#one of my favourite tropes is anakin taking obi-wan's place in rako hardeen and telling padme and keeping ahoska away but not obi-wan

[mirrorofliterature]

these are some excellent points! I think it's a fandom wide problem, amongst all fandoms, to exaggerate a disliked character's flaws to prop a liked character up (in this case, anakin and obi-wan respectively), which I've never particularly liked.

and you're totally right! the flaws are what makes the prequel trilogy interesting and the sanitisation of the jedi order and obi-wan in particular (who was definitely in a position of power from within as a councilor during the clone wars)

if obi-wan had not been a failed mentor, then we simply would not have the OT, or at least not the OT with darth vader in it. darth vader is the most iconic part of the franchise, he IS the central character that runs through both the PT and OT... obi-wan, at best, is the connecting link, an important secondary character but secondary nonetheless, whose blind adherence to a flawed code and order, at the expense of his interpersonal relationships, because he was an arrogant apathetic asshat, particularly in TPM (ah yes, let's call the NINE YEAR OLD a pathetic life form and dangerous within ear shot), and I feel vindicated when cinema therapy's jonathan, a licensed therapist, EXPLICITLY states that obi-wan was a shitty mentor: 'obi-wan’s style of mentoring is largely harsh criticism… that’s freaking traumatic'.

did the circumstances suck? yeah. but obi-wan was 25. he trained anakin for his own sake - to alleviate the grief of his master's death - not for anakin's, and tried to form him into the perfect jedi mold, and never told him his failings - his love for anakin - and oh my god, obi-wan, I just want to shake you, you emotionally constipated asshole.

whenever fanfiction writes obi-wan as emotionally competent I'm like. that man is a manipulative ass-wipe who yes, did not deserve his fate, but he was at the table weaving it the second he decided to treat a recently freed slave child with barely concealed contempt, not compassion like a jedi should have, and always holding anakin at arms length

obi-wan is a well-meaning asshole who did a lot of good, yes, but also did a lot of harm because he put the ideal of appearing perfect over actually fucking helping people, starting with his traumatised padawan and idk throwing him a compliment every once in a while

'obi-wan is such a poor little tragic meow meow'

me, vibrating: obi-wan dug his own grave and he KNOWS it, stop erasing obi-wan's explicit narrative role in creating darth vader. he knows he fucked up when raising anakin, he did fuck up when raising anakin, he DID fail anakin. it's a pretty explicit part of the PT and OT.

them: obi-wan never did anything wrong and anakin, the child, was simply too difficult for obi-wan, the grown ass adult. everything is anakin's fault and obi-wan suffers the most out of every star wars character

me: *throws up my hands in the air* look at what you did to the perfectly flawed complex failed mentor figure. you woobified him into a 2D cariacature, look OSP agrees with me: 'great character, not so great mentor'