#obi wan made his choice anyways. he lets vader kill him. he sacrifices himself

[thechaoticfanartist]

Grim being determined to change fate in TCWGANV to the point that she refuses to accept that she can't save everyone even when she fails vs Grim not trying to change the ending in ALATL but that doesn't mean she's not going to stop saving who she can, even if it isn't everyone

[cienie-isengardu]

Obi Wan Kenobi episode 6 (that I’m gonna ignore as the whole series LOL)

I'm truly grateful to Disney that Hayden and Ewan were brought back to Star Wars and I don't think anything will change this statement. But I'm also so SO GLAD the Obi Wan Kenobi show finally ended and hopefully ended for good. No sequel(s), please, I barely survived this six episodes’ lack of common sense, narrative wise and unnecessary drama that doesn’t add much to established Original Trilogy, including the two duels between Obi Wan and Vader, dragging 10 years old Leia into pretty traumatic mess and Bail having like zero understanding how secrecy works? Sorry, not what I need in my (star wars) life. 

Seriously, though the Obi Wan Kenobi TV series has its good moments and elements (hello, Third Sister, to some degree), it is another reason why Disney!Star Wars doesn't work for me. And yes, I'm aware that some previous animations, movies and other media weren’t always the most coherent sources in regard to logic and world-building (I mean especially TCW / Sequels, bear with my bias), but the whole deal of Obi-Wan's need to sacrifice himself for the rest of group so their ship had time to run away is so SO STUPID. There is a reason why TIE fighters are stationed on big ships, ya know? Tie squadrons should be on the enemy ship's tail from the start (and before anyone will tell me that Vader may have wanted to get Obi-Wan alive then shooting from main turbolasers would not work either. TIEs actually could disarm/damage the ship so that it can be boarded to take people in custody). Even when Obi played the decoy, Vader didn’t need to choose between Jedi and the “rebels” (not mentioning him choosing to destroy a civilian ship would be actually a better choice to hurt Obi-Wan, if he was willing to massacre a village just to get him last time?). Vader could board his own TIE / Lamba class shuttle and simply go after Jedi while leaving rest to the navy. I’m pretty surprised he wasn’t in TIE personally shooting the enemy ship but I guess, that way Obi-Wan would not have a chance to survive LOL.

Anyway, the start of Obi and Vader duel was pretty nice but then the show of course needed to go with destroying Vader’s mask and armor and I guess this was supposed to be the oh so big emotional moment? But that shock value meant something to me after the first or second time I saw unmasked Vader (and the first time was Purge comics, I think?) but after years of Disney/Marvel maiming Vader on every fucking occassion, I feel only irritation, leaving bad taste in mouth. Ahsoka did so in Rebels. Obi did it here. Comics did damage to armor like, at least once per every Darth Vader run lately? It doesn’t feel special. It feels like just standard Wednesday for Vader at this point. And after this supposed emotional closure in which Vader… suddenly doesn't blame Obi-Wan for Anakin’s death/own suffering??? (“I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker. I did.) in contrast to the previous episode (I am what you made me?) but it doesn’t lead to anything really? I mean, yes, of course, they couldn’t make Obi Wan killing Vader in this scene but him walking away and leaving (again) dangerous Sith to terrorize galaxy for the next decade is so… I’m lacking a word for what it is. It only makes me feel definitely sure Obi Wan and Anakin should have never met between RotS and ANH and the last two duels were unnecessary and done only for drama. I understand why Kenobi didn’t (couldn’t) kill Anakin on Mustafar but here, him walking away and dooming galaxy is just so, dunno, selfish and fucked up?. But yeah, why not, the new hope (Luke) will be there to ask to finish the job LOL.

(Oh, and don’t let me start about how Disney/Marvel use Vader’s amputated, wounded body for shock value and the feeling of horror. I’m really, really tired of new canon maiming Anakin on screen and comics pages time after time.)

I also finally figured out why seeing Vader sitting on the throne bugged me so much. In previous episode(s?) it felt unusual (unnatural) for him to sit in anything beside his meditation chamber, or even to want to have a throne. But this time, when he is speaking to Darth Sidious, his Sith master? Vader sitting doesn’t make sense. Vader was usually kneeling or simply standing while talking to Palpatine. Here, him sitting set him as either equal or at a better position than Sidious and this doesn’t feel right at all.

Okay, I was ranting long enough to draw the picture that Disney!star wars doesn’t work for me, not in the context of established sources like the Original Trilogy. The Obi Wan Kenobi TV show demands of me too much mental gymnastics to believe in its narrative or logic, or even care emotionally for what is happening. I guess, if that was a stand-alone, not connected to anything else than RotS series, my feelings would be different but alas, it is as it is. 

For those who enjoyed the show, I’m glad for you. Me myself is going to simply ignore it as much as possible, as I’m ignoring lately a lot other pars of new lore like chips in clone brain, domestic abuse in regard to Anakin and Padme, TCW’s portray of Anakin, Mandalorians with aristocracy and Darksaber as their main power symbol. Yeah, lately I’m pretty good at ignoring stuff.

[kyojuuros]

I'm the one who wrote you the anon message regarding my feelings with the manga feeling like a 'rush job' despite being fine with the conclusion. Thanks for your response. I'm going to be brutally honest and say everything after chapter 106 (the War for Paradis arc), IMHO, should've gone differently in certain ways. For starters, it was WAY too long (33 chapters) and could've used more breathing room by splitting it into two and then start with a completely NEW arc that would've been DEVOTED....

to addressing ALL the plot points and possibly leading to a more satisfactory conclusion. Eren's character arc was fine but, IMHO, needed better build up, a long with a better conclusion with more focus on him in the REAL world, his REAL persona, and not the hard-ass act and Path shenanigans. The manga has a dark setting and it's suppose to be sad/tragic/depressing/heart wrenching but I don't like a terrible terms he left with friends, Hange and Levi. I'm sorry but there's really no excuse.

I bolded the part that really stood out to me because I feel exactly the same way. I don’t think making his thoughts and feelings a total mystery while completely turning him into someone who feels totally different from the pre-basement portion of the series was a good move, like, AT ALL. It’d be like if Star Wars was presented in chronological order (and let’s say you don’t know who Darth Vader is when you start) and saw Anakin and Padme get married, and then ~time skip~ to him attacking Padme and Obi-wan and becoming Darth Vader... and only seeing his descent to the dark side just before he sacrifices himself for Luke.

People who’ve followed me for a long time know I used to be a lot more involved in the meta community and I was always theorizing and making long-ass posts about character arcs and relationships and predictions on what I think is going to happen. It was a lot of fun and even if I wasn’t always correct, I was never so far off that it actually made me upset (or if I was, it was warranted and even comical... I used to think the Beast Titan wasn’t a shifter and that there was an underground tunnel that lead outside the walls lol). I think the last extensive meta/prediction I had written was after chapter 112 had published, and once I realized that I apparently had no fundamental understanding of Eren at all anymore I completely stopped trying. It wasn’t fun anymore. I didn’t appreciate that I could no longer understand my favorite character (of all time, at the time). 

But then I think back and I’m like, no... I did understand Eren. I understood him just fine before the time skip and that’s why everything after Marley frustrated me to no end because it was like he’d been ripped away from me and replaced with a fraud. I couldn’t even cry about his death because I’d become so emotionally removed from him by that point that it didn’t even matter to me anymore (and this is coming from someone who would cry about him a lot just listening to song lyrics or getting lost in thought or rambling with friends). It continues to frustrate me because I still love him as a character, and I don’t need to defend him (there is nothing defendable) but I wish I could feel confident in at least explaining his actions properly. I don’t mind that he became the antagonist, I just hate that I continue to feel like I can’t understand why.

I think that, had Isayama just told his story chronologically, and kept us privy to Eren’s POV, that we would have understood better. Seeing him descend into the darker side of himself would have made much more sense if we had actually witnessed it in real time. Giving us a random flashback here and there, barely getting his thoughts at all, and having the most underwhelming info dump in the final chapter (that STILL didn’t even clear things up properly, it just added MORE damn questions) was terrible for his character and the overall narrative. A character that used to give me so much hope (and I was in a very dark headspace when I stumbled upon snk) became a character that just made me feel disappointed.

Rambling over Eren aside, I also agree that the final arc should have been chopped up into 2 or more arcs (I generally treat the rumbling as its own arc at this point anyway). We should have gotten more from Historia. Levi should have interacted more with the 104th. We should have been able to see Hange blossom into their own as a confident commander (and not get killed just to make Armin commander for 5 minutes???). Armin and Annie’s feelings toward each other should have been explored more. Eren developing romantic feelings for Mikasa should have been explored more. Mikasa and the entire Azumabito/Hizuru subplot should have actually amounted to... literally anything. Ymir having a connection to Mikasa should have been explored much more (especially with the revelation that this was the most likely cause of the headache’s Mikasa has had since the 2nd chapter). I’m sure there’s plenty of other things I could think about that needed addressing, tbh. 

The story feels concluded but incomplete, if that makes sense. The themes were wrapped up and are easy to pinpoint and that’s good and all, but for a story that’s very character driven to not have properly built up/wrapped up certain arcs, relationships and character-centric plot points just makes it feel hollow. So I understand why a lot of people are very frustrated and upset and ready to put the story on the shelf never to be touched again.

I’m trying to give Isayama some grace since he admitted the scope of the story was beyond his ability as an author. I just wish that instead of barreling forward with a narrative that he knew he couldn’t execute properly, he would have reconsidered the trajectory of the plot altogether and written something that he knew he could feel confident in. I can think of many ways the story could have gone post-basement that would have been both more interesting and probably more satisfying, regardless if the ending was dark, bittersweet or happy.

It’s a story I’ll read and watch again, many times, I’m sure. I’m still looking forward to part 2 of the final season. I still want to make content for it. I still want to buy and display merchandise of it. I still love these characters and the world Isayama created. I appreciate and treasure all of the joy SnK has brought me over the years. I just... disagree heavily with his narrative choices in the final arc. I’d like to think that MAPPA will somehow execute it a little better (there are things WIT did that I liked better, though they did I things I also liked less, lol), but I’m not going to get high hopes just to get let down again. 

.... It appears I have pent up my frustrations a bit in an effort to maintain a positive presence. LOL

[sethnakht]

more than a little on the slow side today, so haven’t read any commentary yet. but here are some raw thoughts on vader #25.

Difficult to know where to start, as the issue was overlaid with symbols and yet also rather stolidly straightforward. Perhaps as a beginning: I was expecting Soule to play things straight and hoping to be gloriously wrong about it. He played things straight. 

My working theory going into the comic, written in response to @micelle in the middle of the night a few days ago:

I personally would not be surprised if that moment of projection on Padmé’s ship - you know, where Vader sees the mask engraved into Little Ani’s flesh in a reverse of Luke’s cave adventure, marking the start of a theme of this arc, the engraving of a mask onto various bodies - were the key to it all, that is, if what he’s after is the opportunity to kill himself (a reverse Momin so to speak). (or change himself. the comic has been so focused on his selfishness, on mirrors of the self - I could picture him strolling past nodes of past moments in the “world between worlds” and peering into the highlights of his wretched life as he decides whether to save Shmi, interfere with Padmé, prevent himself from leaving Tatooine, etc)

Some of this prediction played out - Vader does indeed stroll past moments in his own life, starting with pregnant!Shmi and himself as little Ani. You could argue too that the end result of it all is that he the part of him who still thinks of himself as an Anakin to be Saved is killed, for the present moment, in a reverse Momin of sorts. Things were a little more complex than I had imagined them, however. The plane upon which Vader finds himself resembles some combination of the subjective landscape of his own dark-side-fueled meditations and the objective landscape of Mustafar. As in his meditations, the sky is filled with lightning and he himself is a burning, burnt husk with dead white space where his cybernetic limbs complete him. As on Mustafar, he walks the ground, and where lava would be is the dark, roiling sea over which he floated in meditation; memories having to do with himself are presented in circles of lava, corresponding to his own burning state.

There seem to be two different possible modes of interaction with this world, objective and subjective. On the one hand, Vader walks past nodes that objectively reflect his own life back at him as would a film, much like what Ezra and Ahsoka encountered in the World Between Worlds; it is in such a lava-encased node that he foresees his own confrontation with Ahsoka (!!). Were he to interact with these nodes as Ezra considered doing with Kanan, then he could potentially change the past or the future. But Vader does not interact with these nodes, he simply walks past them. Nor does he seem to make much of the voices from his own past, from the future (Kylo!) echoing around him. Instead, he interacts with subjective projections of the people he loves - Shmi, the Jedi, Palpatine, Obi-Wan, Padmé. I say subjective projections, as these are all people who matter to him and all people who play into his self-narrative, and thus also mirrors of the self to a degree, but suspect the status of these projections is about as complex as the vision Luke has in the Dagobah cave: what Vader sees is what he brings with him, but also what the Dark Side would have him see. Thus, he sees Shmi with Palpatine behind her as though to suggest that his origins are in the Dark Side, that he has always been “unnatural” and destined to serve. (This is also what Momin’s pretty speeches would imply, that this plane is a place controlled by the Dark Side; this is partly what I mean by Soule playing things straight.)

There’s a way in which I got what I wanted - Vader doesn’t - can’t, of course - consider changing the actual past, but he does interact with his own past in a very revealing manner. That is, he doesn’t hesitate to kill the Jedi again (no Younglings, however!), presumably because he thinks they are keeping him from Padmé (standing atop the tower that transforms before his eyes from his newly constructed Sith tower into the Jedi temple). He also doesn’t lift a finger to prevent Palpatine from killing Obi-Wan (which is possibly the most !! moment of this entire sequence for me - does he not want to fight Obi-Wan himself, or think he isn’t strong enough? is this the lesson he thinks he has learned, is this the way he wishes things had gone ...?). In a departure from the past that speaks hugely to the mistakes he thinks he made, he then turns on Palpatine instead of choosing to kneel and serve as he had, shooting Palpatine down with lightning, killing his father figure with the very method Palpatine will eventually use to try and kill his son (and successfully uses to kill Vader). By the time Vader reaches the top of the tower, he seems to have recovered a positive sense of self again. Everything has gone right, just as he imagined it, it would seem, and it is as Anakin Skywalker that he speaks to Padmé with words later echoed by Luke - “come with me”. But does he want to save them both, or just himself? Padmé, for her part, seems to be nothing more than a reflection of his own self, than a reflection of what he chose instead of her - she quotes his own words back to him, chokes herself as he had once choked her, and then is rendered apart by (red, suggesting a dark side vision?) lightning in yet another foreshadowing of Vader’s eventual death. “Not again!” he says, in what has to be the funniest line of this comic. In other words, I don’t think for a moment that we actually saw Padmé here, not in the way that we see Luke, who shows up next in a massive blue column of light. Luke seems to spring from a source outside of the self - his appearance brings light back into the empty, desolate landscape that Vader had emptied of all light from within, and it’s an unanticipated appearance, too powerful for Vader to control, driving Vader back into his body, into the prone position he assumed the last time he was struck by lightning to foreshadow his own death in this comic (#18).

So, for all that Vader hasn’t learned all that much from his own history, he was, apparently, after salvation - through Padmé, with Padmé, if only with a Padmé who reflected his narrative in a way that all previous subjective projections had. (Possibly that desire for salvation also allows for the light to enter his mental picture, even to overwhelm him or the Dark underpinnings of the vision in the very end.) He never considers doing anything with the nodes of the past - he stays fixated on what is incarnated before him. Which is of a piece of him, and his self-centeredness in this comic from the very beginning. The message might thus be interpreted as: Anakin chose himself, chose one path, and despite regrets he would make essentially the same choice all over again, and that choice leaves him on the one hand miserable and lonely and empty and blinded and on the other also creates the crack that will eventually motivate his self-sacrifice for Luke.

It’s all very consistent ... perhaps a bit too consistent for me, as someone who flirts constantly with depression and takes particular enjoyment in subversive fiction. One of the things this comic has consistently done is treat Vader as though his physical condition were of secondary importance, placing the stress instead on his continued and persistent character features, on his meditative sessions, on his presence in the Force; this finale was very much in that vein, spirit over body. Camuncoli and his team have produced incredible visuals to bring that mental landscape to life; I’ve really enjoyed seeing how much they’ve been able to make of basic elemental symbols, of empty plains and dark oceans. And there is something to be said for this mind-over-body philosophy, as Vader himself might well think that this is what the Dark Side has finally allowed him to accomplish - though it’s rather at odds with Vader seeking out Padmé and engaging all of his attachments.

It’s hard to bring out certain paradoxes in his self-understanding without considering the body, let’s put it that way. I suppose what I’m saying is that I’ll always feel there was an opportunity missed. Vader watching Padmé throw herself to her death, then start choking herself, thereby transforming into a corpse in front of his eyes, only to become incinerated by lightning - well, I mean, it’s a fantastic image. I do like that you could read her “suicide” as a rejection of him and his choices, even as you can also read it as a sign from the Dark Side. Like ... I like it, don’t get me wrong. Compare his passive spectatorship to the kill-switch moment in the 2015 run, however, to that brain-addled, deranged, yet horrifyingly logical mental slaughterfest where he kills himself, Obi-Wan, and Padmé to regain agency over his own body, and ... I find it hard not to prefer the messiness of that to the rather clean symbolism in Soule.

Anyway, as a tie-in connecting the PT with Rebels, this comic certainly offers context for understanding where he is mentally. As a take on how Vader becomes Vader, who is never just his mind to me, but a mind trapped in a machine, it satisfied me less. 

Am I glad I read it? A thousand times yes, because of the conversations it has generated here. Boundless thanks especially to @glompcat, @gffa, @thewillowbends, @micelle, @songofthestars and @sith-shame-shack for the immeasurable pleasure of your company along this readerly journey - it’s been an education - and a joy - I shall not long forget. 😍

[atamascolily]

An incomplete review of the Star Wars EU/Legends canon

I never thought I would say this, but I'm actually very thankful there will never be another Star Wars EU/Legends book in the old - now non-canon - universe. I've been revisiting those books recently as part of my recent Star Wars kick, and let me tell you, I stopped reading them just at the right time - when Vector Prime came out and they killed Chewie off. It's all downhill from there.

Anyway, the Legends universe is a hot mess, but for me, the five Thrawn Books by Timothy Zahn - Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Specter of the Past, and Vision of the Future - are amazing and totally canon in my heart for pretty much everything. Everything else is pretty much "meh" except for a few books that evoke some late '90s nostalgia (because really this blog is all about late '90s nostalgia).

So in my head, Luke and Mara Jade are happily married, and so are Han and Leia; their three children, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin, are all happy-go-lucky teenagers who can use the Force with their besties - Tenel Ka of the Hapes Cluster, Chewie's nephew Lowbaccha, and Tahiri Veila - and getting kidnapped/saving the galaxy every few months. The New Republic is alive and going strong on Coruscant (which never gets invaded by aliens from outside the galaxy), Luke runs the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV; the remnants of the Empire are scattered and disorganized and sue for peace with the New Republic and Captain Pelleaon finally gets the retirement he deserves. It's really great.

But let's face it, I read just about all of the books published prior to 1999 because I was a Star Wars geek and that's just what you did in the late '90s. (They were New York Times best-sellers so I know I wasn't the only one.) In general, I love the art on the books because it looks just like movie posters for films that were never made and that's exactly what I wanted.

Random thoughts on said EU/Legends canon cut below, for length:

-Ben Kenobi's last appearance to Luke in the Legends AU: "You're not the last of the old Jedi... but the first of the new." (TAKE THAT, DISNEY EPISODE 8!) -Awesome things from the Thrawn books: Mara Jade - check. Talon Karrde - check. Art as a major form of military strategy - check. Secret commando ninjas - check. Leia's title as "Lady Vader" - check. Borsk Fey'lya -check. Camaas Document macguffin-thingy- check. Ysalamiri - lizards that block the Force - check. Vornskrs - Force-sensitive predators - check. Insane Jedi master- check. Lots of clones - check. Lawful Evil Imperials - check. Mara fulfilling her orders to the Emperor in the most badass way possible in The Last Command - check, PLEASE. -Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo forEVER! -Also, Coruscant and New Republic forever!! -Shadows of the Empire: WTF, Xizor/Leia sex pollen (okay, pheromones) seduction scene???; Dash Rendar is a Han Solo expy, you're not fooling anyone.   -Truce at Bakura: wow, Ssi-ruuvi are full of Fridge Horror, powering their tech with human life force; maybe the Imperials aren't so bad after all; Luke and Gaeriel have no chemistry and also her entire religion is against the Jedi on principle, and she's not interested in changing it for you, Luke, sorry; of course Dev dies after his redemption arc; watching the force-ghost of Anakin Skywalker try to talk to Leia is amazing, because Leia is so not interested in his shit. -The Courtship of Princess Leia: I love the Hapes cluster, but man Han buying a planet in a card game and kidnapping Leia with the Hapan Gun of Command (pretty much what it sounds like) is NOT OKAY; Teneniel Djo is awesome and so is Dathomir in general. Isolder is okay once he gets over Leia, which takes most of the book. Also on the cover on one edition, Leia looks like Sarah from Labyrinth during that dream sequence with Jareth - what? On the other, she's wearing her Endor outfit, as are Han and Luke and there's a Rancor there, too for no good reason that I can recall.   -Jedi Academy Trilogy: Yay getting to see the Kessel spice mines; I'm not so into the Sun Crusher and the Maw Installation, but Qwi Xux and Wedge Antilles are adoreable together, poor Admiral Daala and Imperial sexism (yet another reason Tarkin is an asshole); yay for a Jedi Academy on Yavin IV; Kyp Durron seriously needs to chill, Luke's in a coma for a lot of the series, Exar Kun is not as clever as he thinks himself. -I, Jedi: I'm supposed to like you, Corran Horn, and I'm just not interested and your narrative voice is kinda annoying.... Just sayin'. -The Crystal Star: super weird and trippy, Han and Leia's kids are kidnapped by "The Empire Reborn", which is as dark and terrible as it sounds, Crystal Star explodes, do not read. -The Black Fleet Crisis: super dark and trippy, especially the Yevethan culture; reveal that Luke's mother was one of the Fallanassi - pacifist Jedi who hid when the Empire was formed - only it turns out to be a huge macguffin, which is too bad. -Children of the Jedi: EVEN TRIPPIER AND DARKER THAN THE CRYSTAL STAR, HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE; Luke gets a love interest who's a Force ghost trapped in a ship's computer; sacrifice, body-swapping, creepy song motifs. -Darksaber: Hutts try to build a Death Star, what can possibly go wrong? Luke's new Jedi girlfriend can't live without her force powers when she loses them, so she leaves him. -Planet of Twilight: Luke goes chasing off after Callista and they don't get back together, so that's good. Also dark and trippy.   -The New Rebellion: SUPER DARK AND TRIPPY, LOTS OF MASS MURDER, NOT A FAN. Thank goodness for Mara Jade and Talon Karrde showing up with ysalamiri to turn the force off so Leia can shoot the Evil Dark Jedi behind it all with a blaster. I can't believe I read this. -Ambush at Corellia/Assault on Selonia/Showndown at Centerpoint: also weird and trippy. Han has an evil identical cousin. Luke has to go back and ask Gaeriel for help (she's married now and it's awkward). Lando tries to marry for money and after some awkwardness ends up with Tendra Risant, who is awesome. Lots of things blow up. Kids save the day at the last minute. -I only read one of the Junior Jedi Knights series, Lyric's World, about young Anakin Solo and his friend Tahiri, taking some time off from their Jedi studies to help a friend metamorphose into a new life stage, and I remember it being really charming, despite the inevitable intelligent secret animal sidekick. I later learned that Anakin and Tahiri were kinda an item and then it went horribly wrong in New Jedi Order so I'm glad I didn't read that. -Young Jedi Knights: yay young adult Star Wars novels from the '90s; I  stopped reading after Diversity Alliance, but these were fun - especially Tenel Ka, who was a badass, and I quietly shipped her and Jacen (and then that ALSO ended badly in later books - why can't we have nice things?) Especially good in my memory: Shadow Academy (trying not to get corrupted to the dark side at an academy for Dark Jedi), Lightsabers (Tenel Ka has to deal with losing a hand during a training accident); Diversity Alliance (aliens get pissed off at human dominion in the New Republic government but decide that killing the humans off is the only way to achieve justice).

We're not going to even go into all the stuff that happens post-Vector Prime, because it is truly awful. Go look it up if you're curious.

I did read a few stand-alone books this week, though:

-The later Zahn novels lack the spark and vigor I remember from the Thrawn books. Scoundrels couldn't keep my interest. Allegiance and Choices of One feel very weird to me because Luke and Mara manage to work together without actually meeting each other. Survivor's Quest ought to have been good except somehow Luke and Mara encountering the Outbound Flight expedition was BORING and it shouldn't have been. It's not clear if reading the follow-up novel set during the Old Republic era - titled Outbound Flight - will help with this. -Also, I dislike the retconning so that Mara and Luke make references to Naboo and the Trade Federation, which they didn't do in earlier books, and also Thrawn's major motivation for everything is getting the galaxy ready for the impending invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong in New Jedi Order, which I just - really don't like, especially since NJO was pretty awful. -Also, there are an awful lot of Jedi healing trances in Survivor's Quest, which are only tolerable because the code word that Luke and Mara use to snap each other out of it is "I love you". D'aww. -Also, perhaps this is just me reading too much fanfic, but would it hurt to have at least an allusion to the fact that Luke and Mara have sex on occasion - in addition to snuggling and having Force mind-meld sessions? I'm not asking for porn, mind you, but just anything beyond platonic Force buddies would have been good. -Kenobi, by  John Jackson Miller was another, relatively recent Legends book that ought to have been good. I mean, it's Obi-wan Kenobi hanging out on Tatooine, dealing with Tusken Raiders and moisture farmers - I eat that sort of fanfiction up - but although there were some good bits, it just really didn't work for me. -Those handy timelines in the front - listing every single book and how it fits into the convoluted chronology - is really helpful, though! The only thing that would make it better would be to add authors and dates. But that is what the Internet is for, I guess.

Conclusions and Follow-Up Questions to Research:

-Wow, the '90s were an interesting time. -Bantam Spectra line of EU novels: mostly good, some weirdness. Del Rey line: ARGHHHHH. -Wow, there are a lot more Star Wars books out there then I remember. -Wow, Mara Jade is awesome. -I have a lot of strong opinions on the subject. -Since they stopped putting out Legends novels as of April 2014, I never have to care about keeping up with canon or anything I don't like about this universe ever again. -Has fanfiction spoiled me for the "real" thing? Or is it just a failure of the published works to address the topics I'm REALLY interested in? -Is the Disney EU canon any better? (My guess, given how I feel overall about the direction of the recent movies: probably not for me, but maybe worth checking out.)

[korra-n-stuff]

So I was having a thought...

What was Obi-Wan’s reason for bending the truth and not telling Luke who his father was when he had the chance?

I gave this a long thought and I think I may have found a reason, one that I think would make sense in the context of Obi-Wan’s life (and after) from the point of facing Darth Maul with Qui-Gon Jinn on Naboo, to the point of his conversation with Luke on Dagobah after the death of Yoda. This may have already been said somewhere else, but id like to put it in my own long winded words, so hang with me if you want to read this whole thing, which ill put under the cut.

So I’ll be jumping around the timeline here a bit, and ill try to be as clear as possible when explaining things.

Obi Wan met Anakin on Tatooine in TPM as a young boy, and was told to train him by his dying master and so he did. To the best of his abilities, and using what he knew of from the Jedi, he was Anakin’s mentor, but also trying to be a father to him, which is something no Jedi is trained for. Through their early years, up until the Clone Wars, they were antagonistic to each other sometimes, but overall got along well enough. And through out the Clone Wars they developed a brotherly bond, and the rotten parts of their friendship fell away somewhat. They were comrades, mentor and student, father and son, father figures to a young Togrutan padawan, and brothers. Ashoka’s Trial tests them slightly, with Obi Wan siding wth the Council on Ahsoka’s sentence. My only excuse for this was (writing) his devotion to the Jedi Code and its rules. He stood by his Order, which wasn't perfect, he knew, but was something he had had faith in all of his life. 

Then the Clone Wars come to an end and now Obi Wan stands on the bank of a lava river, screaming at his friend to not jump. to end this duel right now. But Anakin does not listen, and, through what I personally think is an accidental move, Obi Wan dismembers his friend and sees him beginning to burn on the bank of the lava river. He shouts at his best friend, expressing his devastation and telling him he loved him like brother, only to receive the words “I hate you!” thrown into his face. And whether he is too weak or too strong, he doesn't know, he cannot strike down his brother, and leaves his fate to the Force. He does not hear from Anakin Skywalker for decades, he only knows of Darth Vader. And years later, he greets his old friend in death.

Obi Wan was a strict follower of the Jedi Code, a code that taught one not to love or form attachments, for they only brought suffering. And giving into his human nature, he did attach. Then, one by one, they were struck down because of him and what he had done. Qui Gon; stabbed by Darth Maul because he was not fast enough. Satine; also stabbed by Darth Maul because she was his love. Padme; choked and ultimately killed Obi Wan’s own students turn to the Dark Side. Anakin Skywalker; burning alive on the bank of a lava river because his Order failed to keep him from the Dark Side. Ashoka; presumed dead by Darth Vader’s hand. Obi Wan’s story is not of someone who is berated and beaten until he dies or gives in, as most heroes stories are, but rather one of a man who does all he can to protect what he cares for, and has to watch them suffer anyway, simply because of his existence.

Now, exiled on Tatooine, watching over a young boy who will one day save the galaxy and will inevitably face Darth Vader, he has a choice; tell him his fathers fate and risk Luke failing as he did, or do not tell him and maybe prevent anymore suffering in the galaxy, at the cost of the boy killing his father. He was taught this lesson; the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Relying on the only teaching he knows, and remembering that lava bank and how he had tried and failed at the same thing Luke would have to do, he does not tell the boy of what his father had become; an ever burning man trapped behind a mask of hate and suffering. Now, as an audience, we know this wasn't the right choice, we know Luke will be able to redeem his father. But, Obi Wan, who was the last chance at saving Anakin there on Mustafar, who loved him and cared for him, failed to bring his friend into the light, and he thinks what chance would a son, who Anakin didn't even know was alive, have against the monster he’d become. He sets Luke on the path of the Jedi, then shortly after, sacrifices himself to his old friend to allow the last hope(s) for the galaxy to escape. He sees Luke’s trials and tribulations, and years later, sends him to Yoda for guidance. Luke then rushes off to face Vader, and learns the unfortunate truth. Yoda, on his death bed, says the boy wasn't ready for the burden; meaning that he hadn't come to the point where he could let his father go, like Obi Wan had let him go. Luke then confronts Obi Wan, asking why, and he tells him, adding that his feelings could be made to serve the Emperor, just as his fathers, and Obi Wan’s, were used by the Emperor. And Luke does face his father one last time, but rather than the two futures Obi Wan saw, he is presented with a third. A universe where Anakin Skywalker is miraculously redeemed by the thing he himself tried to use; love.

Now this is where Obi Wan’s fatal flaw comes in; his faith in the Jedi blinding him to the truth. I don't blame Kenobi for this entirely, he was raised from with in the Temple from birth, and many of us have spat in the face of reason for something we think is right. While he was blind to the Councils corruption and ignorance, he still let his human side show trough and tried to care for others, though he was forbidden from doing so; trying to do what a true Jedi does. He was servant of the Light through and through, and I think his story personifies what is wrong with the Jedi of the Clone Wars era; that their own ideals and, ironically enough, fears did not allow them to see their own downfall. The line; “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” is in itself an absolute, and shows how Obi Wan’s own teachers betrayed him and their order; they were so righteous that they did not see themselves inching toward the dark side and becoming what they fought against. Now, again I think that this doesn't fall all on Obi Wan’s shoulders or even the current Jedi at the time, they all were simply following millennia old teachings that had worked for thousands of years.

In the end, Obi Wan’s choice was made out of fear, the thing he was taught to avoid most by the order that was organized to burn from its own failures; fear of what Luke’s fate could be if he allowed him to make the same mistake he himself made; hesitating to end the darkness because he cared too much. And from a man who watched all he knew and love burn, his wrong choice was made out, maybe not right, but, valid reasons, all coming from a broken mans heart. 

There are a lot of so called “Perfect Jedi” in the Star Wars mythos, and some may disagree, but I feel Obi Wan falls among that group because of the fact that he tried with all his soul to fight the darkness (something I feel is the true core of the Jedi’s purpose), and even in his failure, was a guiding hand in the one that would stop the greatest darkness in the galaxy, as well as his incorruptible spirit and strength to endure so much more than any one man should.

If ya read to the end, you get a star because holy shit was this thing a long essay, but I wanted to voice some thoughts I had about one of my all time favorite characters.