then why aren’t you charging her for vandalism terrorism, etc?

(See his logic is       bullshit,)

also this is a good example of   obstructive   bureaucrat          . . .

    Or avoidant

Because how do three people       nearly dying not constitute as proof?

   [Like if she       died.]

   Also, what’s the plan      if she did?

   Like; Oh yeah deathwatch is such a threat that they killed     a senator

     Those     dudes      don’t care

They only pissed at her because she’s a pacifist coming into  a      Offensive summit

  Accident

[she accidentally    drove her car.     [Yelling      at the     villain]

Not     what      she   said

This dude could give     Obi-Wan a run      for his gas lighting,

   Whelp

    Fuck         Off

     Oh yeah the council   of war mongers will really respect the       pa-   cifist

No bias     here

None   whatsoever

Satine 

   Hey    at least this time he had the   common decency not to      grab her-

 dick

  ?

Oh yeah defender of the   gaslight-ing committee  she’ll definitely help

Worry     You

Don’t give into the gaslight-

Also guilt tripping

 “ i’m afraid on that account,”

   No,

 Dick

 Valid     re-ac-     tions

 Shit-

“Victim   blaming”       (Toxic    blaming)

    Pretty sure     they’re all enablers      at this point

        Tox-

Ma’am

Leave the   ball of tox     known as Obi-Wan

Man has turned from a     garbage fire      to a         gas       fire,

Coursant

  Yeah,       you should leave,

  Also,        That       Moment,

    You        are        one         of         them.

    You’re not   backing down

     👉       This       Not,

Con

Don’t listen to     Obi-Wan      He     sucks

Also none of the guards are going to zap him for     touching their queen     unannounced?       - - - Friends

You’re not her   friends

You’ve been   nothing      but a dick

   Gas       lighting

    Nope

    Tox.

   [like listen to that   ag-gressive tone,          How he’s holding     her

        Tox

    [Still   good on the animators who did that scene,          Very good            work,]

     Occ-upation

          Shit

        Happen

Oh     Shit-

Obi-won     distracted         her?

   Aight

 Meeting

   What

    How-

Hm,

Wait-      Huh

[this is some kangaroo Court      logic

   It’s        Good.]

    Before

  “Relying on the Republic is a mistake,”

    Yesssss

      More           Acc-        Toxic      initiative         (Since there’s         no to         little         way         they         end             this)            Based               on       circumstance            only             (No            different          sources)

       Any-way                Um

          Okay

           Right                      Just                Vibin’g

          Aight              Whelp,

           Am                 I?

Oh is that the           Senator             guy?

Death   watch?

Also-      okay

Al-     right.

   ?

  Wait        What?

     Hm?

    Green

      We know       two greens             And one   changeling            That should be in   custody- 

     Wait-           ?

       ?

     What?

      ? ? ?

    EXPLAIN

        ?

      Who-

      What

        ?

       At-

    This was a pretty a’ight episode

     (Trust me I wish      I could give it higher praise)

   However the           unfortunate           clankiness of the introduction

           Keeps it stubbornly between a decent          and good

       With that            being            said;

           That does not        take away from the fact that is           a ____ whatever it is

    -it has good characterization         for Satine

   - it handles heavy morals like enabling, tox,       abuse and        pro-         blems      With        Assumed           Autho rity-     Includ        Ing       Police          Bru-       tality        And        Fram       -ing          Very        Well

   (With the   appro-       priate       dignity it deserves,

 [there’s a small bit of better done romance/      fond-ness, near the           End]

   *Villain was neat

   [More of sidious      and on the [Main] villains

     There           were             few         Moments            that            Made              Me              Go              Wtf            (Obi              Wan’s          Abuse                  Of               The              Word               “Saw                 You,”                  The               Insist              Ence                 That               Death               Watch                Was              In                  Tim                   i-                dating

            As                For                Fix                -ing;

Episode;  Instead of to defend,   Wise        Saltine is called                           To ident       ify a               Death                           Watch      ��                  Member-                             Or                             Re                             New                              Her                              Neu-                             Trality                             Pledge                               In                              Person                             (Due to                              Change     ling    (Over       Lap)                           Attack

                         Episode                               Pro                               Gress                                  Es

Arc     Fixes;

          Obi- won delivers news, that he’s supposed             to escort              her             Pers               On                 Ally,                Saltine expects everything to go over    swimmingly after all she hasn’t done anything wrong,                 Quickly find out otherwise,                Loyalty over her              vs the government  

           Leads to a small                break               (Episode continues as   normally)

            (Death watch-                 if want)

     Fix        Arc       Continue;        (Note no offense to the author meant     I just started some thing and I should finish it as an     accountable      writer)

  Satine          Is        Forced          Into        Either      Defend        Ing        Or     Leaving         Anakin         To        Her         Irate        People,        Soon         After      Obi-won’s        In-       Cid       ent           Pri     med

Hope      Spot        Or      Depres.       Further.     Push          Ing           Ana     -kin’s       Dec-       Ision        To      Snap)     End

[Generally I thought this was a pretty       ____ episode, the animation and set design will really good/      On par and it seems to have made up.      (Corrected)        A majority of flaws      I had with previous       episodes              . . .        Moving               On...