#lucas mon

[demone06]

THIS FUCKER!! But In A Disguised Form.

Mario Mon (c) @demone06 MX (Disguised) & Lucas (c) @frazzdude

[antianakin]

I'm starting to see some very funny (and by funny I mean infuriating) takes on what Andor was actually ABOUT and the way it utilized its more adult narrative within the context of Star Wars. Andor as a show followed Lucas's themes BRILLIANTLY even while choosing to look at them a little differently.

One of the primary themes in Star Wars is that there really isn't much of a "middle ground" in life. You are either choosing to be selfless and compassionate, or you aren't. Trying to stay in the middle or run from making this choice inevitably ends up badly for the people who try. And one of the other primary themes of Star Wars is that being selfless and compassionate often requires LETTING GO, most often letting go of the people you love and accepting that change happens in life.

I've seen people argue that Andor is able to be a morally grey story because its characters aren't Jedi or Sith who tend to be more bound by these cosmic themes or good vs evil, but I'd argue that Andor actually represents that theme JUST FINE.

Despite many of its characters living in a "morally ambiguous" area, we still have to see them make the choice to be selfless and compassionate or selfish and greedy. One of the primary themes for the characters is how well they can LET GO or not. Cassian is constantly having to figure out how to let go of his plans for his future, let go of his mother, let go of his dreams of a normal life. Cassian is ruled by fear for much of the first season and it's only once he is pushed into a situation where there's no longer any way to run, he starts finally fighting back and refusing to bow to the oppressive force that wants nothing more than to see him discarded like so much refuse. The people of Ferrix have to let go of their desire to stick their heads in the sand and simply hope the Empire won't notice them.

And on the other end of the spectrum you have Syril Karn and Dedra Meero absolutely fixated on their respective goals to the point that they're willing to kill and betray innocent people to reach them. They've convinced themselves their goals are selfless, but their motivations are in fact actually SELFISH, they serve nobody but their own ambitions. And both of them end up paying for it.

So Andor ABSOLUTELY gets the central theme of Star Wars, it isn't actually trying to change that. What it DOES do is take that theme and just digs slightly deeper, looking at this theme from a slightly different angel even when it ultimately comes to the same conclusion. Andor asks if selflessness and compassion always looks like "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you!" Or if maybe sometimes making the selfless choice means burning yourself to light a fire to lead someone else to safety. Are all people who make the selfless and compassionate choice considered heroes, or are some of them having to make those choices down in the dirt and destined to be forgotten by history? Andor asks how many variations of selflessness might exist and then explores them in its wide, colorful ensemble.

Andor also is looking at what selflessness might look like in characters who are forced into making a choice between standing back when they see evil happening and dirtying their hands just to make the smallest difference because forces of evil outside of their control are making the purer options impossible.

And that is the EXACT SAME THEME explored with the Prequels Jedi. The Jedi who want so badly to be selfless and compassionate, whose philosophies and ideologies lead them to use violence only as a last resort and love everyone and everything in the galaxy equally. The Jedi who are thrust into a war where there's no way to win because the Sith are running both sides of it and the Jedi can't just NOT FIGHT because that will get innocent people killed and will help no one but themselves, but they have to compromise their morals as a result. The Jedi who see a politician slowly amassing unreasonable amounts of power he's unwilling to let go of and a Senate too controlled by fear and greed to see the danger, so their only option is to commit treason to try to remove the corruption personally.

The Jedi LOOK the hero part a lot more than the characters in Andor do. They're strong, confident, powerful, and wield swords of light. They fight out in the open rather than from the shadows. Cassian, Luthen, Saw, Mon Mothma, Vel, and Cinta all manipulate things and threaten people and lie and cheat their way towards victory. Both Mon Mothma and Luthen fully admit to choosing to act like their enemy in order to defeat them. And it's not that the Jedi's way of fighting is any worse than the way the people of Andor have learned to fight. The people of Andor would LOVE to be able to fight like the Jedi used to do. But they can't. Palpatine has created a world in which being heroes that way is NO LONGER POSSIBLE. He started with the Jedi, by forcing the Jedi into a situation where fighting the way they once did was the wrong choice to make. There were no longer any right choices, just better choices. The only choice.

The Jedi stood as a bulwark between the darkness and the people of the galaxy. For years they chose to dirty their hands in order to fight the battles no one else WANTED to fight because it was the ONLY CHOICE TO MAKE. So what happens when the Jedi are gone?

The rest of the galaxy is now faced with the same choice. Do you stand by and let darkness grow? Or do you dirty your hands a little because it's the only choice you CAN make?

The people in Andor are picking up the torch that fell out of the Jedi's hands when they were murdered and persecuted by the Sith. Only the people who are left don't have magic powers or swords of light, so they use the resources they have at their disposal, which mostly amounts to manipulation and trickery and striking from shadows. The fight looks a little different now, but it's still the same fight the Jedi were fighting for years.

So Andor is taking those bigger cosmic themes from the Jedi/Sith conflicts that permeate the rest of the Skywalker saga and asks what those themes might look like when applied to the little people. What kind of choices might THEY make, what kind of things might they have to let go of in order to make those selfless choices? What kind of consequences might happen when they DON'T make the selfless choice? It's the exact same theme Lucas has ALWAYS had in his stories, just viewed from a different angle or through a different lens.

But the stories we've been getting recently that are trying to argue that being selfish is actually totally fine so long as you're doing it For Love, that the Jedi were in fact the source of everything that went wrong in the galaxy, that the Jedi were DESTINED to be destroyed, those all go completely against Lucas's themes. They're the direct OPPOSITE of his intended message. It is in fact entirely possible to write a more adult story with grittier content that STILL SENDS THE SAME FUCKING MESSAGE AND FOLLOWS THE SAME THEMES and doesn't try to get edgy in its interpretation of the source material.

[userlaylivia]

I'm not including steroline because in my mind they are endgame same with jax/tara and merder because whenever meredith dies she'll be with derek!! I didn't include barchie or bhva because all were endgame imo and didn't include klamille or klayley or haylijah because I ship all three and didn't want competing ships lol and spuffy was endgame in the comic books lol in my mind karamel is endgame because she can go where he is anytime but I included them anyway lol and handon is endgame in my mind as well because they would've been!! I included brylan because even though I consider them endgame because they were supposed to be and now luke/shannen are gone I consider them to be but I needed to fill a space lol

@makeyouminemp3, @nikkiruncks, @bellamyblake, @okmcintyre, @stydixa

[utilitycaster]

This is high praise: everyone on Ruidus has names that make me think "this sounds like a Star Wars character but like. not stupid."

[claudia1829things]

"ANDOR" Season One (2022) Commentary

"ANDOR" SEASON ONE (2022) COMMENTARY

Ever since Season One of the Lucasfilm series, "ANDOR" was released on the DisneyPlus streaming channel, it has received a great deal of accolades and high praise. In fact, the series is now regarded as one of the best productions from the STAR WARS franchise, if not the best.

I find this high regard ironic, considering how many STAR WARS fans had reacted to Disney Studios' announcement about a series focused around the character of Cassian Andor, from the 2016 hit film, "ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY". Many were not happy. I, on the other hand, had looked forward to the series. Not only had I been a major fan of "ROGUE ONE", I had regarded both the Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso characters as one of the film's highlights. So, when I finally sat in front of my television series and watched an episode of "ANDOR" unfold each week during the fall of 2022, my reaction resulted in . . . hmmm, mixed feelings?

Season One of "ANDOR" certainly had its highlights. I admired the excellent performances from a cast led by the very talented Diego Luna. I thought showrunner Tony Gilroy's portrayal of a corrupt and violent Galactic Empire seemed pretty spot on. In fact, Gilroy's portrayal of the galaxy at this point in the timeline pretty much matched his, Chris Weitz and director Gareth Edwards' portrayal of the galaxy in "ROGUE ONE". Although the 1980 movie, "STAR WARS: EPISODE FIVE - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" was the first STAR WARS film to portray its protagonists ambiguously, the ambiguous portrayal of the Rebel Alliance first appeared in "ROGUE ONE". Gilroy continued this ambiguity of the Rebel Alliance in the "ANDOR" series. Season One featured scenes that impressed me very much. They included Cassian Andor’s escape from Ferrix in the third episode, (1.03) "Reckoning"; the Rebels Alliance of heist of the payroll of the Imperial garrison on Aldhani in (1.06) "The Eye"; and Cassian’s rescue of Bix and the anti-Imperial riot on Ferrix. Featured in (1.12) "Rix Road", the season finale. But the sequence featuring his stint at the Narkina 5 prison and especially his escape in (1.10) "One Way Out" nearly struck me as brilliant.

Despite these virtues, Season One of "ANDOR" also featured issues that I either found questionable or simply did not work for me. The season's narrative structure of a group of three (or four) episodes per arc barely worked for me. I say barely, because the arcs still managed to form one season-long arc. But it did so in a way that some of the episodes felt like mere padding. And this proved to be one of my main problems with "ANDOR". As I have stated before, the first two episodes could have merged into one. And the fourth and fifth episodes could have merged into one. I also believe that the seventh episode could have merged into the eighth one. For me, twelve episodes seemed like too much for the narrative featured in the series. And I found some of the episodes' endings rather abrupt and problematic. This especially seemed to be the case with the earlier episodes.

I still find myself wondering about the purpose behind those flashbacks featuring Cassian Andor’s childhood in the first two episodes were about, other than revealing his origins. But why feature flashbacks of his past, when they had no real impact on the season’s main narrative? Also, the last two episodes seemed anti-climactic to me. This especially seemed to be the case for "Rix Road", the season's finale. One might questioned this opinion, considering "Rix Road" featured the funeral of Maarva Andor, the protagonist's adoptive mother, her pre-recorded speech bashing the Galactic Empire, the riot that followed and the Rebel Alliance's attempt to kill Cassian before the Empire could capture him. The reason I found all of this anti-climatic is that the series' protagonist had played little or no role in these incidents. During all of these events, Cassian was busy trying to rescue his captured close friend, Bix Caleen, from the Empire's Imperial Security Bureau (ISB). Cassian's rescue of his friend proved to be a lot less difficult than I had assumed it would be. And the Rebel Alliance had decided not to kill him at the last moment.

Speaking of "Rix Road", it had provided one aspect of "ANDOR" that really annoyed me. The episode had paused its narrative to convey Maarva Andor's pre-recorded speech against the Empire. But this was not the first time something like this happened. Two or three times, the series paused the story in order for a character to give this great speech or monologue on the evils of fascism and tyranny. It almost felt as if Tony Gilroy was trying to shove politics down our throats. I am not one of those yahoos who constantly complain about "woke" politics in pop culture movies and TV. But the numerous pauses that resulted in a monologue or speech really got on my nerves. George Lucas managed to do the same with two lines in two separate movies. One line came from the mouth of Princess Leia Organa in "STAR WARS: EPISODE FOUR - A NEW HOPE". Her mother, Senator Padmé Amidala, had uttered an even more famous line in "STAR WARS: EPISODE THREE - REVENGE OF THE SITH". Two separate lines. It seemed a pity that Gilroy was unable to do the same.

My last major issues regarding "ANDOR" revolved around the characters of Syril Karn, a security inspector for a corporate conglomerate and Senator Mon Mothma of the Imperial Senate. Karn spent the first two episodes investigating the deaths of two fellow security officers killed by Cassian on Morlana One. The security officer's investigation led to his violent encounter with Cassian on Ferrix during the third episode, (1.03) "Reckoning". Following Cassian's escape, Karn spent the next nine episodes developing two obsessions - finding and capturing Cassian and developing a romantic (if you want to call it that) fixation for ISB Agent Dedra Meero, while he continuously engaged in verbal combat with his domineering mother. After wasting away for eight episode, Karn learned about Maarva Andor's death and decided to travel to Ferrix to snatch Cassian. Only . . . he never encountered his prey. Not once. Karn only ended up saving Agent Meero from angry rioters. One could say this was a lead up to Karn joining the ISB. But this all felt like such a waste. Perhaps Gilroy could have allowed Karn to be an ISB agent from the beginning. This could have allowed him to take a more active role in the season's narrative.

Finally we come to Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila. I had assumed her presence in the series would be a repeat of her presence in "ROGUE ONE" - simply there to fill in the role as one of the Rebel Alliance's leaders. Instead, Gilroy provided an in-depth look into her private life and her efforts to keep her role as one of the Rebels' leaders a secret. To my surprise, Senator Mothma's arc came dangerously close to dominating this series . . . in which Cassian served as the main protagonist. The worst part - at least for me - is that her arc had no real impact on Cassian’s arc. Or served as any kind of catalyst to Cassian’s arc during this first season.

I find this ironic, considering the numerous complaints lobbied at 2022's "OBI-WAN KENOBI" limited series over the strong presence of the Reva Sevander character. What many have forgotten was that Reva's experiences during the Order 66 purge had led her to seek revenge against former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader. Reva's quest for revenge led her to use both the 10 year-old Princess Leia and former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to achieve it. Her actions ended up serving as a catalyst for Obi-Wan's character arc in the series. Senator Mothma had no such impact on Cassian Andor's arc. Hell, she never met him in person in any of the season's twelve episodes. The only connection they had was Mothma's cousin Vel Sartha, who had led Cassian and others in the Aldhani heist. If Tony Gilroy and Lucasfilm had wanted a heavy emphasis on Senator Mothma that badly, they could have made her serve as the catalyst for Cassian's recruitment into the Rebel Alliance, not Luthen Rael. Or they could have created a separate limited series for her. Tony Gilroy, Lucasfilm and many critics and fans had forgotten the name of this series, which is "ANDOR"; not "THE REBEL ALLIANCE", "REBELS II" or "MOTHMA".

Ever since I had expressed my complaints about Season One of "ANDOR", many have accused me of not liking the series. As if my opinions of it was a damn crime or something. One, I am entitled to my opinion of any movie, television series or any other form of entertainment. Due to my positive opinion of the Cassian Andor character, I had hoped to really enjoy "ANDOR". Unfortunately, that never happened. The first season possessed enough virtues for me to like it. But I believe it also possessed enough flaws for me not to regard it as highly as many others have. Frankly, I believe Season One of "ANDOR" proved to be one of the most overrated productions created by Lucasfilm.

[ask-olaf-luca-blog]

[akahael]

TAG, I'M IT!

GAHHHH It's been so much time since someone tagged me in something like this!!! Thank you @one-silly-cart00nist !!! Bestie indeed :DDD 💖💥

Last Song:

This song has been repeating in my head for weeks. Maybe months? Chappell Roan is absolutely ICONIC and her voice and this song make my bones tremble idk how to explain!!?

Also a honor mention:

I know this might not resonate with everyone in here because it's in spanish but ☝️ another masterpiece and another incredible singer. This song gets me crying every💥 time💥

Fave place:

My computer? Lol- Probably any big city with tons of street commerce. I love exploring the capital with my irl friends when I get the chance (Getting robbed is part of the experience); and in general places where I can see people's small business too, like cons!!!

Fave book:

I have always been a fanfiction boy I'm sorry... I don't know many "actual" books... But back in school "Fahrenheit 451" didn't let me sleep lol. It's about a biopolitical government who demands the firefighters no longer stop fires, but start them, by burning books (books are illegal)

It's pretty cool, but if I'm allowed to talk about my favorite fan-fiction, I HAVE to say, "Markdoka Magica!" by @bonkerbuster69 on A03 LIKE. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE READ?!?! IT MADE ME CRYYYYYY!!!!!!! It's about Mark discovering and accepting herself as a trans girl SNIFF SNIFF everyone should read it 😭😭😭

And in second place there's "The perks of being in love" (orphan_account) which is a 2015 fanfic on AO3 about Wirt (Over the Garden Wall) and Dipper (Gravity Falls) and their slow burn romance in highschool GAHH the corniest thing but it low-key made me realize I was on the ace spectrum AND high key was the start of my love for poetry so it kinda had a big impact on my life LMAOO

As for books again, I will say "Dear Evan Hansen" too but just because there isn't a space for "favorite musical" heh

Fave movie:

I don't watch many movies either lol but I have to say Luca (yes, the one from pixar). It brings me the biggest sensation of comfort any sort of media has ever made me feel, and I had a bigg hyperfixation with it for over two years so yeah. It's special.

Honorable mention to The Bad Guys too (I'm not a furry I swear (?))

Fave show:

OHOHOHO!!!! I wouldn't know... Both Gravity Falls and Over the Garden Wall fight for the first place with fists and teeth. Every time a hyperfixation is over I just go back to them

That's in general. Currently tho, of course I'm OBSESSED with Craig of the Creek and especially the Elders, 1. for the comfort sensation it gives, 2. It's surprisingly funny and 3. The way they approach certain, more serious topics in a friendly way for kids. I love to see it with my lil sister and she loves the show too.

Honorable mentions again to The Eltingville Club pilot, Fired on Mars, Total Drama Island (SPECIFICALLY the 2023 reboot) andddd Edd Ed n Eddy which I still haven't finished but I HAVE to lol

Fave food:

Popcorn.

ErMmM I'll tag @twuizzy just if you want to do it pal!!!! :D

[hacked-wtsdz]

Mon Mothma is really interesting to me because she is willing to get her hands dirty for a cause. In comparison to Padme, for example, she is a completely different sort of person, rebel, senator, partner. This isn’t about putting them against each other to say who is better, they were, according to canon, very good friends and co-creators of the rebellion, but the way they work to get to their ends is different. Mon admits that she has learned from the Emperor, she has learned how to lie, how to betray, how to be a wolf in a sheep’s skin, the things that Palpatine is the best at. Padme, who has been Palpatine’s friend and, in a way, student would not do the things Mon does. She puts the Rebellion, freedom, politics, war first, but she wouldn’t marry her daughter off to achieve something. She wouldn’t betray Anakin, first of all, because their love is true, compared to Mon and her husband. But also because framing somebody isn’t morally correct in her opinion. Ideals are extremely important to Padme. She is the golden side of the rebellion: honest, honourable. That is inherently why Anakin fell in love with her, that kid from Tatooine where those words meant less than dust. And that nature passed on to Luke, which is why he was able to save Vader and defeat the Empire in the end. That golden side is crucial to the rebels. That’s not to say that Padme isn’t willing to lie or spy or kill, but sacrificing her morals for a greater cause would be near impossible to her imo. Becoming Luthen would never have been an option. And that doesn’t make her bad or useless. Like I said, people like her were the ones who built the Rebellion in the first place, without them it wouldn’t have thrived. Padme is Nemik. Padme is the Jedi. Padme is Luke refusing to fight Vader, refusing to become like him even to save his friends. In the end, that’s exactly what saves them. But Mon, oh Mon is Luthen. Mon is Cassian himself. Mon is the sacrifice of Kreegyr. Mon is shading faces like masks and lying without shame. Mon is all those people who gave up their conscience for a cause. Mon is the shaded side of the rebels, no less crucial than Padme to their eventual victory. Mon is willing to do the things Padme is not, and by that she is unable to be moral and good like Padme, unable to be the golden side. Doomed to use her enemies’ weapons against him. They are two sides of the same coin, one shiny, one rusted, both make up its value, both a heart with which the rebellion beats. Only before we saw more gold than rust, and now Andor really got to show us the black side of the Rebellion.

[bumpscosity]

just got my first gym badge! i'm used to the later games where you get to know the gym leaders a little better, it was kinda jarring to just see roark and then immediately battle him. still a fun fight tho even if i did one shot all his pokemon bc i have a grass type with razor leaf

[richardgrimes]

it's funny how the good boy/bad boy dynamics of my dogs have changed. my dog who just passed away was the angelest of angel babies and could never do anything wrong. my younger dog is a crackhead. now that it's the younger dog and the puppy, he's the good boy now. when the puppy is bad we'll be like "WHYY can't you be a good boy like hudson?!" and be like wow. never thought i'd say that

[boardchairman-blog]

**Shots of the Episode**

Andor (2022)

Season 1, Episode 11: “Daughter of Ferrix″ (2022) Director: Benjamin Caron Cinematographer: Damián García

[demone06]

And Then...

They Died. Mario Mon (c) @demone06 Ricardo (c) @mtgamesgnm Lucas (c) FrazzDude_ & @razzdazzledoo Universe 7 Version (c) @demone06 Jane (c) @janetheartist

[marvelstars]

The Republic, the Jedi Order and Slavery

So I have seen some discussions on the matter of the Jedi, Slavery and the Republic that I think would be interesting to explore from a legal point of view just to get a little bit outside the blame game going on in the fandom.

First off I think what we need to remember is that slavery, while being banned in the republic it is tolerated on worlds associated with it but that are too distant for the core to bother to enforce their own laws there, like Tatooine. The Republic tacitly recognizes the Hutt and others Empires who support slavery even if it isn´t official or legal. So right there we have a big plot hole into Repblican legislation and law enforcement.

This means that on Tatooine is completely legal to own, blown up, buy or sell people as property and it´s a practice so widespread there are actual space pirates who dedicate themselves to capture and sell people for this same end, this was the case of Shmi Skywalker who was born a free person but who was captured and sold to Gardulla´s the Hutt and her Son, Anakin, who was born a slave.

But this isn´t the case inside the Republic, much less on Coruscant, at least in the bare bones of their laws, so what happened to the Clone Army? Why no one, not even the principled Senators like Padme, Bail Organa or Mon Mothma were calling them a slave army? I believe the problem comes from the fact the clones, just like the droids, are not fully recognized as individuals with rights acording to Republican laws, when a member of a respected organization like the Jedi Order, Master sifo Dias, can use Republic credits to buy an army for a war that didn´t even exist until Dooku created the Separatist faction and no one raises an eyebrow, it means the Republic recognizes their purchase as legal within the law, which means they aren not recognized as sentient beings and the Clone Army are not citizens of the Republic but a property bought by Republican Credits with the Jedi Order acting as an intermediary.

This is my pet peeve when it comes to the Jedi Order in the Prequels, because they are not being actively evil, they didn´t order or buy the clone army, all of this was part of Palpatine´s and Dooku´s plans but by accepting the clone army they legally became the owners of the Clone Troopers.

In this instance it doesn´t matter much if they like them or treat them well, I love the fact Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Plo Kloon have an awesome relationship with their troopers in general but the deeper issues stays the same, they are not recognized citizens of the republic by law and they are owned by the Republic and the Jedi Order, to give an example of this problem: Watto also liked Shmi and Anakin and actually asisted Shmi´s marriage with Cliegg Lars after he freed her in legends canon, that didn´t mean he didn´t have the legal right to blown both of them up if he thought it was neccesary as their slave owner and that´s exactly the same problem the Jedi have, they are legally the owners of the clone army.

My other pet peeve was that instead of talking about this very serious issue or making a formal investigation because this was looking too suspicious, the Jedi Council, including Obi-Wan and Yoda, were more concerned about them losing their place as peace keepers by becoming members of the Republican army than by becoming owners of hundreds of people from one day to another and I could actually think this was just a plot hole in Lucas narrative but the problem is that this is actually talked as an issue by the Clones in the Clone War series, even more, Lucas originally thought to skip the use of the chip and have the Clone Army voluntarily attack the Jedi in Order 66 because their loyalty was to the Republic not to the Jedi Order, which says a lot about issues between them.

So the Jedi didn´t just renounce their right to have a political voice inside the Senate, they also skip over or just plain never talked about their responsibility as owners of sentient beings, yes, this was part of Palpatine´s trap for them, they were done for the moment they accepted the army because they were left vulnerable to an attack like Order 66 but they were still an semi independent institution within the Republic who certainly had the means to discover the truth, they just choose to let it lie until they could win the war and that moment never came.

Now another interesting discussion is that some fans make a relation between the Clone Army being a slave army and the Jedi being obliterated by the Republican army and I think this take is forgetting the canon reason why Palpatine could legally give the Order 66.

The Jedi Order being attacked with Order 66 didn´t have anything to do with them being owners of the clone army but Order 66 was legal within the Republican law post clone wars, why? because they became virtual members of the army when they became generals, this means they were subject to the Republic as members of their army and once they attacked the Chancellor of the Republic they officially became a Rogue army that needed to be put under control. The Jedi were no longer seen as civilians or diplomats or a religious order but a rogue military that was a menace for the Republic, this was the reason most of the corrupted Senate supported this action and not even Padme´s and Bail´s group could stop this because it was a "legal action" within the Republican laws as they stood post Clone Wars. Consider that even the founders of the rebel alliance were doubtful about the Jedi´s support to tackle Palpatine´s political power beyond those they knew personally, like Obi-Wan or Anakin and that Master Windu didn´t even consider to contact trusted members of the Senate because he considered them too corrupt to truly tackle Palpatine, that´s how distant the Jedi Order had become from non- force sensitive people, even members of the senate.

So I agree with the sector of the fans that are of the oppinion the Jedi´s problem was that they didn´t involve themselves enough in politics and that was the main reason why Palpatine could take over their entire organization so easily once he had enough support of the Senate because yes, he was attacked by the Council of Jedi Masters and Yes it was because he was a Sith but also yes, that´s a coup d'etat which was ilegal and punished within Republican law and Master Windu felt there was no other option because yes, the Jedi didn´t involve themselves in politics and that made sure the Senate had virtual control over all of them even in the case of naming them rogue.

Now a curious thing that happens with laws is that they just won´t go away when they became part of the legislation until there´s a change in legislation and in the comics Darth Vader as the last member of the Jedi, member of the Sith Order and part of the military of the Empire is also subjected to the previous Jedi Order´s check and balances, anytime the Emperor considers he´s become rogue, he has the right to pursue him with all the power of the Empire and the army can be used to stop him including the stromtroopers even those who are loyal to Vader.

I think this is interesting because Vader has both the power of the second in command of the Empire, he´s the "Emperor´s voice" but also one of the most precarious positions within it´s power structure and I don´t think Palpatine did this just to be a dick to his apprentice, which he can be for shit and giggles but because Vader´s position allows him to be a serious contender for the throne if an admiral or grand moff ever considered to make an alliance with him, this way he assures himself his position as Emperor, Vader is virtually isolated from the admirals and stromtroopers even if Vader truly is loyal to the Emperor and the admirals/grand moffs/etc get the message that if the Emperor is ready to do this to Vader who´s almost fanatically loyal to Palpatine, to his second in command, his literal voice, who has access to all high levels meetings, "his favorite" then what hope do they have to try something like that? It´s better to keep being close to the Emperor and follow his rules.

Palpatine as Emperor is still playing the same politics and the only way to change this was by making legislation changes, which could be done in the Republic by a Jedi Order associated with the Senate and with the imperial Senate before the Emperor disolved it.

If Star Wars was a political thriller like the Cassian Andor and to a less extend the clone wars series it would be interesting to explore the story from this pov but given the narrative is looked more like a mythical story, most of those issues are hinted but not developed much beyond what serves the narrative.

I think it´s worth discussing those issues and what they said about the society pictured in the prequels because Lucas definitely didn´t write them as a perfect society that existed protected by the Jedi Order before the evil Emperor took over, this version is mostly Obi-Wan being romantic with the past he misses, Lucas very much added a lot of issues to explain how a society like the Republic, Jedi Order included, became a dictatorship and it doesn´t need to begin with a big bad evil wizard but mostly that same society ethical issues, especially those it refuses to recognize.

[userlaylivia]

@maya-matlin, @nikkisgwens, @makeyouminemp3, @useragarfield, @nessa007

ps since some are tied i couldn't add zekaela, slexie, or a couple more but bellarke/stydia are tied at #2 on my otps list and spelivia/bughead are tied at #3 lol

[dotthings]

Andor really is going all in with the THX 1138 tribute and inspiration. Not just in visual design, but thematically. George Lucas was always like this. Star Wars was always political, as well as making social commentary, and being a reflection on surviving and defeating fascist regimes. One thing so interesting on Andor is how it examines different methodologies of rebellion and the role privilege plays. Mon Mothma and Luthen bring their power and resources, and are antifa from inside a bubble of privilege and physical comfort, which is different than Cassian and other characters on the ground, fighting for their very survival, for food, for shelter, to protect loved ones, who don't know physical comfort and don't have wealth or social status power to fight with, they use their brains, their hands, their fists, and any weapons they can get their hands on. It's also unpacking the mechanisms and costs of the rebellion. And we're seeing that the "comfort" Mon Mothma and Luthen is only on the surface, there are costs, it's just not the same as the costs for Cassian and his friends.

Mon Mothma's comfort zone is slowly being eroded, her personal costs are rising. Luthen already long ago gave up on any peace within himself, doing what he believes has to be done. He can't afford mental comfort, even if he has physical comfort and privilege.

And these are all themes Star Wars has explored before, like Star Wars Rebels examining Saw Gerrera's approaches vs the fully radicalized Mon Mothma's, even radicalized, Mon Mothma's philosophies aren't Saw Gerrera's, and Luthen's isn't the same as Mon Mothma's.

[ask-olaf-luca-blog]

gluttony, Mons?

why are you mad at me?