#kenobi press

[hayden-christensen]

#the real reason

[lacebird]

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN Obi-Wan Kenobi photocall, London (2022)

[go-see-a-starwar]

Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor | London, May 12, 2022

[haydenscloset]

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon | June 24, 2022 | New York City

Craig Green 'Men's Laced Jacket in Black/Cream' – $1.039 (unavailable)

The details on this jacket are so cool. I like to think that the lace-up detailing is a little nod to Vader being stitched back together after his injuries on Mustafar. One of my favourite looks that Hayden wore during the Kenobi press tour for sure!

Photo by Todd Owyoung.

[ventressism]

what’s his problem!?!

the hair, the eyes, the clothes 😩

[three-fold-symmetry]

He may need a cold shower. Because of the heat

[padawansuggest]

AU where Jango time travels, saves Jaster, and accidentally becomes Dooku’s controversially young boytoy and accidentally convinces him to become Obi-Wan’s master when he meets the 10 year old in the temple while avoiding Jaster in the archives and gets attached to Smolbi-Wan. He is now a stepdad. Fuck. Jaster keeps stealing the kiddo while Jango is getting his back blown out by a sorta former Sith.

[legobenkenobi]

the way Obi-Wan writes about Cody in his journal is so tender for a lot of reasons but one i’m thinking about a lot is how it’s probably one of the very, VERY few remaining pieces that preserves who Commander Cody ACTUALLY was, outside of the chip and being forced into Order 66.

Obi-Wan is memorializing Cody along with all the people who were important to him for Luke and anyone who comes after to see because he knows no one else will and also that no one else spent the war with Cody like he did and got to know him in that strange, intimate way of being on the front lines together.

he’s keeping Cody alive in those pages despite everything, despite not knowing the truth about the chips. ohhh im so ill

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fanbinding: Prajna Paramita by @catalpa-waltz

"What do you know of the Jedi?" she asks him.

"Nothing," he says. And it's true. All at once his mind is full of nothing, of an empty sky and empty sand, and on the horizon, the dark hulking shape of an empty house crouched like a sleeping beast.

"Nothing," he says again.

This bind has been sitting on my backburner for so long bc of other deadlines but it's one of those fics that drove me a little insane. @catalpa-waltz by their own words wrote in this fic a "thesis on the intersection of Mahayana Buddhism with Jedi and Mandalorian culture" and it is absolutely lovely. How could I not lean in equally hard? So we have here a number of motifs - a mandala I designed using architectural embellishments from jedi temple imagery, a lotus flower, the wheel of dharma, a geometric divider that looks like it has a bes'karta in it.

The lovely golden flower bookcloth I sourced locally here in Japan, and it is SO SILKLY SOFT I could never make a mark on it, so I did a printed obi-band instead. This paper is quite interesting - it's also a Japanese style, and I believe it's done by heavily polishing little spirals or flowers into the paper. The endpapers are a lovely geometric chiyogami, and I sewed the endbands in Japanese hand-sewing silk thread.

[dontbelasagnax]

sometimes, long after the battle is over, Obi-Wan lies in his bunk with his hands enclosed around the hilt of his lightsaber and pretends he can still feel the warmth of Cody's hand from the dutiful pass off of his 'saber. however indirect the touch, through gloves and several hours or days after the fact, it's like holding hands. he'll trace a fingertip down the side and ponder what it would be like if next time--not that this happens often enough for a "next time" to be inevitable, he lies to himself--on the return, their fingers brushed. it would be torture. it would be bliss. it would be a monumental task not to smile.

[hayden-christensen]

#he was fighting for his life 😭

+ BONUS

[lacebird]

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN interviewed during the Obi-Wan Kenobi photocall in London (2022)

[go-see-a-starwar]

EWAN + HAYDEN - IGN INTERVIEW

[david-talks-sw]

I can’t remember which post it was off the top of my head but you’ve mentioned how George was explicit that nothing in The Clone Wars directly influences Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, what about indirectly? There’s the obvious one: Anakin finds it easier to give into his anger as the war goes on. But I was also thinking the events of Hardeen and Wrong Jedi arcs weaken Anakin’s trust in the Order that then plays into the circumstances in which his fall to the Dark Side took place. Like that weakened trust meant Anakin distanced himself which gives context for why he refused to go to Obi-Wan when the visions started.

It also fits with his character because one of Anakin’s flaws is that he takes things way to personally, e.g. he was not the only person the Council lied to about Obi-Wan’s fake death. Then when Ahsoka was leaving the Order after the Council let her down, which they did let her down, she had to remind Anakin that it was about her not him.

Of course weakened trust is nowhere near enough to cause someone to commit genocide and Anakin didn’t seem to make any effort to mend those fences either. And of course none of this would have happened without Palpatine manipulating things. Hence my question of how you think The Clone Wars indirectly influenced his journey to the Dark Side even as none of really tied to why Anakin ultimately fell.

I think you summed it up perfectly, actually.

If you're using Lucas' word as the "be-all, end-all", then The Clone Wars is indeed just an asterisk/addendum to the story of the films.

Its purpose? Providing context for the minor changes between Episode II and Episode III, changes that aren't exactly relevant to the story of Anakin's downfall.

"Anakin seems more mature and less whiny, in Episode III, what happened to change that?" He got a Padawan of his own during the Clone War and when you're put in charge of someone, you grow up real quick.

"He and Obi-Wan were constantly bickering in Episode II, now they're best buds, why?" In Episode II, Anakin was in Obi-Wan's care but felt he needed to leave the nest, whereas Obi-Wan was being a helicopter parent. In The Clone Wars, we see that once Anakin gets knighted, their relationship smooths over, now becoming a more brotherly bond than a parent/child one. Obi-Wan will sometimes worry that Anakin will fly off the handle, but he's also able to recognize his former Padawan is now his own man, whereas Anakin takes responsibility more frequently, now, due to now having a Padawan of his own.

"What's the relationship between Anakin and the other Jedi we saw in the background of the movies?" Find out by tuning in to The Clone Wars!

"The clones have names, now? And they're the Jedi's friends, when did all that happen!" You can find out by seeing them fight side-by-side with the Jedi and slowly becoming independent thinkers, only in The Clone Wars.

"The Jedi are more scheming and political in Episode III, they and Anakin are at odds... why the shift in attitudes?" They were drafted into a war, and forced to make compromise after compromise to a point where their values have been rendered pointless and they've become begrudging hypocrites. They're playing politics (and sucking at it) because they've been dragged onto a political chessboard and are trying to keep up with a far more skilled opponent. These terrible decisions impact all of them, even Anakin.

Stuff like that.

But none of that is relevant to Anakin's story, which is more personal, in nature. It's a story about how his own greed turned him into the very thing he swore to destroy, which parallels how the Republic became the Empire for those same reasons.

The films show us this, and The Clone Wars *reinforces* this narrative by giving us further examples of it.

While Anakin is aware of what's right and wrong... the more the war rages on, the more frequently he takes the "easy" path and gives in to his anger and selfish desires, enabled by Palpatine.

Sometimes Anakin does manage to get a grip, he does manage to take responsibility, he does learn to let go... but then something happens (often orchestrated by Palpatine) and he goes right back to square one... then square zero... then square minus one, etc.

He never takes that final step to being a more enlightened person.

The Clone Wars challenges the Jedi at times, questions their actions... but ultimately, the responsibility falls on Anakin's shoulders. The series will show you moments where they fail Anakin, but there's as many moments of him failing them.

Could the Jedi have done more? Yes. But if you think them doing more would've solved the problem, you're missing the point of the story of the Prequels.

Functionally, all that is achieved from the Council/Anakin conflict (again, orchestrated by Palpatine), in Episode III, is creating more pressure for Anakin to cave under. That's it.

They're not a meaningful factor in his turn to the Dark Side.

Padmé is.

When he's hesitating between saving Mace or saving Palpatine...

... he's not thinking "one of them was nice to me, but the other one was mean to me and kicked out Ahsoka, so I'll chop his hand off".

And he's not thinking "this isn't by the book, Mace you hypocrite!"

Lucas tells us what's going through his head, in that moment.

It's about Padmé living. And we've already established that what that's really about is "Anakin not wanting to live without her". So, really, it's about Anakin.

Mace and Anakin butting heads isn't even considered. If Mace had been laughing with Anakin and hugging him on the daily, Anakin still would've ended up chopping off his hand. It wasn't about Mace, it was about Anakin.

If Ahsoka had stayed with the Jedi Order, he still would've joined the Dark Side. Because it was never about Ahsoka, it was about Anakin.

If Qui-Gon had lived, Anakin would've still turned. It was never about Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon being the teachers, it was about Anakin.

Because the message of the story is basically that:

"Ultimately, it's up to you to take personal responsibility and be compassionate. If you avoid responsibility and give in to your darker impulses for selfish purposes, bad shit happens. The only meaningful change can come from within."

And in Anakin's case it didn't. He zigged instead of zagging at almost every turn.

Now, you can agree or disagree with that message. But that's what it is. Even some of the current Star Wars authors acknowledge this.

The story of Anakin Skywalker is told in the movies.

The Clone Wars is there as an addendum to:

Shine a spotlight/provide context on minor changes between Episode II and Episode III.

Humanize Anakin, to further drive the point that what happened to him can happen to anyone.

ADDENDUM:

[starwarscaptionthis]

caption this

[burntblueberrywaffles]

"The Jedi and their philosophy and are not inherently bad" and "The Jedi lifestyle was never the right fit for Anakin and they should have been more understanding towards him and his circumstances" are two sentiments that can and should coexist actually.