#the jedi are interesting because the order kind of sucks

[spock-smokes-weed]

I get so annoyed at those “the no attachments rule doesn’t mean X, Y, & Z! ” type posts because yes it does. Omg yes it does.

There is a big difference between a belief on paper and how it actually pans out in practice. The Jedi might say “no attachments doesn’t mean we suppress our feelings, or we don’t form relationships” but we see how they’re constantly policing each other’s emotions, and how often genuine concern is met with ire.

People get so caught up in the technicalities of the Jedi doctrine, they ignore the actual actions of the Jedi of the republic and they way they interpret that doctrine.

I’m not a Jedi hater, I think the Jedi are super cool, but the Jedi of the republic are FLAWED!!!! that’s the whole point of the story. The flaws in the order and their unwillingness to change is exactly what created the prime environment for Palpatine to enact his plan. The whole point of OG trilogy is Luke righting the wrongs of the past and building a brighter future for the Jedi specifically because he chooses to embrace emotion and attachment.

I hate all this waffling about “well the Jedi didn’t actually do this” WHEN YES THEY DID THAT IS SUCH A MASSIVE PART OF THE PLOT

[antianakin]

hey, just wanted to say that i appreciate you creating this space to discuss more uh....unpopular takes on star wars. obviously fandom is a hobby and i don't want to ruin anyone's fun! but i also want a space to push back against fanon interpretations without treading on anyone's toes, you know?

like the whole obi-wan catholic guilt trope, jedi repression trope at large...i'm being dramatic but as an asian person, sometimes it sucks that this is such a prevalent idea about a heroic group that was influenced by buddhism and is very asian-coded. i'm not wording this well but just like how stories about european knights often reflect *the very best* of western values like chivalry, honor, gentility, i could really see a lot of the best of asian culture (a huge over-simplification) in the jedi.

but all that being reduced to "oh actually it's totally catholic guilt" or a inadvertently a regurgitation of prevalent asian stereotypes (the jedi as a group suppress individuality, they don't express emotions, they are too harsh, too unforgiving, lack compassion) is...frustrating to see, even though it's everyone's right to interpret & relate to things as they see fit.

especially when focused on obi-wan! even if we assume that obi-wan is repressed, secretly attached to an unhealthy degree but hiding it, or whatnot - the man quite literally airs the dirty laundry in front of mace and yoda, perhaps the "highest" members of the jedi. he says that he thinks anakin is arrogant, isn't listening to him. i dunno but a repressed person who hates confrontation and vulnerability probably wouldn't do that. he should've gone "haha nope anakin and i are totally fine masters, totally fine" instead of looking for advice & airing out his frustrations.

people getting angry at obi-wan for putting the jedi order over anakin is still annoying, but at least accurate. like yes! obi-wan does put the good of his culture and the galaxy at large over his old padawan! good for him!

but honestly all popular fanon obi-wan tropes go round on a roulette wheel waiting for me to pick one to be petty about lmao.

I definitely get what you mean about wanting a space to push back on common fanon interpretations without stepping on anyone's toes. That's obviously exactly why I made this blog in the first place. It's why I named the blog "antianakin" at all, it's supposed to be a giant neon warning sign to people that I'm not going to feel ashamed of some of my more negative opinions. It's why I use anti and critical tags as much as possible, and don't use the more general tags most of the time (aside from just... "star wars"). This is my space to put my feelings out there, positive AND negative, and I work really hard to make sure I'm not invading spaces that are meant for being positive.

I also often don't reblog people's posts that I completely disagree with JUST to talk about why I don't like their take. I won't invade someone's Jedi critical post in order to tell them that they're wrong about Star Wars. People have tried to tag me into posts like that, but I'm not interested in doing that kind of thing. If I DO want to say something about what I've seen, I make my own post about the issue.

It's interesting that you mention that stories about European knights often reflect what's viewed as the best of Western values, because so often when I see people talk about what would make the Jedi BETTER (or Legends versions of the Jedi that they think were done better), it's usually pretty clear that the Jedi are being turned INTO your more typical European knight to reflect those exact values. They're often wandering on their own, doing what they personally believe to be right whenever and wherever they want, defending the helpless wherever they find them by just riding in on a white horse and slaying an enemy or a monster. And of course some of those values they uphold are about what love and relationships should look like, too, so they all end up in committed monogamous relationships (even if it's with more than one person, it's still usually monogamous). This is one of the reasons I started getting frustrated with the High Republic novels by the third one because it started having that vibe that the "good" Jedi who stuck to more "traditional" ways of doing things and "traditional" values were so much more like your typical European knight, while the Jedi character doing something more modern and more political was losing his way and struggling with a desire for things he was repressing.

It's a feeling we've seen come up time and time again and it keeps getting tossed out in more recent shows, too, the idea that the Jedi "lost their way" from what they should've been, that they once used to represent something worthwhile and losing those traditional values is what caused their destruction and the only way to keep it from happening again is to go back to that. It's not hard to see where that storyline feels compelling, obviously, but it IS sad to see the values that the Jedi DO have in the Prequels in particular getting tossed aside as unworthy and to see their defeat being rewritten as THEIR failure instead of everyone else's.

I've had people tell me that this story feels like it has more nuance to it than the Jedi simply being the heroic victims and the Sith being pure villains. And I get why people think that, I just think that there's a lot of nuance they're MISSING in the story being told, and that that nuance exists EVEN WITH the Jedi still being the heroic victims and the Sith being clear villains. I am more than happy to help critique some of the WAYS that that story got told in the Prequels, the issues in the structure of the Prequels and how it maybe muddied some of the messages that the story was trying to get across, but I also think that that critique is SEPARATE from my feelings on the intended narrative itself. I don't think that the narrative itself is bad or lacking in nuance simply because it may not have been told perfectly. And, personally, I think that some of the more "nuanced" Jedi critical takes often seem INCREDIBLY simplistic themselves.

As for Obi-Wan, fandom will do what fandom does to its darlings. I've certainly done my fair share of simplifying my faves down to shadows of themselves because I happened to enjoy the shadow sometimes in its own right. But I do think that there's plenty of evidence to contradict a lot of people's more popular interpretation of Obi-Wan as a repressed, damaged, traumatized waif. I don't mind a LITTLE of that sometimes, usually when I read fics set in the early years of his apprenticeship with Qui-Gon following some of the events of Jedi Apprentice, but it comes with the context that Obi-Wan is still VERY YOUNG at the time and is dealing with some fairly specific things that have just happened to him and is still learning how to do that in a healthy way.

By the time you hit The Phantom Menace and ESPECIALLY the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan should no longer be a repressed, traumatized waif of a person. That's when it stops being believable to me because the character we see on screen in that time period never fits that description. Like you said, he's ACTIVELY confrontational to his superiors. He does do it with Mace and Yoda (and he does it in ROTS as well as in AOTC) and he does it with Qui-Gon during his apprenticeship, too.

The one other time I was willing to accept some of this characterization was in the Kenobi show where we do see him being more repressed and traumatized and less willing to stand up for himself when faced with confrontation with people like Owen. But one of the reasons this worked for me is because, much like with those JA fics, it comes with a VERY SPECIFIC CONTEXT, and it's done with the intentional purpose of giving Obi-Wan somewhere to develop. He also doesn't stay particularly submissive or waif-like for long, we see him gain back a LOT of his willingness to stand up for himself and confront people by the second episode. The message wasn't that Obi-Wan had ALWAYS been damaged and traumatized or that he was always "meant" for sadness or whatever, but that he had the capacity to find happiness IF HE CHOOSES TO ACT LIKE THE JEDI HE ONE WAS. The only reason he's struggling is because he ISN'T acting like a Jedi anymore. He's not finally figuring out how to handle his traumas, he's GOING BACK to being the person who can handle his traumas.

Anyway, yeah, I feel you, I have definitely experienced the roulette wheel of petty frustration at fandom interpretations of Obi-Wan lol. I can barely handle the "he drops his lightsaber all the time" joke because I feel like it often makes him come across as childishly incompetent.

[grumfield]

I’m getting into TCW shows for the first time (saw the 2D, then 3D movie, and just started the 3D show). I’ve been a movies only person and haven’t seen any SW show up to these. Can you explain the characterization of Anakin (and Obi-Wan, and any other character)? I’m familiar with some of the 3D arcs due to fanfiction (Hardeen, Satine, Mortis, etc.).

I view the clone wars as more like in-universe propaganda than any substantial addition to the story because Anakin and Obi-Wan’s characterizations are 1/1 to their wartime monikers, The Hero With No Fear and the Negotiator respectively, which inherently makes them antithetical to the actual story being told. Their canon nuance is ironed out to fit these names when really the titles were more of a metatextual tragedy element because they both lose due to their fear or lack of negotiation ability.

Anakin in the movies (and books) is defined by fear. He lives in fear of losing his loved ones and as a result preemptively responds to it through anger, violence, and self destruction. He is also incredibly insecure, awkward, and sensitive and is very much a teenager. He is not at all the classic image of a hero in that he lacks charisma (especially the leadership kind, people don’t like him!) and doesn’t have notable physical prowess. He is explicitly the sort of guy who could eventually kill the Tuskens or younglings, and we as the audience can feel that. For him, being Anakin Skywalker is frightening and oppressive. He does not like being Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin in TCW 2008 on the other hand, above all, is not scared of anything. He is assured in himself, he is confident and a charismatic leader with a deep voice cleft chin and biceps for days. People like him. His anger or violence is often very justified, and he doesn’t at all seem uncomfortable in his own skin or the world around him. He knows who he is and likes being him. That is like, his most key difference. He likes being Anakin Skywalker, and he is not scared of what that means. An Anakin Skywalker who is not afraid is not the same one that could kill Tuskens or younglings.

Similarly, Obi-Wan in the movies and books is a guy defined by his inability to negotiate with himself or his ideals. He views things as very black or white and doesn’t really interrogate them. He also is a guy who cannot negotiate his love for Anakin with his Jedi teachings, and ends up basically in emotionally distant slop purgatory with Anakin as he tries not to balance the two (since that requires introspection) and tries mold Anakin into his ideal image. His inability to negotiate his ideology with a person not necessarily equipped for it in the same way is what defines his and Anakin’s relationship, and ultimately informs the way that Revenge of the Sith ends. He could not negotiate the time it mattered most, and arguably, if you view Mustafar the way I do, could not negotiate his love for Anakin (saving him) with the necessary action required according to Jedi teachings (killing him) so did nothing, and left. Obi-Wan in the movies and books is a guy who does not truly know himself.

Obi-Wan in TCW…is none of this. He also suffers from the glamorization in that he’s far more assertive and, notably, struggles with his relationship with the Jedi order. He has a love interest and he ultimately chooses the Jedi over her, which he isn’t able to do in RotS with Anakin. He makes decisions like this multiple times in the series, which is IMO antithetical to his character because it requires a certain level of assertion he just doesn’t have. Obi-Wan in TCW is a guy who is self-aware and has has interrogated his lifestyle and has decided that he will follow Jedi teachings and that he is a Jedi. He knows himself.

So with this in mind you hit this point where the actions of the characters in the show are not the same as the ones in the movies. TCW Anakin would not fall, he would save the day. And if he did, TCW Obi-Wan would suck it up and kill him, and save the day. And that’s why I feel like it can only be viewed as something like in-universe propaganda, because TCW portrays a future where they all win.

[theninth09]

What kind of video games I think Thiam likes, a headcanon list

Theo's Favorites

theo loves souls games and hes incredibly good at them. his favorite used to be bloodborne until elden ring came out. he spent days holed up in his apartment playing it until liam dragged him outside for fresh air. liam played elden ring as well, but theo basically carried him the entire time and solo'd malenia for him

liam suggested that theo should play hollow knight and theo was skeptical at first because of the art style, but ended up really liking it

liam knows about theo having been a star wars nerd as a kid, so his first ever gift to him is jedi: fallen order. theo loves it and buys jedi: survivor (the sequel) as soon as it comes out

theo really likes final fantasy and his favorite is ffvii. liam has never played the games, but he thinks that cloud is really hot (iykyk)

Liam's Favorites

liam has always liked the god of war series, because of the references to greek mythology and the playstyle. gow: ragnarök made him extremely emotional and it immediately became his favorite from the entire series

he likes fighting style games, like mortal kombat and super smash bros. he doesnt mention this often, especially not around new people, because hes afraid that people will comment on his choice of game in relation to his IED. he just genuinely likes to play them, it has nothing to do with his disorder. the first time theo plays against him, theo is so normal about it and doesnt make a single mean comment. it helps liam to immediately relax and just have fun without worrying

funnily enough, liam also likes stealth games. especially assassin's creed (he likes the historical aspects of it) and hitman. theo finds this absolutely hilarious as liam kinda sucks at being stealthy in real life and teases him that he finds theo attractive because theo is so good at being stealthy

Games They Both Like

they tried playing outlast together but had to stop pretty quickly because it was too triggering for both of them (theo got triggered worse, but liam wasnt comfortable either)

they like playing two-player games together (eg: bokura, it takes two, unravel two) and while they argue and bicker the entire time, they're also extremely efficient and get through everything quite fast bc they make such a good team

they both like resident evil and compare the monsters in the games to real monsters they've fought before. liams favorite is re3 and his favorite character is jill, while theos favorite is re4 and his favorite character is ada

both like the legend of zelda. liams favorite is twilight princess (he likes that you can pick up the cats & dogs in it, he finds link, zelda & midna hot and you can turn into a wolf in it) while theos favorite is ocarina of time (liam thinks hes basic for that)

since they both like the spider-man movies and comics, they both also enjoy the games

DnD isnt something either of them is usually interested in, but liam buys baldur's gate three because he got curious. liam romances shadowheart on his first playthrough and theo gets interested after liam finishes it. theo ends up romancing wyll and liam teases him the entire time since theo has to play without picking the evil choices because of that

Games They Play with the Puppy Pack

Mario Kart (they all get extremely competitive)

Phasmophobia (liam and alec scream a lot)

Among Us (the entire puppy pack warns alec that this is not a good idea, but alec persists until theo indulges him. as predicted, theo is way too good at being sneaky & lying and gets banned for life from playing)

Games Alec forces Theo to Play

PlateUp! (alec regrets this almost immediately bc theo gets weirdly intense about it and orders him around)

Minecraft (alec just wants to show off all his buildings and the animals he tamed, but theo ends up helping him actually finish the game)

Dress To Impress (theo "secret fashion icon" raeken always gets first place and it really pisses alec off)

Doki Doki Literature Club! (alec has no idea what its actually about and theo is very unimpressed when they start playing it. alec is extremely shocked and has these teary puppy dog eyes upon the twist and theo laughs at him)

part 2 here

[communistkenobi]

Wrt your posting about the jedi taking on children, I disagree thst the argument about force sensitive people 'need' to be trained for everyone else's safety. It's like Dragon Age mages or BNHA quirks, it's not special if someone can fireball me if they're having a bad day, some random person can already beat or strangle me with just their own two hands in the real world, no fireball necessary.

I mean idk I feel like Star Wars does a fairly decent job of establishing how dangerous force sensitivity can be - it’s not just extra strength or throwing things, but also mind control, healing (which i know is rare tbf), communicating with animals, etc. It also establishes how scary it can be to have those sorts of powers without knowing how to deal with them. I think Rebels does a good job of exploring this kind of thing with Kanan and Ezra.

However I also agree with you that it doesn’t “need” to be a problem, like force users are not inherently doomed to darkness/violence unless trained eternally across all space and time. But I think force sensitivity introduces a wholly organic way to accrue power (both physically in the sense that you’re more powerful and socially in that you have a type of organic ‘capital’ that can be used to gain social and political power in society, either because people adore you and want to follow you, and/or because they fear you), and having that type of power isn’t dependent on class position or family history*, it’s essentially random chance if someone is force sensitive or not. Which creates a threat to the types of societies depicted in Star Wars where there are durable ruling classes who want to maintain power.

And I think the Jedi Order offers a solution to this problem by capturing that type of ‘organic capital’ for lack of a better term; you monopolise an institution responsible for moulding force sensitive people into a particular type of subject - one that is not a threat to the prevailing societal order - and in exchange for being forced to be a Jedi you get massive amounts of privilege via access to knowledge, social status, material needs, and so on. While this creates civil unrest and distrust of the Jedi from a lot of laypeople, it’s a pretty sweet deal in the eyes of the Republic if it means not having to deal with rival force sensitive groups using their power to make political demands, especially through violence.

I think looking at it this way explains why the Jedi don’t really accept or allow any other type of force user, especially as they become more enmeshed with the Republic (the coven in the acolyte is a good example, the dathomiri witches, etc), and why a lot of force users who are not Jedi are labelled Sith, either because they adopt that label themselves or because they’re labelled that by the Jedi. And I’m not saying “the sith are just misunderstood victims” or whatever, but that in a scenario where you have a very powerful monastic order that controls how the rest of society understands and interacts with force sensitivity, force users who fall outside of that are going to be treated as a criminal class who are a threat to the republic (because they are - Maul is treated this way, Dooku and Anakin quite literally topple the Republic, etc). So like in the settings Star Wars tends to play in, force sensitivity is narratively understood as a source of incredible potential power, and capturing that power via an institution like the Order makes sure that power potential is not disruptive to prevailing society and power interests. Which is why I think the Jedi do have a fairly good rationale for taking kids and training them, even if that rationale is tied to the maintenance of the status quo - the Order’s power depends upon the maintenance of their own monopoly

*KIND OF. obviously some of the canon loves doing blood lineages with palpatine and shit, the midichlorian thing, etc. which sucks so bad. But general canon consensus as far as I know appears to be that anyone can potentially be force sensitive

[blackswampotter]

Honestly, this is kind of a bummer

My take on this show was always that it was pretty much fine.

Nothing incredible, but average. Average with some legitimately good ideas and plot points sprinkled in.

And, given how many average shows get to move forward, I figured that would be the same here.

But, nope, no more Acolyte and it's weird how disappointed I am by that.

Yes, much of the dialogue was clunky. Yes, the pacing suffered in the way it suffers for many of these streaming shows. Yes, several of the characters were fairly forgettable.

But, in spite of all that, I did find myself curious enough to keep watching. I liked the mystery angle and the different perspectives on the same tragic event.

I liked Sol and wanted to see what he was hiding. I liked the way Mae and Osha swapped roles and I liked the cliffhanger endings they both got.

I wanted to see where those characters were going to go and now we won't get that. And, yeah, that's a little sad.

It also sucks because the action sequences in this show were genuinely great and many of the fights were just straight up better than the prequel duels.

They were more vicious, more intense, and shot with a sense of urgency and dynamism.

And, something I find really funny about that is that this show, in a lot of ways, was trying to give the toxic fanboy types exactly what they claimed they wanted:

Prequel level action, focus on the Jedi Order, something outside of the Skywalker Saga, a darker story with a more villainous perspective, etc...

All of that, and they still loathed it for a bunch of annoying reasons.

End of the day, if the viewership isn't there, it isn't there. I don't want to give the rage merchants too much credit, but I do think they managed to pretty effectively poison the well around the discussion of this show.

They made it miserable to talk about or share any excitement or interest in the show, so fuck it.

Honestly, I feel like this is a prime example of a Disney Plus show that should've just been made as a proper, feature film released in theaters.

Relying on streaming metrics for a show this expensive meant they really couldn't afford low viewership. Plus, it was the ongoing week after week discussion that allowed the aforementioned well poisoning to continue for so long.

I'll be shocked if we don't get a novel or comic book or something that continues the story.

But, I guess we'll see what happens. Might be funny to just never expand on what the fuck Plagueis was doing in that cave lol

[klerothesnowman]

The Reason the Jedi Suck is Because Conflict is More Interesting Than Peace

Okay, here I go defending the Jedi.

I've mentioned it in a previous ramble, but my primary engagement with Star Wars for the past year or so has been a Neverwinter Nights roleplaying server set during Knights of the Old Republic. It is the most niche of niche corners in the overall Star Wars fandom, but it's given me a really great example of why a lot of people have the opinion that the Jedi are massive fuck ups who are responsible for all the problems in the galaxy.

If you somehow don't know, the big twist of KotoR 1 is that the player character is an amnesiac Darth Revan, the previous Dark Lord of the Sith who ruined everything. The Jedi concoct this big plan to mind wipe him, train him as a Jedi again, and then use him to turn the tide of the war. There's a lot of details to this that are up in the air, like if this plan was entirely premediated, or something spur of the moment when an amnesiac Revan exploded into their laps when Malak betrayed him. One of the Jedi Masters who is absolutely not on board with this plan is Master Vrook. Vrook is a real dick, he's crotchety and angry and he shoots down all of your achievements. At one point he flat out says that training you is a mistake because Revan will just come back. Homie does not care about OpSec.

In KotoR 2 one of the more shocking, yet extremely understated, twists is that Jedi Master Atris has fallen to the Dark Side and is partly responsible for the slaughter of the Jedi Order after she gave the location of the Order's meeting place away to the Sith in an attempt to lure them out. Because KotoR 2 was less about big twists and more about an unfolding of events you could see coming a mile away, the fact that Atris is evil isn't surprising, the first time you meet her she flips off the handle about how much she hates you and you watch a recording of her flipping out about how you should be dead later. The reason Atris' fall is shocking isn't because "Oh man, this character who I had a positive outlook on is evil? Say it isn't so" but more because she was all over the marketing for this game, she's on the box art fighting Sith, she's the one who juxtaposes the game's iconic Sith. She, metatexually, represents the light side for Kotor 2. Everyone who played Planescape Torment noticed that her name was an anagram of Trias and sniffed her ass immediately however.

These twists and characters are extremely well known, basically common knowledge to anyone who cares for KotoR. Like, for instance, the kind of reprobates who would roleplay KotoR in a 20 year old D&D RPG.

There was a time on this roleplaying server where, not getting into details, the Jedi players fucked up. The DM team deemed that their behaviour was unjedi, and that they needed to intervene to push them onto the right path. The method of doing so was to have their enclave be audited by Master Atris. When the announcement was given the Jedi characters panicked. Characters who were from Coruscant told horror stories they knew about how mean Atris was, one in particular described her as "The Worst".

There was another time where players ran into Master Vrook. Vrook was a dick, he smacked down any attempt to have fun, he seized on any attempt to criticize characters and completely wrote off particular characters as lost causes, almost gleefully rattling off lists of their failings. Vrook actually was The Worst.

These portrayals of Vrook and Atris were not challenged. Why would they be? They lined up with how players remembered them. Of course Jedi Master Atris is mean and awful, she was mean and awful to the Jedi Exile.

The issue with that should hopefully be extremely obvious. You're not the Jedi Exile.

Atris being an evil hateful shit is a twist, it's a reveal. Immediately after Atris flip out one of her Handmaidens steps up to her and asks "Are you okay? I've never seen you act like that before." The Jedi Exile was her hero, if you plan as a male PC she loved him, he stood as a testament to what the Jedi should be. And then the Exile betrayed the Order and joined Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. The Exile hurt her in a intensely personal way that only the Exile could. Atris acts mean and awful to the Jedi Exile and only the Jedi Exile.

Vrook is angry and dismissive of Revan because you're Revan, he thinks this entire plan is a mistake and that you're just going to fall to the dark side again and then everyone will be right back where they started. And yeah, he's angry, stubborn and dismissive of the Jedi Exile too, but again that's because you're the Jedi Exile, the guy who joined Revan. The guy who, in a very rare out of the way bit of dialogue that often gets missed, used to bully his Padawan.

Every time Vrook and Atris are interacted with is when they're at their worst, we the viewer never get to see them at their best, we just get to have the little not-Yoda's word that Vrook is actually pretty cool. The entire fanbases perception of these characters are tainted by whose perspective they were seeing these characters from, and the moment you are seeing them.

This is something that the Jedi get screwed by in the entire franchise.

Starting from the prequel trilogy, it's pretty oldhat to point out that these movies are about the Jedi Order falling for a trap, after being manipulated for over a decade. It's a story about good people having their flaws and fears preyed upon by an enemy they're unprepared for. The severity of the war, combined with the knowledge that the Sith are behind it somehow, pushes the Jedi to get involved. The Clone Army falling into their lap is too good to be true, but its discovery is intentionally timed with a sudden urgent need for an army. The Jedi are forced to make compromises on their ideals and convictions, and that's what leads to their downfall.

Meanwhile in the Original Trilogy, a similar narrative is playing out. The Jedi are defeated and in hiding, traumatized by life under The Empire. When Luke's friends are in danger Yoda urges caution to continue hiding, saying he's not ready to face Vader and that he's rushing into it. When Luke says that he can't bring himself to kill his father, Obi-wan laments that if he can't do it then the Empire has already won. But the thing is, Obi-wan and Yoda are wrong, their beliefs influenced by their fear. Luke isn't rushing to face Vader, he's trying to save his friends, Obi-wan thinks Vader cannot be redeemed but Luke holds onto that hope to very end. And in that end he's proven right, Luke redeems Vader, and the galaxy is saved. Luke stands true to his ideals and convictions and is rewarded for it.

Both of these narratives require that the Jedi falter, require the Jedi to not meet their own ideals for both tragedy and Luke's eventual victory as one of the greatest Jedi who ever lived.

Furthermore, once Luke can make a new Jedi Order, he makes one that has learned from the mistakes of the previous Order but also, crucially, understands why certain decisions that he wrote off as mistakes were done. There's an entire ass story about Luke coming to the realization that a lot of Star Wars fans have to make, that Attachment and Relationships are not the same thing, and that the Jedi Order were right to bar the Jedi from them.

The thing is about Luke's Order though is that the stories told within it could not be a three part movie series. They're episodic novels and adventures, where the writers have room for the smaller, day to day operations of the Jedi Order. Missions where Jedi swoop in and save the day, and it doesn't need to feed into a narrative that only has one to two hours to wrap shit up. Where they protect people, not lead armies against their enemies. Where they get to be everything they're supposed to be.

These novels are also a lot more niche. It's more of an investment to read a book than it is to watch a movie, meanwhile the movies are one of the most successful blockbuster franchise ever made, everyone watched the movies, no one read the books. So it's the movies that influence people's perception and ideas. And then it's those perceptions and ideas that make people go "It would be interesting to explore how the Jedi are actually not that great." which perpetuates the image of Jedi as fuck ups.

And it IS interesting to explore how the Jedi are actually not that great. You should always be critical of institutions, it's how you keep them honest and watching institutions fail makes for interesting storytelling. The institutions failing is the inciting incident for the movies. But the movies still maintain that the core of the institution was something good.

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

Hey there—this is completely spontaneous on my part, but I just saw your post from a few hours ago about how good the SW fandom used to be, and, dunno, I just wanted to say that I appreciate you. Your SW analyses were always so interesting to me, especially when you got into a debate with someone, because of how you backed your arguments up with evidence. I wish I could write rhetoric like you do. Anyways, you're especially cool to me because you're French and I've got French citizenship from my mom (though I grew up in the States), and despite not being Jewish, you've been really, really kind to us. So thanks for everything—the lengthy, passionate, convincing SW posts that got me through the pandemic, the interesting religious takes (I vaguely remember you going off on someone who said that religion was irrelevant in the modern world, arguing about the impossible-to-understate role it has had in the history of humanity, including in the present day—which, to a history and IR fan who'd gotten used to the sight of anti-religious takes because it was rebellious and trendy and cute, was like a breath of fresh air), and even now, your words since October 7th. I don't know if I ever reblogged or even liked a post of yours, I'm more likely to take a screenshot and put it in a folder on my desktop, but I just wanted to let you know of the impact that you've had in my life. 💛

Awww, it's so cool to find out about people who liked my stuff even if they never said! Idk how to explain why it makes me so happy but it's like it adds more to the whole experience as I look back, it's one more piece of the full picture that I'll never have. Like finding a new detail in a familiar setting and going 'oh! that was there all along? :D'

What was it about my SW stuff that you liked? the constant ranting and raving about the Jedi or the fawning over Obi-Wan? xD (And yes, yes I *did* get into a row with antitheists because I vented about being frustrated with Richard Dawkins' worldview lol. I don't think it really went anywhere.)

I'm glad reading my posts was ever comforting to you. I constantly want to be saying more since October 7th, but I really think using the internet as a battleground would be spectacularly unwise in my case. I've always tried to only argue my opinions from a position of complete confidence and thorough knowledge of all the facts, and that's a lot easier to do with a nerdy fictional universe that's contained to easily accessible media vs complex current global events. I can be stubborn and arrogant and I always want to be right, so in order to not get sucked into propagating self-righteous misinformation and turning into exactly the type of ignorant know-it-all who'd preach to others about geopolitics they learned yesterday on twitter, I preferred to step back.

That said, there is one thing I can and always will say with utter confidence and full knowledge that it's right: the worldwide spike in antisemitism and the horrifying abuse all Jews have been subjected to for over a year both irl and online is appalling and must be called out. The Jewish people are very close to my heart because of my family history, my upbringing and my personal faith in God and my saviour. So from one ~vaguely Jewish~ Frenchie to a vaguely French Jewish person, שׁלום and salut! 💙

Also, telling me you've taken screenshots???? of my posts???? to SAVE THEM???? ON YOUR COMPUTER????? is genuinely one of the highest compliments you could ever give me wow thank youuuuu. I hope you can still have fun going back to them from time to time 😄

[reconstructwriter]

Picking a Lightsaber Form: A Basic Guide

– Whether you’re in the Jedi Order or out of it, just starting to learn the glowstick or looking to Master another form, this guide is a good starting point for you. Skim through the general vibes of each form and why you may or may not want to use it along with what you’ll give up and get for learning it:

Shi-Cho: this is your foundation. Master it and you’re halfway to mastering every form. Half-ass it and you will half-ass every form no matter how hard you work. It’s also good on its own so either give it your all or don’t bother with lightsabers

Makashi: You will either live and breathe it or do your best to ignore its existence – there is no in-between. Makashi is a specialized dueling form that becomes much easier with the Makashi-style hilt and blade, making these nearly requirements. But these specializations suck for every other form.

Soresu: if moving meditation to lightsaber katas is your jam this may be for you. If you aren't interested in doing lightsaber katas for days on end look elsewhere because the only way Soresu practitioners finish a fight is by making the other guy die of boredom. If you like marathons then this is the lightsaber discipline for you.

Ataru: The size matters not form. Unless you're a big Lumox and then you will find size matters just not in the way you want it to. Pretty much the opposite of Soresu, if you don't finish a fight within 60 seconds you are going to lose by virtue of no more energy. Of course withstanding that first minute of Ataru will be a challenge for your opponent. Great form for the impatient.

Shien: Makashi for the indecisive non Makashi nuts. If you like the second form but you don't want to dedicate your every step to it you might want to consider this two-handed, more flexible form. Some say Shien has rendered Makashi useless and if you wish to perfect this form please voice this opinion as loudly and often as possible around Makashi users.

Djem So: Oi you big lummoxes! Over here! Here’s the form where size matters. If you could be classified as megafauna you may want the form which focuses on battering your opposition into submission. Which doesn't sound very Jedi like I know but some people enjoy this kind of thing and bringing more joy into the universe is very Jedi-like. Very useful against Ataru users!

Niman: You get out of it what you put into it – that’s why it’s called The Mirror form. Put into it just enough practice to tell one end of a lightsaber from the other? That’s all you get out of it. If you live and breathe it like a makashi practitioner then you will be their bane. A fantastic pairing with Shi-cho either for dual mastery or as a rock-solid foundation to master the other forms. Does require Force use more than any other form.

Juyo: Few Jedi study this fast and furious form and the first rule of those who do is not talking about it so finding a teacher will be your first challenge. Side effects include itchy, watery eyes, gothic fashion sense and death by betrayal. See Mace Windu for Vapaad, a Juyo variant without the problematic side effects.

[toxictrannyfreak]

Please go into more detail about the Fulcrum Barriss thing.

Oh, anon, I have been waiting for this. You're going to get way more than you wanted.

Basically, my idea for Fulcrum!Barriss came from 2 things: 1, I really don't like Ahsoka in Rebels. She kinda sucks there tbh. One of Rebel's main themes is that of redemption, of finding your way back to the right path and helping, and Ahsoka doesn't really fit. She could fit, if they'd done things different and had her and Kanan have parallel character arcs where they both help each other find the Jedi path again, but instead she's a very flat character that never does anything that interesting. Sure, she's supposedly organizing the Rebellion from the shadows, but the only time she's ever significant in her own right in Rebels is when she's beating people up. She's presented as kind of a perfect Light Side saint kind of thing (think of the Gandalf-looking outfit she has in the endcard, and the exhausting amounts of Morai and Daughter imagery we get with her, without them ever once acknowledging that she was possessed by the Son) which really gives us nothing to go with the whole redemption theme. It's boring. There are some good things--I love most of Twilight of the Apprentice, for example, but it's pretty clear that the whole Vader and Ahsoka thing shouldn't have been in Rebels, since it has almost no connection to the actual main characters and the plot.

The second thing was that I wanted to explore Barriss's character post-Order 66 in a way that is respectful to her actual character while still mostly canon-compliant (Because while I hate the Wrong Jedi Arc for what it did to Barriss and fully believe that it never should have happened, a story following Barriss with everything in the Wrong Jedi staying the same is really interesting) and, well, obviously having Barriss be a rebel makes sense (do not talk to me about Inquisitor!Barriss, I hate it). Barriss also has a ton that she feels she has to atone for with the context of the Wrong Jedi Arc, and, as a young Jedi who did Fall a little bit, she can offer a lot to Ezra as a teacher, like helping him understand why he can't use the Dark Side to stop The Empire.

tl;dr: Ahsoka's boring in Rebels, and she really shouldn't have been there anyway, but Barriss is fascinating post-TCW and, as a former Jedi who was briefly taken in by the Dark Side and betrayed the Order, is pretty damn perfect with the themes of Rebels, and had a very unique perspective that would've been really valuable for Ezra's arc.

Rant over, @antianakin has some very good post on Ahsoka if you want to check that out, on to the next rant!

Barriss works as Fulcrum, too. In The Wrong Jedi (I hate it, but like, I am using Canon here, I know it's terrible and character assassination for the sake of shock value and racism), we see how skilled she can be at subterfuge and lying and hiding in plain sight. She's very good at knowing exactly how to manipulate Ahsoka into making herself look as guilty as possible while keeping herself very innocent-looking. I could definitely see a fully grown Barriss with 15 years of experience using those skills to fight the Empire and direct a rebellion from the shadows.

Narratively, it makes a lot of sense for Barriss to work as a quiet director of rebel activity in the Outer Rim. She isn't a super-powerful Force user that can easily beat a bunch of Inquisitors (I'll talk about my problems with how weak the Inquisitors were later) and hold back Darth Vader. She needs to stay quiet, but she also needs to help, and working with those who have been the most disenfranchised and hurt by the Empire to bring it down serves as a good parallel to the Wrong Jedi Arc, where she was one of the most disenfranchised and hurt by the war (a teenage soldier whose people are dying around her, and no one in power cares) redirecting that in the wrong way, lashing out and hurting people, and now she's helping people react in a positive way and do things right.

Ahsoka, on the other hand (I'm assuming you came from the Fulcrum!Bariss and Inquisitor!Ahsoka post) is honestly a much more interesting character as an Inquisitor than she's really ever been in canon, and honestly, it’s confusingly well foreshadowed for something that never happens. In the Mortis Arc (aka the most symbolic arc of TCW that EXPLICITLY TELLS YOU THE FUTURE OF THE CHARACTERS), Ahsoka is very much associated with the Dark Side. She's kidnapped by the Son, she sees a vision (all of the other characters have visions that are pretty clearly true) of herself in the future, telling her that Anakin will corrupt her if she can't let go of him, and lo and behold, what is the 1 thing that Ahsoka is never able to do? LET GO OF ANAKIN. She is literally possessed by the embodiment of the Dark Side of the Force. 30 years later in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka is still unable to let go of Anakin even after he’s been dead for years, after she faced him and recognised him, after there’s nothing left of the Anakin she knew, she can only see Anakin in Grogu. She is haunted by Anakin, she is attached to Anakin, Anakin defines her. Think of how tragic that would be with Inquisitor Ahsoka, who was forced to the Dark Side, who was manipulated and tortured and abused (tbf TotJ kinda makes it seem that Anakin was already borderline abusive to Ahsoka). Imagine the amount of pain and anger and unresolved trauma in her, all inextricably tied to Anakin, to Vader, to her Master. She loves him in the same horrifying, twisted way that he loves her and that brings them both so much pain, plunging them deeper and deeper into that downward spiral.

And then there’s the relationship the two of them would have with each other--Barriss who fell first, but was given the support she needed to pull herself out (obviously Luminara and the Jedi helped her, come on, there’s no way that if she lived they wouldn’t have helped her and pushed for her to be given back to the Jedi) who was able to find the Light again and use her experiences to help other people and make amends, but especially the fact that Barriss Fell of her own accord. There were other factors, but no one forced Barriss to Fall. The Inquisitors were tortured and mutilated and abused until they became everything they hated, and then they were forced to serve the very people who murdered their people. None of that is voluntary, even if they’ve been manipulated into thinking that it was deserved, or for the best, or made them stronger. A Fallen Ahsoka confronting a redeemed Barriss, a horrible mirror image of what happened to them in the Wrong Jedi Arc so long ago. That’s powerful and painful and it works, it fits with the themes of Rebels really well, and it doesn’t mess with the power scaling the way Vader does.

Now allow me to elaborate on this au. So, Order 66 happens, and Barriss is in Republic prison, one that’s probably guarded and maintained by clones (she wouldn’t be an immediate target, ‘cause she’s not a Jedi, and she’s probably wanted for the Inquisitorius anyway). At this point, Ahsoka has separated from Rex and only knows of one Jedi in the entire galaxy that’s probably still alive--Barriss, who she knows won’t be an immediate target, Barriss, who, despite everything, is still her friend. Barriss who will die soon. Ahsoka goes back to Coruscant and breaks Barriss out of prison.

Except the Empire knew that someone would come for her, and after Jesse never reported back, they knew Ahsoka was out there. Barriss manages to escape, but Ahsoka doesn’t. (This is, like, the angstiest possible version of this au, I could also do a version where Barriss just escapes, but I like pain, so.) Barriss thinks they’d kill her—the Inquisitorius program won’t become official for months yet, not until the last of her people have been tortured into everything she once thought the Jedi had become—so she makes sure Ahsoka’s sacrifice isn’t in vain, and she runs. She hides out in the Outer Rim, and she makes Ahsoka proud.

She sees the pain and suffering and misery caused by the war and the Empire, and she is a Jedi. She cannot help what she is. She builds a rebellion, piece by piece and step by step, hidden in the shadows, agonizingly crawling towards something better. She wakes up every day, and she fights, building networks of people and information and hope. She fights to restore the Republic that failed her, and the Order she failed, and she hopes that one day it will be enough. Enough to finally be redeemed, enough to go to trial once more and face punishment for her crimes. (Death. It was always going to be death, but the Jedi managed to postpone her trial until after the war, but the war never ended. The war was to destroy the Republic, and she refuses to stop fighting for civilization. She hears about Ahsoka, eventually, and she sees it as just one more sin she must carry.)

And then she meets Ezra. He is young, and scared, and angry, but he is bright in the Force and he wants to become a Jedi more than anything. She has stayed in the shadows for so long, but this young, brilliant boy and his Master, a fellow Padawan that she remembers from so long ago, they need her, and she goes. She brings everything she has, all to save these last Jedi and being the galaxy some hope. They burn a Star Destroyer, and broadcast a message of hope. It’s finally coming together.

She teaches Ezra what she can, and she and Kanan cling to each other. They hadn’t thought there was anyone else left, all 10,000 lights snuffed out by Order 66 or the Inquisitorius save for them. They meditate and train and try to find their way back to the Jedi path, for the child they’re trying so hard to save.

Eventually, the Empire comes for them. Inquisitor Ahsoka Tano, Grand Inquisitor of the Imperial Order of the Inquisitorius (I had a lot of fun figuring out how many times I could fit Inquisitor in there), second only to Darth Vader, finds them on Malachor. She brings a bunch of other Inquisitors with her (and they’re actually, like threatening bad guys this time, come on) and they have a big fight (idk if I want to keep Maul here, bc well I do like him in Rebels, he's just another example of Filoni forcing in legacy characters where they don't fit) in, like, the middle of the episode Barriss and Ahsoka have a really really angsty 1v1 duel (everyone else is trying to fight normally while ignoring the bitter exes biting each other's heads off in the background). Darth Vader does not show up.

I haven't thought much past Season 2, to be honest, but I do have some vague ideas:

Kallus (who actually has a redemption arc, not 1 episode where they retcon everything about him) definitely has a very strained relationship with the Inquisitors bc he’s several gallons deep in the Empire-propaganda koolaid and he doesn’t trust force sensitives, he thinks that they take jobs away from the ISB, who could do the much better, and, while he’ll never admit it, he does have a moral compass and feels like sending highly trained super-evil Force wizards that can bring down entire buildings with their minds is a bit much for a teenage boy

For seasons 3 and 4 I’d want to do something with the Zare Leonis/Project Harvester plot they set up in season 1 and then like. Never mentioned again outside of a niche book series. Smth about what the Empire actually does to force-sensitive kids

No Thrawn. Fucking hate Thrawn in Rebels bc he is yet another example of Felony jamming in cameo characters where they don’t belong. Why was Thrawn, fucking Grand Admiral of the Empire, the guy that (in Legends bc he wasn’t in canon pre-Rebels) nearly manages to bring back the Empire and destroy the New Republic basically by himself, in the show about a small group of misfit rebels desperately trying to build the early Rebellion? Thrawn managed to nearly bring down the Rebellion at its peak, when it had already destroyed the damn Empire! (For that matter, why is Tarkin in Rebels? Why is Vader in Rebels? Why is Emperor goddamn Palpatine. in. Rebels??? There is a thing called power scaling, felony, and it is very important!)

Instead of Thrawn being the main villain of seasons 3-4 of Rebels, I’d have Inquisitor Ahsoka be the main villain of season 3 and her redemption arc would be parallel with Kallus’s (bc he actually has one here) and they’d both get out of the Empire in the Season 3 finale. The villain of Season 4 would be Pryce, and the focus would be on her and the Empire’s greed destroying Lothal, which I think would go really well with the Zare storyline of Project Harvester that I mentioned above. The show would end about the same as it does in canon, though idk exactly how Ezra would get into the Unknown Regions without Thrawn.

So this has turned from Fulcrum Barriss into a full on rewrite of everything I didn’t like about Rebels, huh? Sorry anon, I warned you.

[tairona-is-taken]

A review of Truce at Bakura

(Originally posted to my RL Goodreads account a few years ago.)

Unevenly written, but super fun. This book picks up 24 hours after Return of the Jedi ends, and it’s billed as the book that wraps up the loose threads from ROTJ. I would say it only 50% delivers on that. It does do a good job of portraying Imperial/Rebel relations now that the Emperor is dead and the two sides have to work together to defend Bakura (an Imperial world) from whoever the aliens are who are invading from outside the galaxy (the Ssiruuk?). There’s a great scene in particular where the Imperial governor of Bakura doesn’t believe the Emperor is dead at first, but when Leia tells him Vader killed the Emperor, the governor is like, “Oh never mind, I take it back—that jerk? I TOTALLY believe he killed the Emperor.”

But the book only does a mediocre job of wrapping up the emotional threads after ROTJ, which is what I was really looking forward to. Luke is struggling with the health effects of the Emperor’s Force lightning, which is interesting, but apparently he’s 100% over the emotional trauma of what happened on the 2nd Death Star. Han has zero thoughts on the revelation that Luke and Leia are siblings (one day was apparently all it took for that truth bomb to sink in). I will give Tyers credit that Leia does struggle a lot with the revelation that Darth Vader is her father, and there’s even a scene where she meets Anakin’s Force ghost, BUT unfortunately Tyers just isn’t great at writing emotions/interiority, and so all of Leia’s angsting over this just comes off as predictable and lacking in true depth.

With that said, the story is still a fun romp that feels reminiscent of Star Trek: The Original Series, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Things that I liked, in no particular order:

- Leia is a total boss in this story. It’s clear she’s been coaching Luke and Han on diplomatic protocol now that they’re trying to form an alliance with the Bakuran Imperials—and in one scene it’s even clear that she told the guys to let her do the talking because they don’t know what they’re doing. LOL. This was a relief after The Thrawn Trilogy, where she gets talked over by other characters a lot.

- Luke gets promoted to fleet commander in this book and he kind of sucks at first. He gets better at being a leader as the book goes on, but in the first battle, he ends up leaning heavily on his flagship captain, Tessa Manchisco. Tessa is pretty amused by his inexperience, but is chill enough that she doesn’t rub it in, while Luke recognizes that she’s more competent than him, and is fine with following her lead. I loved their dynamic.

- Han at one point tries to romance Leia aboard the Falcon and asks Chewie to set up a romantic nook on the ship for a date. Chewie instead just puts together a bed where Han and Leia can get it on. Hahaha, at least Leia takes it in stride.

- At the end of the book, Luke pulls rank so that he can fly a TIE fighter, which he’s apparently always wanted to try—it’s one of the most gleefully in-character moments he has in the book.

- The Imperial characters are pretty nuanced. Gaeriel (Luke’s love interest) in particular is super ordinary—which is refreshing in the Star Wars universe. She supports the Empire in the way that most real people support the countries we live in—because we’re stuck here, so even when our home countries do bad things, it’s instinctual to try to move past it and look for the good.

- At one point, Luke Force heals this senile old lady who Gaeriel is taking care of and who Luke suspects got her mind kriffed up by the Empire. At the end of the book, this old lady turns out to be a complete badass who helps save the day with Gaeriel as her side kick. I just loved seeing an old person use their wisdom and experience to kick ass for once, instead of it always being the youngsters!

Things to file under “so bad it’s good”:

- At one point, Luke is despairing over his love life, so he calls to the Force ghosts—all three of them; Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin!—because he basically wants dating advice from them. Man, that’s some Anakin-in-the-prequels level of romance fail right there. I guess it’s genetic?

- To be fair, this scene leads to a genuinely moving one where the Force ghosts don’t show up (wisely), but Leia does, and she and Luke have a touching moment of sibling bonding. What I particularly loved is that Leia doesn’t make fun of Luke’s crush on Gaeriel, but is actually relieved because he’s acting like a human being again instead of being super detached like he was in much of ROTJ. This is really the one nod we get to the emotional trauma Luke went through after Empire Strikes Back, and it’s a good one.

Things that were just plain bad:

- Luke keeps mind tricking people left and right in this book, oftentimes for frivolous reasons, and Tyers seems to have no awareness of the ethical implications of this.

- Han gets weirdly jealous in the middle of the book of both Luke’s (totally innocent) interactions with Leia and also this one random Alderaanian officer who kisses Leia’s hand. It makes no sense and it’s like Tyers is trying to just check off the “romantic tension” box.

- In the final battle, Tessa dies—and in fact, Luke’s entire flagship gets vaporized—but neither Luke nor any of the other characters spare a second thought for these deaths. I blame this on bad writing, not on the characters themselves, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth regardless.

[sarcastic-sketches]

Thank you were for responding to my earlier ask about Tanomo no Mae. if I am being complete honest I’m kind of obsessed with your kitsune AU Mostly because of the opportunity it represents with world building. you could build such an interesting culture using the mythology based around Kitsune.

for example Inari Okami is the kami of foxes tea rice agriculture industry and general prosperity and worldly success and is one of the principal Kami of Shinto. It’s believe that the good Kitsune serve Inari as their messengers, so in the Star Wars universe that means light side Kitsune would probably worship Inari in some kind of religious Fashion. It’s also possible that the Kitsune and Jedi had this kind of agreement where are Kitsune‘s will join the order if they set up a little shrines dedicated to Inari. Inari was also once upon a time a god of blacksmiths and merchants. So maybe the Kitsune had some part of revolutionizing the technology used in light sabers.(this is all just me bouncing off ideas for world building onto you you don’t have to acknowledge it or anything I just thought it would be fun)

!! Excuse me while I note down all of this.

A big part of my inspiration for this AU was me replaying the game Okami, sadly the only Kitsune in that game is one of the Bosses who serve the Darkness, but I did know about the messengers thing!

Kitsune being envoys of the Force would have them in quite high esteem of the Jedi, also perhaps as heralds of times where great shifts in the Force were about to happen. With no Kitsune left in the GFFA, the Force had to take drastic measures and change it's latest 'herald' into a more recognisable form - no matter how unimpressed Anakin is about that.

"By the 16th century, Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors, and worship of Inari spread across Japan in the Edo period" - Inari Ōkami Wikipedia page.

Given Anakin is both a mechanic and a warrior...

Having a Kitsune on your planet, especially residing near where you lived, usually meant you could expect a good harvest. Almost like a magnet in the Force - or like Anakin a sort of Nexus within a living being - their presence encourages life and growth. It was rare to become sick in villages built near a known den of a Kitsune and the villagers would also enjoy greater longevity. But it was also true that Corrupted Kitsune would bring plague and famine, almost sucking the land dry of any traces of the Force, leaving it a void where nothing would grow for centuries.

A scene I keep playing with is the idea of Kitsune being able to 'cleanse' areas? Like in Okami you have the Darkness patches which hurt you if you try to enter them. Once Ammy has revitalised the Guardian Saplings it cleanses the area of darkness/corruption. Maybe Kitsune could do that if they were powerful enough - picture a basking Kitsune!Anakin in a lake or something and it provides the water with healing properties ala bacta. The 501st get a spontaneous healing hot spring to enjoy.

Anakin may be a pain in the ass at times but they lucked out with getting a General who basically acts as a cosmic entity power pack.

[vodika-vibes]

post Order 66 - Part 14

Commander Bly remains in the med-bay of the Starsinger, but has an interesting development. Kanna receives a strange holo.

Tagging: @starrrgazingbunny, @thestarwarslesbian and @xylionet

Kanna frowned as Bee started recited the various readings off the various machines in the room. She didn’t need him to do that, everything had been adjusted in such a way that she could read them, but she appreciated it all the same.

Especially right now.

She was worried. Bly had taken to fighting her gentle force suggestion to stay asleep, and they had been forced to switch to medicine to keep him calm and sedated. It was getting harder and harder to spend long periods of time in the same room with him.

He radiated such despair into the force that Kanna had to leave on more than one occasion to cling to Fox, or Wolffe, or, on one occasion, Cody. He had been terrified, but had lightly patted her on the head before shoving her off on Obi-Wan.

She was beginning to wish that Aayla’s spirit remained around. She had a knack for getting Bly calm. A knack that Kanna didn’t have. Fox would, and did, disagree. Wolffe did as well. Both men claimed that Kanna was perfectly good at keeping them calm, and that Bly is just sick.

It was sweet. But they weren’t making the point that they thought they were.

Both Fox and Wolffe were easily soothed by her because they were hers. And she was theirs. Bly was Aayla’s. And Aayla wasn’t here. 

Because Aayla was dead.

“Miss Kanna,” Bee interrupted her musing, “Commander Bly seems to be waking.”

“What? We gave him enough sedative to keep him out for 12 hours. Less than 2 hours ago!” Kanna said hurrying to Bly’s side, and worriedly running a force scan over the barely conscious man.

“Yes, Miss. Perhaps we need to up the dosage?”

“No, Bee! We don’t want to give him an overdose.” Kanna said sharply, before she focused her attention back on Bly, “Why? Why are you waking up? That dosage was used to knock out Jedi-”

She was cut of as something heavy slammed into her chest, knocking her back against the wall, as well as knocking the wind out of her. Only...Bly hadn’t moved. 

“Miss Kanna?” Bee sounded slightly distressed. 

And when Kanna turned to find out what was bothering him now, she was, legitimately, speechless. Bee was floating. As were the majority of items in the room that weren’t bolted down. Her stomach fell as the familiar sensation of weightlessness washed over her, as she was lifted from the ground.

“What the actual fuck?” Kanna breathed out, “That’s...the vod’e are Force Null!” She twisted so her feet were back under her, and she used her own training to force her feet back to the ground, and she quickly hit the intercom on the wall, “I need Obi-Wan in the med-bay.”

Apparently Bly’s will was greater than her own, as, as soon as she shut the connection, her feet left the ground again. And Kanna sighed.

“I do not like this, Miss Kanna.” Bee said from where he was floating near the ceiling.

“Suck it up, Bee. Obi-Wan will be here soon.”

True to her word, the med-bay door opened only moments later, “Kanna? Is something-” Obi-Wan was cut off as his feet left the floor momentarily as well. “Well...I can see why you called me.”

Kanna scowled at him, “Can you put me back on the floor? He keeps overwhelming me.” Kanna was, luckily, still mostly upright, which meant that Obi-Wan had no trouble placing his hands on her shoulders, and pushing her back to her feet, and wrapping his own force presence around her, allowing her to move without ending up near the ceiling, like Bee.

“Would you be so kind as to run a Midichlorian count on Commander Bly?” Obi-Wan asked, pleasantly, as he carefully maneuvered Bee down from the ceiling. 

“Yep.” Kanna was already grabbing what she needed to run the simple test she could run while asleep. And then, while the test was running, she darted around, grabbing the still floating instruments, and strapping them back where they belonged.

There was a long beep, indicating that the test had finished, and she carefully examined the results. There was a flicker of genuine surprise for a moment, “Obi-Wan, his count is higher than mine. It’s about on par with Knight Secura’s, actually.”

Obi-Wan frowned, “The vod’e were tested before, right?”

“I...don’t actually know. Bly is the first I’ve tested, in any event.” Kanna frowned, before focusing her attention on Bly, who was staring blearily at the ceiling, “Ah, awake.”

His gaze flickered over to Kanna, and then over to Obi-Wan, and he flinched. “I don’t want to hurt you.” Bly said quietly, miserably. Kanna made a noise of pain, and she gripped the counter with whith knuckles. Those near constant psychic bursts hurt.

“Commander, Bly, I need you to remain calm.” Obi-Wan said, leaning over the man. “I know you’ve been through a lot. But you need to remain calm.”

Bly blinked at Obi-Wan, bewildered. “I...okay?”

“Calmer,” Kanna said, sounding slightly strained, “You need to be calmer.”

“I don’t-?”

“Commander, you’ve, somehow, developed force sensitivity.” Obi-Wan was calm, every bit the man who sat on the council, seemingly unbothered by the psychic bursts that Bly was buffering him, and Kanna, with. “We have six force sensitive children on this ship, three of whom are under five. You must. Calm. Down.”

The seemed to do it. The nearly overwhelming presence of Bly retreated inward, and the painful psychic attacks completely stopped. “I can’t be force sensitive,” Bly said. “I just...I can’t.”

Obi-Wan smiling soothingly, and lightly touched his shoulder, “Are you okay, Kanna?”

“Minor throbbing, I’ll be fine.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to shield you.”

“‘s fine.”

“I hurt her?” Bly asked, horrified.

“It’s not your fault.” Obi-Wan said, “No one knew you were force sensitive until just now. You didn’t know what you were doing. But now we know, and we can teach you control. Just like how we learned it.”

“...you should just kill me.” Bly mumbled.

Obi-Wan’s gaze was steady, “You don’t think we’ll actually do that.”

Bly slumped, “No. I don’t. You jedi types have always been better people than the vod’e.”

“Yes, well. When you can throw boulders with your brain, you learn to be a good person pretty quick,” Kanna joked before she downed two pain tablets. “Are you good here, Obi-Wan? I need to lay down, I think.”

“Yeah. I’ll take it from here.”

“Wonderful,” Kanna waved at Bly and slipped out of the room, already rubbing her temples. Her head was throbbing. She needed a dark room, and absolute silence. Maybe she could talk Fox or Wolffe into napping with her.

The first person she found, Wolffe as it happened, was more than happy to curl up in bed with her. Especially when she mentioned she had a migraine. The fact that Fox slipped into bed next to her, just before she finally drifted into her nap, just made it so much better.

*****

When she woke up several hours later, Wolffe and Fox were gone, though Luke was happily cuddled in Fox’s place. “Buir said mama was sick,” Luke whispered, giggling as Kanna started raining light kisses across his face.

“And where are your buir’e anyway?” Kanna asked as she rolled onto her back and allowed Luke to lay his head on her chest.

Luke closed his eyes as he listened to Kanna’s heartbeat, “Ba’vodu Bly was distressed, buir’e went to make sure he didn’t get hurt.”

“I suppose I’ll just have to forgive them for ditching me,” Kanna joked, as she lightly prodded Luke’s side, pulling another giggle from the little boy, “I am surprised you haven’t gone to play with Leia and Rhawl though.”

“Leia’s mad, and is being loud. Mama’s quiet.”

Well. Fair enough.

They cuddled for a bit longer, before Luke made an unhappy noise. “Mama, your holo is blinking. I get it.” He crawled across the bed, and grabbed the small device off the side table, and handed it to her.

Kanna sat up against her bed frame, and Luke crawled into her lap, before he handed her her holo. She answered the holo, and shifted it so that Luke could see who was on the call.

“Hello Padawan Kanna Rae,” A voice, familiar but not so much that Kanna was able to immediately place it, said.

“Itsa man.” Luke said, “With long hair.”

She knew a lot of men with long hair, “I’m sorry, who am I speaking with?”

“It has been quite a few years since we last spoke,” The man said, “The last time, I believe, was when you were 14 years old. Vokara took you on a relief mission to Taris-”

“I remember. We were asked to see if we could come up with a cure for the Rakghoul plague...there was another-” Kanna paused, and her grip tightened around her holo, “Master Antilles. It’s nice to hear from you.”

It really, really wasn’t.

He chuckled, “You needn’t lie, Padawan. I know you and I don’t really see eye to eye.”

“Luke, go play with someone.”

“Kay, mama.” Kanna didn’t say anything until she heard the door shut behind him, and then she focused her attention back on her holo.

“What do you want, Master Antilles?”

“Hm. The last few years have made you much less passive than I remember.” Jon mused, “You used to be much nicer.”

“The 14 year old me didn’t survive a genocide. What do you want?”

Master Antilles was quiet for a moment, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help,” He said softly, honestly. 

“If you had been in the temple, odds are you’d be dead now. Just like almost everyone else.” Kanna replied.

“Hm.” He was quiet for long enough that Kanna shifted and was about to demand to know what he wanted again, but he interrupted her before he could, “Did Vokara ever tell you about Respite?”

“Respite? You mean the long term medical facility located near Illum? Yeah, of course.”

“I need you to come to Respite.”

“...I have a son. I’m not leaving just because-”

“Kanna.” She stopped midsentence, “I need you to come to Respite. Just you.”

“And how, exactly, do you expect me to-”

“Quinlan Vos is headed your way now. He’ll pick you up and bring you here.” Jon interrupted again. “You won’t be gone for longer than a few weeks. Surely they can spare you for that long?”

“I...fine. Fine! I’ll tell the others that an old friend reached out and needs help.” Kanna snapped, “but I swear if this is another Taris situation-”

“Why do you think I’m sending Vos to pick you up? He doesn’t like me anymore than you do. If he thinks, for a second, that I’m putting you in danger, then he’ll kill me himself.”

Kanna scowled at him.

“See you soon, Padawan.”

**********

Quinlan Vos wasn’t happy. But, then, he hadn’t been happy in years. Not since the day his beautiful, smart, clever little girl was killed.

He didn’t blame her men. How could he? When Aayla loved them so very much. But it was hard to not have any resentment when he thought about it too deeply. But he had been managing. Slipping from one side of the galaxy to the other, helping people and then vanishing back into the shadows.

It was what he did best, after all.

Still, he was slightly happy right now. He was always happy to see Kanna, he had been the one to get her out of the temple, after all. And he had been the one to get her set up on Coruscant. 

So, when he saw her head of red hair when he got off his small ship, a blinding grin crossed his face and he immediately tackled her into a tight hug, “Hey there, little healer girl!” He said cheerfully.

“Hi Quin.”

Quin looked up, and saw several clones, and a couple of children, all of whom looked a little mutinous. "They're not happy."

"They don't particularly like that I'm going somewhere but not telling them where." Kanna admitted.

"With good reason," Obi-Wan pointed out as he walked over, "Hi Quin."

"...Obes!" Quinlan released Kanna and tackled his childhood best friend, "I thought you were dead, you asshole!"

Obi-Wan hugged him tightly, "Well, I thought you were dead. So the feelings mutual."

Quin pulled back and looked at Obes, he looked good. Not great, but much less stressed than he was near the end of the war. "You've been listening to Kanna about your health?"

"Sometimes," Obes quipped, "You know what healers are like."

"I can hear you, Kenobi."

"You're going to take care of our girl, right Quin?" Obes asked, ignoring Kanna's annoyed comment and even more annoyed huff.

Quin grinned, "I've been looking out for her since the Purge, Obes. Who do you think got her out of the Temple?"

There were looks of surprise directed at Kanna, who shrugged, "I'm a Healer, not a Shadow."

"But you were so good at sneaking out..." the man who could only be Commander Fox murmured.

Kanna grinned, "My Master knew where I was and what I was doing the whole time."

Quin clapped, "Alright! We have a long flight ahead of us! I'll bring her back in a couple of weeks. Maybe sooner, if the person we're meeting plays the asshole."

"He is." Kanna grumbled.

"Oh, absolutely. But we might as well hear him out." Quin scooped her up like she weighed nothing, "Later everyone!"

"QUINLAN VOS! PUT ME DOWN!"

*******

Respite was beautiful. Intentionally so.

Kanna had only been once in her life, when her Master was introducing Kanna to the Healers who were based there.

Respite was a secret. The Council knew about it, and the Healers knew about it, but no one else. Intentionally so.

The Jedi protected their own, after all.

There was a time when Kanna thought it was overkill. But, with the knowledge of who Vader was...well, she was glad that Respite was largely a secret.

"How does Master Antilles know about Respite anyway?" Kanna asked as Quin brought the ship down to the landing pad.

"He's the one who delivered me here when I started falling," Quin replied, "Since he was rarely in the temple, I guess he was the obvious choice for drop offs and pick ups."

"Shame he's such a jerk, though." Kanna grumbled under her breath as the ship came to a stop and Jon Antilles walked over to it.

"I don't trust him anymore than you do. But he is a good guy. Not nice. But good." Quin stood and led the way off the ship.

"Welcome back to Respite." Jon looked thrilled to see them, which sent chills of alarm up Kanna's spine.

Apparently Quin agreed, as he immediately stepped between Kanna and Jon, "So, why are we here?" He asked genially.

"Follow me,"

Quin made a motion for Kanna to stay behind him as they followed Jon into the facility. There were some people, former Jedi who could no longer fight or be around people, but the majority of the life forms were droids.

They followed him deeper and deeper. Until they reached the bunker where the most badly injured Jedi were kept for healing.

Quin was starting to get annoyed, "Why are we here, Jon?"

Master Antilles smiled at them, and pushed open a door, "Take a look."

Kanna brushed between the two men and peered, curiously, into the first bacta tank. And then she released a gasp of shock. "Master Windu?"

Jon grinned, "Every tank has a jedi in it. A jedi that Palpatine thinks he killed." Hr glanced over at Quin, "Including your own padawan."

"What...why are you showing us this now?" Kanna blurted, even as she grabbed a medical droid and started demanding information.

"They're almost ready to wake up. We need a place for them. And a way to get them there." Jon replied, "I figured you can help."

Kanna scowled at him, "I have to make some calls, but I probably fo have a place for them."

"Good. Make your calls. Follow me Quinlan." Jon said to the other man, "I'll let you see your padawan."

By the end of the week, the first of the Jedi were woken, and slipped onto a cargo ship headed towards Home. With Kanna safely on board, to teach them what they missed while they were sleeping.

[inquisitor-apologist]

Star wars: 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 ♥️

3. which character are you actually most like?

Probably Sabine Wren—I’m a punk teenager who loves to die my hair, and I have a lot of combat experience. (7 years of karate) I love painting, and I’m trying to be more active in fighting against the empire I live in (usa). Perhaps one day I will be able to blow up fascists with homemade bombs…

5. what planet would you most like to visit? 

Considering I literally named myself after it, I kind of have to go with Korriban, don’t I? Cool, ancient planet full of giant statues, evil holocrons, and malevolent ghosts, what’s not to love? Honestly tlt it’d be worth it just to see the giant statues.

7. who do you hope you never meet?

Grogu. Little dude is exactly football-sized and I don’t think I could resist the urge to drop-kick him. I would feel terrible about it afterwards, but I don’t think I would be strong enough to stop myself.

10. do you think the jedi were right or wrong?

This one’s pretty obvious if you look at my blog, and, well, imo, if you look at the movies. The Jedi are, as presented by Lucas, unequivocally the good guys. The core dichotomy of Star Wars is the Dark side and the Light, (or, in the OT, the Dark side and the Force) compassion versus selfishness, and the Jedi were the compassionate guys, the ones who used the force to better themselves and help others. Their philosophy on non attachment is heavily based on Buddhism—George Lucas actually converted to Buddhism and described himself as a Methodist-Buddhist—so I think it’s fair to say that it was intended to be a positive, healthy way to live. (Please, Star Wars fandom, I am begging you to look up what attachment means in Star Wars, it’s different than what attachment means to USAmericans) Also, the ‘no romantic relationships’ thing makes a lot of sense when you realize the Jedi are monks first and foremost, and monks that have super dangerous government jobs. I know it’s annoying for shipping, but it does make sense with the worldbuilding.

The tragedy of the prequels was that Anakin, in his selfishness and greed, betrayed the Jedi and allowed the rise of the Empire. That doesn’t work if the Jedi are the bad guys, then it’s a completely different story. So, yeah, the Jedi were absolutely right.

12. do you care who rey’s parents are?

Ok, so since this ask game was posted when the sequels were still coming out and my opinion has changed a lot since 2019, I’ll answer this two different ways: how I felt then, and how I feel now.

When the sequels were coming out: No. I was pretty young back then, and not fully into Star Wars yet, and I basically took what the movies said at face value. Oh, they abandoned her? That’s sad, guess we won’t see them. Oh, they were junk traders that sold her? That sucks, I bet Rey feels really bad about that. Oh, she’s a Palpatine? That’s cool, I wasn’t expecting that. I watched a lot of those theory videos talking about how she could totally be a Skywalker or a Kenobi or a Solo, but I never really had a strong opinion on it. My reaction to her being Palpatine’s granddaughter was mostly ‘huh, how would that work? I don’t think he had a wife?’ I get now that it was a big question that everyone wanted the answer to, but I was too young to care.

Now: Yeah, actually, and I really like the idea of her being a Palpatine. I think it was a really good idea, and had they actually planned the story around it, it would’ve worked really well. Like, if she was established as a Palpatine in tfa, it would’ve added a lot to her character. Why is she so desperate to stay on Jakku? Because she’s hiding from the First Order. It would have also explained Snoke and Kylo Ren’s interest in her—as Palpatine’s heir, they would’ve really wanted to get her on their side. I really like the idea of her being a Palpatine, but the execution was so awful, just like most of the sequels.

Thanks for the ask! These were really fun to do

[thessalian]

Thess vs Next Fest 2023, Pt 1.

I managed to try two of my shiny new demos before I crashed last night. I have Things To Say already.

My Dream Setup: Okay, this one’s little, silly, and really Zen. It’s basically just taking the room design aspect of the Sims, simplifying it a lot, and removing the “you must work to afford this or get really good at using the Motherlode cheat” aspect from it. Basically it’s a room design game. I can see myself futzing around with it as a wind-down exercise ... well, at least when all the main features aren’t locked out of the game.

Code Vein: Okay, this one wasn’t a “NEW AND COMING SOON” game. This was a game I’d heard a lot about from various sources and thought I’d give a try since there was a demo. It’s ... it’s another one of those very Japanese ones? Also it’s an ARG, and I’m not generally great at those. And its combat is heavily based on the Soulslike formula, which means “a lot of dodge and / or block, no easy mode, git gud scrub” etc etc. Then again, while “git gud” is a horrible way of phrasing it, I guess the only real way to learn how to play those sorts of things is to keep trying and not be too stressed about constantly dying. I mean, it’s entirely possible that changing the keybinds will help if I do get this one, because some of the keybinds they use for those of us who don’t use controllers are just awkward as fuck. So it’s basically Jedi: Fallen Order all over again as I try to work out a reasonable keybind set-up that’s intuitive for a keyboard user rather than one designed by someone who thinks that a controller is the sole proper conduit for the voice of the gods ... or whatever, I don’t know. I just know that being disabled really, really sucks.

So, yeah, all of the things I downloaded the demo for went onto the wishlist, but it’s only the ones that I like that are going to stay there. My Dream Setup and Code Vein both stayed there, and shifted up fairly high. I arrange my wishlist a little weird, I admit - mostly I keep it in priority order with “coming soon” games down at the bottom (also arranged by priority at that point), but “coming soon” games move up into proper priority order as soon as there’s a solid release date on them. So, like, Dredge finally got its release date (30 March) so it goes right up at the top where it belongs. My Dream Setup actually comes out in about two weeks so that went right into priority order near the top. Since Code Vein’s been out for awhile, it went into priority order too ... though I will admit that the only reason that Code Vein is so high up there is that it’s currently 85% off until next week and if I am going to buy it to try my hand at that particular genre, it might as well be when it’s significantly on sale. Maybe then I’d have some idea about where to set my keybinds and actually give Jedi: Fallen Order another try. Point being, it’s all a kind of weird organisational system but it works for me because it means I keep my priority order fairly up to date instead of just tacking stuff on at random. It also means I get to look through reviews of the things on my wish list and go, “Okay, given this is what’s being said, do I really want this?” A fair few times, the answer has been ‘no’, so it’s an interesting sort of way to be a mindful shopper, I guess.

...’Mindful shopper’ my entire ass; my wishlist is over 100 items long and I still haven’t played half the games I already own. Still, it’s like with books - one day, one of those games is going to be the only thing that speaks to me on any given day. Besides, if I can fuck up the Code Vein demo, maybe fucking up something like A Plague Tale: Innocence won’t be that bad. I mean, I’ve seen the final boss fight now and I kind of need to know how the fuck we got to that point...

[medicinemane]

Ok, thoughts on episode 3, not quite done with it but close enough

It's better than I remembered, but it's still not a great movie. Like I've said with every movie, there's good bones, but bad execution

I like it better than 2... I think I like 1 better because the Jedi stuff felt more cohesively done, but I think 3 is the more interesting movie

A lot of my original complaints I stand by. It's stupid Palpatine gave himself a butt face from electrocuting himself. You see the Emperor in 6 and you just assume he's old and full of evil, and basically preserved himself in unnatural ways long past when he should have died and that's why he looks like that, and you should be right when you think that

I haven't gotten to "Talk to the chair cause the Yoda don't care" yet, but I'm sure it's as goofy a fight as I remember

Side note, I also stand by that Yoda shouldn't hop around like crazy, it would be so much better and so much cooler if he still moved slowly in combat, had zero flourishes, but was just so strong with the force that even slight movements were enough because he simply knew when he needed to move his blade and when he didn't. I think that would be a lot more impactful of a character that's more in line with the teachings he's always spouting off

I don't know... better movie than I remembered, much better than 2 which honestly kind of sucked still. Some of that may be thanks to Clone Wars making it so stuff like Order 66 has way more depths and gravitas to it because you know the clone's pain and the chips and such (which obviously weren't actually part of the movie)

Star Wars, the series everyone loves and everyone thinks sucks ass, because it's great and it's also so very bad

Please, just hire an editor George. At this point I think you're a decent writer and a pretty good director, but fuck do you need an editor to polish your work

Kicks the shit out of 9 though. Like Prequels hands down beat Disney's trilogy. Originals still are a lot better... something about the pacing... dare I say the editing makes them more compelling and cohesive in my opinion, but there's a lot of interesting ideas in the prequels... just mixed execution

So that's my thoughts on it. I don't know that I'd recommend them. Glad I rewatched them but... if we ever needed a remake, we need a prequels remake, an animated one, and you just get the Clone Wars folks to do it. I'm gonna dig my heels in on this, cause I'm very right