#because I agree with all the posts here saying how much like Anakin Leia is

[carry-on-every-neverland-magic]

They love Droids

#obi wan kenobi #obikin #princess leia #leia/anakin parallel #star wars edit #because I agree with all the posts here saying how much like Anakin Leia is #the sass the droids its tearing me apart Lisa #Revenge of the sith #anakin skywalker

[jedi-enthusiast]

Debunking the "The Jedi Are Evil" Theory Made by The Film Theorists PT 2

Point 2 - That Luke was Right in the Sequels

In the Sequels, Luke says this:

"Now that they're extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified...but if you strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy of the Jedi is failure, hypocrisy, hubris."

And, after bringing this quote up, Matthew says this:

"While this kind of tea spill coming from Luke was considered pretty sacrilegious, both by other characters as well as the audience, I think that Luke has a point if you examine the movies with a little more scrutiny. His criticisms aren't exactly unfounded."

Now, first of all, what Luke is saying here cannot be trusted as "fact" or anything to go off of, mainly because of two reasons.

---

1. He's trying to convince Rey not to be a Jedi or, at the very least, to not make him train her (which is pretty much the same thing), and at this point in time he pretty clearly hates himself and blames himself for the state of the galaxy. He's been stewing in his rocky hideaway for who knows how long, with nothing but the ocean and his own self-loathing to keep him company.

He's saying this here so that Rey will give up and not make him train her, because he's scared of making the same mistakes he did with Kylo Ren and fucking up the galaxy even more (we see a similar thing with Obi-Wan in the Kenobi show, where he refuses to save Leia at first because he's scared of not being able to save her--like he wasn't able to "save" Anakin).

And the traits, the "legacy," he's assigning the Jedi...isn't actually the legacy of the Jedi. It's him assigning what he believes to be his own legacy to the Jedi as a whole, because it's easier for him to deal with his own failure that way.

and 2. Luke is framed as being wrong for saying this. None of the other characters agree with him, eventually he does end up training Rey, and eventually he lets go of his pain and fair and grief and "becomes a Jedi again" and faces his "legacy of failure"--Kylo Ren.

It's obvious that the movies are clearly making him out to be wrong when he says those things, you don't need to have a neon sign posted above his head that says "WRONG" in order to see it. So taking his words at face-value is just trying to take a bad-faith reading of the Jedi--rather than the "objective scrutiny" that Matthew is purportedly putting the Jedi up to in this theory.

---

I would also like to argue that Luke's only real knowledge of the Prequel Era Jedi and their actions/beliefs/traditions/etc. is...lacking, to say the least.

The Empire literally destroyed and desecrated every Jedi Temple that they could find, they wiped out all the information they could about the Jedi, and then spread anti-Jedi propaganda through the galaxy for years. Not to mention that, by this point, pretty much every Prequel Era Jedi is dead.

There's no one around to really tell Luke about the Jedi's actions or culture and what little information he might've been able to dig up probably wouldn't have amounted to much. So, when Luke says this, it can only really be taken as a commentary on the Post-Prequel Era Jedi, because he doesn't know enough about the Prequel Era Jedi to make any criticisms.

---

Matthew then says:

"There are certainly examples of the Jedi doing some pretty unsportsmanlike things to innocent victims throughout the old movies, like manipulating-" [plays a video cut of Obi-Wan in ANH, mind-tricking the stormtroopers into thinking that R2 and 3PO "aren't the droids they're looking for"]

This example is pretty easy to debunk, because Matthew leaves out the context.

Obi-Wan has to do this.

Because let's look at what would probably happen if he didn't:

1. He and Luke would be arrested and turned in to the Empire, probably Vader, and Vader would immediately recognize Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan would get murdered.

2. Vader would realize Luke was his son and probably try to indoctrinate him into an Imperial way of thinking, and Palpatine/Vader would probably have Luke "trained" (read: tortured) into becoming an Inquisitor.

and 3. The droids would probably either be memory wiped or destroyed, therefore destroying the plans for the Death Star that the Rebellion needed to destroy it--and the Death Star wouldn't be able to be destroyed, more planets and people would probably be killed.

Aside from the thing with the Death Star plans, Obi-Wan probably knows that that's what's gonna happen--and, if the Empire is looking for the droids, then it's pretty obvious that the droids are important to the Rebellion. So it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Obi-Wan probably understands that the Rebellion would be hurt by their loss.

Not to mention that stormtroopers aren't "innocent victims."

They actively sign up to work for the Empire and take part in the oppression of countless peoples and worlds. And It's not like Obi-Wan pulled aside a random stormtrooper just so he could mind-fuck him, they were approached by the troopers first and he reacted defensively. He didn't even make them do anything bad, he just told them "these aren't the droids you're looking for" and had them go on their way.

---

Matthew's quote, continued:

"-stealing spaceships and crashing them-" [cut to a video clip of Obi-Wan and Anakin in RotS, crashing the Separatist vessel they escaped on after rescuing the Chancellor]

Once again, this is pretty easy to debunk because, again, Matthew leaves out the context.

The Separatists literally kidnapped the Chancellor of the Republic and the Jedi had to rescue him. They had to steal the ship to escape or be captured, and likely executed, by the Separatists--therefore allowing the Separatists (who are literally enslaving and oppressing countless other systems and run by a fucking fascist dictator) to win the war and take over the rest of the galaxy.

Once again, the Jedi were acting defensively.

And I feel like, all things considered, the Jedi stealing that Separatist ship, to escape from a situation the Separatists caused, in order to keep the galaxy from falling into the hands of an oppressive dictatorship and attempt to stay alive...is a pretty damn reasonable decision, don't you think?

And, just for added context, the ship was literally falling apart when they crashed it. They didn't crash it on purpose, it was an emergency landing. If you're gonna say the Jedi are bad for "crashing" the ship, you may as well get mad at every pilot who ever initiated an emergency landing because it's literally the same thing--and if we're putting the Jedi up to "objective scrutiny" then there shouldn't be any double standards.

---

Matthew's quote, continued:

"-or just outright lying about their own powers-" [cut to a video clip of Mace and Yoda talking, where Mace says they should tell the Senate their ability to use the Force is diminished and Yoda saying they shouldn't because it will only multiply their adversaries]

Here the Jedi weren't lying, like...at all.

No one was asking them about their ability to use the Force, so they couldn't be lying. They were withholding information, information that the Senate--as non-Jedi--had no right to know about unless it would actively affect the Republic. Which, again, at this point in time it wouldn't.

But, fine, let's just pretend that the Jedi were lying...

...they were lying for good reason.

Yoda is right here. Even if we ignore the fact that Yoda is a stand-in for GL and what he says is quite literally the canon truth (since he's the creator), the Senate is already pretty at odds with the Jedi, which we see later in AotC when Palpatine and the Senate pretty much strong-arm the Jedi into accepting the role of Generals in the war, despite being told point blank by Mace Windu that they're peace keepers and not soldiers. Do you really think the Senate (read: Palpatine) wouldn't have used this information against the Jedi?

And, are you completely ignoring the fact that Mace is literally saying that they should tell the Senate and Yoda is disagreeing with him?

Obviously Yoda's take on what they should or shouldn't tell the Senate isn't something that the entire Order believes--it's just his opinion on what they should do.

You can't say that "the Jedi are liars" and then play a clip that literally debunks that by having two Jedi disagreeing with each other about whether or not to tell the truth.

#star wars #sw sequels #sw original trilogy #pro jedi #pro jedi order #pro jedi council #in defense of the jedi #in defense of the jedi council #luke skywalker #rey skywalker #kylo ren #obi wan kenobi #mace windu #master yoda #palpatine #leia organa

[this-acuteneurosis]

Okay, 2 things I really, really love about your writing and DLB (be prepared for praise)

1. Your commentary and meta on the Force. Reading through your post on how western (Christianity) theology ruined the prequels— yes! I have been saying this for years but I never knew how to put it in words or explain why the force felt so different in the PT vs the OT, and why I always preferred the force in the OT more than the PT (you hit the nail on the head). And I appreciate that this is the route you’ve taken in your writing, and I have to say since I’m writing my own SW fic I have been reading through that post and applying it to how I write about the force in my own story, and looking at things with a more critical eye and being mindful of what the force is and how it does/doesn’t work.

2. Your characterization of Anakin. I think yours is the best characterization of him I’ve ever read in a fic (I mean it). When I read DLB, I feel like I’m actually reading an Anakin from the PT. I think when it comes to a lot of fics about Anakin, I think authors tend to write him more like he is in the TCW, which is totally fine (I love the TCW) but DLB is just refreshing to me, and I know it’s because you’re sticking mostly to the movies with added bits from the TCW. For me, TCW Anakin feels a lot different from PT Anakin (sometimes it feels like they’re two different people), and Ive always preferred the Anakin in the movies (which is why I LOVE DLB). And it’s not just Anakin, but all of the characters are just written extremely well and true to their portrayals in the movies: shmi, padme, obi-wan, the list goes on.

3. (I know I only said 2, but I feel like being a Rebel). I think you’re one of the first authors of a SW time travel to bring up the very poignant point that just because it’s a time travel fic does not mean that we’re owed a big reveal. I mean, honestly, if I was Leia and I was dropped into that situation, I would do the exact same thing. My mouth would be wired shut, you’d have to tickle/torture me to get that out of me. Leia doesn’t owe anyone that part of herself and it’s not super relevant either, so why bring it up just to bring it up. If it does end up being relevant to the plot then I would very much enjoy a reveal, but you’re such a good writer that no matter where the cards fall I know I will not be disappointed either way— I am all here for how you write it. But the way you’ve written so far feels realistic and authentic to how a real person would react in that situation

I’ll end it here, but yeah! I appreciate you and DLB and I look forward to seeing where you take things.

I am blushing like crazy, you're so kind.

1) I know my rejection of an even semi-sentient Force isn't popular and doesn't mesh with current canon, but I prefer and stand by it. I'm glad that it resonates with someone else!

2) I agree that Anakin characterization is So Hard because he's not really consistent between the OT, PT, and TCW. I find my interpretation strongly influenced by TPM Anakin specifically (another Anakin!). That bright, kind little boy who was too smart and too talented for his own good! I love him and I want to protect him!

3) Be a Rebel! :) The "reveal" issue is something I think about a lot. I get lots of comments--ever increasing as the story goes on and the silence holds--about how excited or anxious people are for a reveal. What they think people's reactions will be. Why it must happen at some point. I can understand the underlying tension issue, and how people are probably on the edge of their seat. But I agree with you anon, Leia doesn't owe her past to anyone. There have been, are, and will be consequences to her silence. If and when she chooses to break it, it will be a Big Deal for whoever she trusts with the truth.

But for now, get comfy folks. Leia isn't going to break so easily.

#Duty Bound #Don't Look Back #people are so kind #Anakin Skywalker #time travel

[phoenixyfriend]

Thoughts on “Auntie Soka and Little Leia” now that I’ve actually got it posted:

Call it a director’s cut! The process of actually writing the thing, and also jokes made along the way. Link to the actual fic.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the energy for image descriptions, even the text screenshots. Might come back that later. Most of this was DMs with @atagotiak​.

This was an entire thing before I even started writing:

Before I decided on ages and stuff Ahsoka, to Jango, who has had zero contact with Kaminoans: Okay I know I'm a Jedi kid so you hate me but this toddler is your clone from the future. Jango, tired: What the FUCK are you talking about. Rex, barely able to talk: Don't you dare leave me with him, Commander! Ahsoka: I'm not going to leave you I just--I'm so tired I'm so fucking tired I haven't slept in five days and someone tried to kidnap Leia two days ago I am so fucking tired I need help

Ben: [twenty years of depression followed by a 'now I'm safe' breakdown over the course of weeks] Sokari: [whatever the FUCK this mess is]

When Ahsoka mentions there only being three other Jedi at the time of her death,  I was thinking Kanan, Yoda, and Obi-Wan (Leia told her about the latter two living past her). She's not counting anyone that received training after the Temple fell, and she didn’t know about Cal.

When Leia says  “I was adopted and raised by one of the founders of the rebellion, a movement built on the desire to instate freedom and democracy in a galaxy that had lost even the pretense.”

Depa: I'm no therapist but I diagnose you with "incredibly fucked up." Ahsoka: yeah, that’s fair

"Why did you pick Depa for--" She's pretty and I'm gay. Also because of the Kanan thing But mostly I'm gay "It's not a visual medi--" GAY

Empty of context beyond general post-fic AU: "Hey Sokari, we need to engage in psychological warfare against this individual and--" "I'm going to break into his office and leave a threatening note on his desk and leave no other sign that I was there. He'll see that his security is nothing and the only reason he isn't dead is because I'm too nice to kill him." "...okay, not what we were planning, but that works. Why is that your first choice?" "I really like breaking and entering, it's soothing." Ben just standing there with a bland smile like This Is Normal.

"We need someone to infiltrate a highly guarded facility in hostile territory." "So we're sending the Torrent kids?" [sigh] "We're sending the Torrent kids."

Rex and Sokari insist on both going by "Torrent" even though Rex could be a Fett. Jango really wants him to be a Fett. Rex has too many grudges to agree to being a Fett for... a while.

I really hope it's blatantly obvious that Ahsoka's not a reliable narrator for some things Ahsoka: Fett could care less if I died Jango: jfc even if you are older than me I can see you're fucked up. Drink your hot chocolate. Hells. She's got good reason to expect him to hate her as a Jedi! BUT. THAT IS NOT REFLECTIVE OF REALITY

We don’t get a lot of actual characterization for Jango, but the way I played him out here is he has never really parsed that Jedi are people before all this. It's a lot harder to treat them as a monolith when the traumatized former child soldier is having regular breakdowns in your shitty little kitchen

Fett: I respect you Ahsoka: No, don't do that

Ahsoka’s vigilantism is something that, in my mind, she's associating heavily with Zygerria and then the clones.

I figured that she never bothered to learn Quinlan’s teacher’s name but in the process of looking up some basic facts (whether he had a surname), I found that Wookiepedia was forced to give us a VERY wide range of possible death in Legends.

Please take a moment to imagine Quinlan's FACE when Ahsoka initially dismisses him. Quinlan has put a lot of effort into being rogueishly charming! It's very useful for his line of work! He knows to expect either irritation or a return flirtation when he acts like this with people his own age! Ahsoka is not flustered OR rolling her eyes and insulting him, she's just ignoring him and it's a bit of a blow to the ego

This just makes me really happy:

This was the initial comment I made, as a joke What if Maul is just. There. On one of the planets they make a pitstop at. What if Maul exists as the walking problem he is, but fifteen, and Ahsoka immediately tries to kick his ass and drag him back to Coruscant. I do not have room for this plot but What If

Despite not having room for this plot, I proceeded to write this plot.

Maul is kidnapped and it’s the best thing that ever happened to him HE'S FIFTEEN HE'S DUMB AS SHIT AND HAS A BAD ATTITUDE AND YEAH HE'S A DARKSIDER BUT HE'S FIFTEEN

Ahsoka: I sense... Maul [takes off sprinting] Rex: [immediately takes Jango's blaster and runs after her] Jango: Wait who Tholme: Who Quinlan: Who Jango: [looks at Leia] Leia: I don't know who that is either! Ahsoka, already wrestling a teenager to the ground: Oh no, you're a child, REX STUN HIM AND GRAB THE CUFFS, I'M SURE FETT OR THOLME HAS SOME

Fighting him isn't even legal, they have NO evidence of criminal wrongdoing, so first she needs to yell until he admits to something she can fight him about

Ahsoka: When I see Maul, it's on SIGHT Maul: WHO ARE YOU

Ahsoka: The Force didn't give me hands just to NOT throw them when I run into That Crafty Son Of A Bitch

Ben, when they arrive, after the tearful reunion: You... you brought Maul. Ahsoka: Well, yeah, he's fifteen and kinda dumb. I figured we could drag him here and force him into therapy, see what happens. Ben: I can't quite tell through the gag, but I think he's threatening to feed you your own spleen. Ahsoka: Lol, yeah.

Ben is absolutely on team "get Maul therapy" and will fight the Council on rehabilitating the baby Sith But also it's like. Here's your daughter! And your niece! And your daughter's QPP! Also your best friend, but baby, and his teacher, and the biological origin of a number of people you cared for deeply! AND ALSO THE GUY WHO SPENT LITERAL DECADES CRAVING YOUR DEATH, FOR SOME REASON

I just really want Ahsoka lovingly bullying Maul She gives him noogies and the horns don't protect him because girl has reinforced gloves

Maul's only allowed a low-power training saber and his fights with Sokari involve Much Taunting by her and Eventual Screaming by him, and everyone pops by to see: 1. Sokari doing the most absurd flips, for fun. 2. The bullshit that is ataru-shien reverse-grip jar'kai in the hands of someone who makes it work 3. What a Sith lightsaber form looks like 4. Just the general nonsense that is the way these two fight

Tia said “Wrt ridiculous flips. I'm remembering that time she beheaded four Kryst'ad at once.” and I just Rex brings up the quadruple beheading at one point to get someone to stop asking questions and the awkward, horrified silence almost makes him regret it. And then Sokari just snorts and makes a joke about how Rex once speared a slaver point-blank and everyone's just like hello??? "are you two okay" "no"

Maul absolutely starts crushing on Sokari after a 'sword under chin' moment and she's just very "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you're fifteen, bye" GO MAKE PUPPY EYES AT OBI-WAN OR SOMETHING

The crushes are the worst part of everything, really, she's an attractive young woman that can kick a lot of ass, and a lot of people are into that! Unfortunately, most of those people are a decade younger than she is, mentally, because all the people her actual age look at her and see a child on account of the 17yo body.

It’s almost a good thing she’s in no place mentally for a relationship.

I just want Ahsoka to wear beskar.... I think that would be Nice........

This AU is also what caused this post.

I'm deeply enamored by the idea that Ahsoka can win fights against "older" padawans pretty much unilaterally, even when they team up 2v1 And then she offers to fight 5v1 "But only if I have permission to fight dirty." Ben approves it, a horror show full of "I fought many wars and will scream in your face or kick you in the balls if that's what it takes" follows She wins. There are no permanent injuries, but her reputation certainly gets weirder. Nobody under the rank of Knight agrees to let her fight dirty again. She just lets that stand because, well, she's not actually a padawan, she's thirty-three.

I’m not going to write this but my brain was EVIL and suggested it:

IT WOULD BE REALLY SAD IDK maybe 9yo Anakin has nightmares about what's happening to baby Ahsoka because bullshit about time-traveling force bonds IDK ANYWAY he cries to Sokari about the nightmares and she's like "oh shit" and it's time to go rescue herself from motherfucker unlimited

It's either that or she's like, expecting to welcome mini-me aaaany day now, for like, several months, before she realizes Something Went Wrong. Anakin’s dreams could even start right as she’s starting to realize something’s off.

Obi-Wan has never had a padawan that doesn't at some point bite Even Luke will, when pushed

OH also once the twins get Baby's First Lightsaber (training sabers, not real kyber), Sokari begs to borrow them for a dumb joke and tells Rex to get on her shoulders for a "Grievous Greeting" and they do The Thing

Jango and Ahsoka wrt Quinlan is just “Do I need to beat him up for you” “You realize I’ve beaten up sith lords before?”

JANGO'S TRYING He's just. "Can we be friends? Can I--can I be the guy that just noticeably gets in the way of a creep on the subway so you can be more comfortable without someone making a scene? I'm fucking trying here, give me a hint."

We didn’t actually figure out Jango’s age until this point. The only reason Fett's age matters is for Quinlan making a Wild Oats quip after Jango says he didn't know about Rex until a few weeks ago, and Fett going "How old do you think I am? And how old do you think the kid is?" and Quinlan getting Very Awkward as he does the math. Rex overhears and lets Quinlan sweat for a bit before saying "I'm a genetically-modified clone someone grew in a tube, he didn't know or have reason to know until he saw me with Sokari." Which is like. Eight additional layers of WTF, obviously, but at least Jango gets to avoid awkward wild oats jokes

Like, you’d expect the rebuttal to be ‘he’s my brother just with a biiig age gap’ or ‘he’s my nephew’

I find it very unfortunate for Quinlan that I've decided his defining characteristic in this context is going to be repeatedly putting his foot in his mouth

He’s trying so hard but "That sounds like a cool thing, maybe I'll ask ab--and it's another fucking trauma."

I'm doing Ahsoka&Jango t w i c e (there’s another fic where I’m doing it)

It’s just a fun dynamic! So much resentful respect.

Like she's twenty seconds away from calling him a bitch at any given time and he's just there like "I don't like you but I do see you move like you're about to tell an entire building to get on their knees with their hands in the air and I can respect that" Also she's probably much less judgmental about using blasters than Obi-Wan is The Maul subplot actually started with me daydreaming about Ahsoka grabbing a blaster for Reasons

I like the idea of Jango just deciding the most Useful thing he can do is help teach the Smol how to fight. He's AWKWARD around Rex and Soka because he doesn't know if there's anything he CAN teach them.

I didn’t actually plan for Tholme to figure out the age thing, he just SAID it and I had to sit there like Wait.

Ahsoka, Rex & Leia: ahhh, children Tholme: you say that like you aren’t children

I liked getting to write Rex's little "I have worked with all of them, and they're all Terrible" He loves them But They once got stranded on a planet that didn’t exist and Ahsoka died and Anakin killed a god.

There was research and discussion as to whether Ahsoka could win against Tholme but seeing as she held her own against Vader, and fought Grievous at that physical age without dying, etc.... yeah, the only thing holding her back was her body not being what she was used to, and she’s had a few weeks go adjust.

“I miss being able to just jump off skyscrapers” is such a jedi thing

Jango: I'll take the gun back if he tries to leave, they can't get far before--WHAT THE FUCK He knows Jedi are scary but he’s still not really used to just how over the top ridiculous they are He knows how to deal with Jedi in battle, not Whatever The Fuck These People Are Doing

Rex isn't even a Jedi, he's just so used to working with them. “Oh yes time for free-falling without a parachute again, same shit as always.”

Tia: I’m imagining Jango freaking out and Quinlan and Tholme being like. Concerned but mostly exasperated Clearly if they’re jumping off buildings it must be serious? But jfc they could’ve maybe communicated a bit more?

Leia: I want to finish my juice Tholme: Quin, stay with her while we go figure out what those two are doing. Quinlan: Wait what

Jango: Oh now he’s jumping off a building too??? Tholme: Sokari, you are not registered! You can't legally jump out windows yet! Jango: What the hell is going on? Is this normal?

We don’t necessarily know how often Ahsoka and Maul ran into each other after Mandalore. There was the later thing on Malachor, but other than that I'm just going with the idea that they ran into each other every year or two and just went for the eyes like feral cats

Ahsoka: I need to kick ass and you're coming with me. Rex: Yeah, okay. [several minutes later] Rex: Whose ass are we kicking?

Ahsoka and Rex

Neloms aren’t a SW fruit to the best of my knowledge, I just wanted to mess around with lemons/melons

Jango: you didn’t think any of this through, did you? Rex: you were there, you know we didn’t "When the Jedi says to jump out a window, I jump out a window."

Tholme’s real composed about stalking the ancient nigh-mythical enemy of his people, very “Life is already so goddamn weird”

This fic has been so heavy on the trauma but then I introduce Maul and suddenly it's the worst kind of comedy Nobody is competent, everyone's a little dumb, the bad guy is just grocery shopping

My propensity for banter has turned this into a six-person buddy cop comedy about Maul buying grapes They spend a significant amount to time ineffectually stalking Maul before Quin suggests the sensible option Quinlan just "You remember this is my literal job and specialty right"

Ahsoka sees Maul and all her brain cells go out the window except "Fight good" Usually she doesn’t need to worry about doing things legally. Maybe she needs to worry about someone seeing her do illegal things but she spent the past 15 yrs in a place where her existing was illegal

I feel like he’s also maybe kinda wanting to reassert that yes he is competent. Bc like. Ahsoka’s been kinda condescending this whole time and also can beat everyone up so. It's not his fault that he's actually the youngest person there, but.

Jango is finding this whole being friendly to Jedi thing a lot more overwhelming than he thought it would be. And overwhelming in different ways.

Maul usually signifies things getting worse and more horrifyingly tragic but he's just a dumb teen that they needed to arrest for his own good.

Quinlan: Look, I'm useful! Ahsoka: I've been through hell, wanna hear? Quinlan: NO. I DON'T. WHY.

Quinlan: I understand the concept of joking about your traumas, I do it sometimes myself! But sith hells that’s a lot of trauma.

Quinlan just wanted her to treat him as a Competent Individual, and here she is whipping out stories about Dying and Gods and the Force insists it's the truth and he just???? And apparently emo darksider over there is a Sith. And just, sure. Why not

A lot of people’s interactions with the time travelling disaster lineage is just

Tholme and Fett arguing and  Ahsoka's just waiting for a moment to pop in with "Hey, when's the last time either of you worked with the other's culture before this mess? Yeah, that's what I thought."

Much like Leia and Ahsoka hurting each other earlier, and Tholme figuring out the de-aging, we ALSO have Fett’s confrontation with Ahsoka being something the characters just did, rather than something I planned.

FTR the only time I managed to trigger myself while writing this fic was the “your behavior isn’t actually acceptable and we’ve all been trying really hard to give you room to recover but you have to at least make an effort to not be a bitch”

Writing about people having PTSD and symptoms of such: Yay! Writing about people having PTSD and engaging in toxic behavior to cope: Shit Ahsoka had... basically my exact reaction. It's "remind yourself that you're in the wrong, that they have a point, and then be overly formal in the apology because fuck if you accidentally make them feel sorry for you when they're the injured party"

Quinlan: Can we be friends? I mean, you're an asshole, but you're really cool. Let's be friends. (He MIGHT be nursing a crush) (Neat mysterious girl who can beat him up.)

Also he realises she's probably nicer when not having a slow-motion breakdown He's like "Huh, you'll probably be less of an asshole once you've gotten therapy."

...also, she pretty and got Nice Biceps

I love writing a good mental breakdown

I was so close to including a "he tried to kill me" just early enough for Jango to wildly misinterpret as her thinking Quinlan tried to kill her. He'd have been very confused, considering Quinlan's the one that called them down in a panic and currently has Ahsoka having her massive breakdown in his lap But

Tia:  I could see Jango interpreting it as idk, Quin resembling someone or for a moment acting like someone who tried to kill her and she had a flashback or something like that

There's absolutely room for a couple reasonable interpretations there And "trapped in a flashback about someone who tried to kill her" is absolutely what's happening! Just. You know. For a different reason. Jango probably wouldn’t assume Quin would hurt her, for one thing he seems to like her, for another even if he did he’s smart enough to pick a way that wouldn’t be so likely to get him caught

I had to step back and actually say “Also I'm just. Wow. I'm really just shoveling QPP Rex&Ahsoka at full speed”

Me, a few weeks ago, joking: Two halves of the same idiot black ops specialist Me, now, entirely seriously: Two halves of the same idiot black ops specialist

Me, belatedly: Oh, Ahsoka being joyfully mean to people was a form of mania she was unconsciously using to build a barrier between herself and her impending meltdown

She went from "just died" to "in charge of Rex and Leia" in like. Two minutes.

Confession: I've been delighting in the mental image of this whole Mess leading Jango to try to retake Mandalore, and Ahsoka loans him a saber for a 1v1 to get the darksaber.

“Can’t I just fight him barehanded? That’s how I did it on Galidraan.” "But the drama, Fett!"

Probably Rex has learned how to use a saber as well, because you never know when you have to borrow a weapon

I later changed my mind to Jango asking her to help, rather than her just sneak-teaching him, but it was funny.

Background nonsense to all this is Ahsoka and Rex, despite Rex being as force-sensitive as a lump of coal, having developed a process where she can extend her sensitivity to him mind-to-mind for weird symbiotic battle trance that scares everyone around them. It’s very similar to Battle meditation.

CONTEXT FOR LEIA BEING WORRIED ABOUT THOLME HIDING THINGS: Tholme is hiding the fact that the Council reached out and told him that the people he picked up might be connected to Ben and Luke, who showed up after the Depa thing but a solid week and change before Jango's ship makes it to the Temple. They asked that he not share that information to avoid getting anyone's hopes up in case the two situations aren't related. Ben and Luke haven't shared enough information for anyone to really be sure if the other three are connected Because the info Tholme has isn't quite the info Jango has, etc. And they can't just say Ben is a future Obi-Wan over comms

I just have a lot of feelings about people trying to do something right and just. Nobody's at fault! Not really! It's just complicated!

Tia: I like how when Ahsoka isn’t doing maladaptive trauma response stuff she’s very mature. And of course she’s had to be but it’s a good like, contrast. Where when she slows down to think about things she’s very sensible

Jango just spends most of this story lowkey wanting Ahsoka to Be His Friend but there's too much baggage that he's only metaphysically responsible for

Local aroace(?) has a squish

Ahsoka: He just wants to get on my good side because of Rex. Jango: I'm pretty sure you could kill an entire army without trying but you wouldn't because you have actual morals and stuff... and when I met you it was because you were killing yourself trying to keep (what appeared to be) children safe... you seem cool please be my friend.......

Ahsoka’s #1 weakness: mountains of trauma Ahsoka’s #2 weakness: she just doesn’t get why so many people think she’s cool and want her to be their (girl)friend

Jango, a 27yo massacre survivor who's killed Jedi masters with his bare hands: [gets lectured on various government structures by a tiny girl that's missing several teeth and needs to sit on books to see the table properly]

Ahsoka was raised in a religious meritocracy but developed all her opinions during a galactic war and then became a vigilante spy, Rex comes from a military cult, Leia is from an inherited monarchy that participates in democracy, Quinlan was originally from what appears to be a dynastic dictatorship, and IDK about Tholme other than that he is also from the religious meritocracy. And in legends Quinlan came to the religious meritocracy after his aunt sacrificed his parents to a vampire cult and then forced him to experience the psychometric echoes of that. There's just. A lot going on.

Leia at least has knowledge about structure and admin in theory that isn't based in either the military or populations under 10k

Jango: I want to be your friend. Ahsoka: Sounds fake.

I am unfairly fond of "Rex destroys a conversation by bringing up his own horrifying childhood and calling it a cult"

"Why does Sokari call you 'Rex'ika'?" "Because she's older than me." "...can I--?" "No."

Nickname privileges are extended ONLY to Ahsoka and older clones. There are no more older clones, so it's just Ahsoka.

Me joking about Star Wars AUs: Would you like a crackship? Me writing actual Star Wars fic: My favorite character type is apparently “too traumatized to have a relationship” so this is at least 90% gen.

I had to pull a scene opening at one point because Ahsoka's skill with not getting shot is actually much less useful than Tholme's clearance levels.

Now I really want a team-up of Ahsoka, Rex, and Jango where they do have to get in a dogfight of the "she flies, we shoot" variety and Fett just has to scream because the speeder thing to catch Maul was one thing, but this....

Ahsoka, before TCW: I know all the traffic rules but I'm not that great at flying! Ahsoka, after TCW: I'm great at flying but if you let me behind the wheel we are absolutely getting arrested.

She went from "knows the rules but doesn't have the skills" to "has the skills but primarily in the form of not getting shot" which! Is delightful! "Bet I can get us through that alley--" "DO NOT"

Jango and Ahsoka are both just very "Is this friendship? Is this camaraderie? My heart's been fried on platonic love by so many murders that I'm not sure anymore." "I've lost a lot of friends. I kind of forgot how to make those."

I have no idea if "hasn't been closer than Alderaan except that one trip to Chandrila" is canon-compliant but ehhhhhhhh It feels plausible enough?

Belatedly realized that I could just explain my optimal Rex&Ahsoka dynamic as just... drift compatible. It's vague enough on the specifics while still digging into the meat of what they mean to each other and how they work together. The terminology is already in existence. I can just use it.

Romantic? Platonic? Familial? Doesn't matter! They're drift compatible.

They are important to each other and that is what matters

I really like the Leia&Quinlan thing. He's just like "This small child needs a friend that isn't super depressed," and decided he's going to be her friend. I keep trying to toss in "Quinlan volunteers to 'baby'sit." She's not much older and she has a Baby Brain, it works out

There's a running bet as to whether Leia will leave the Order the second she turns thirteen, or if she'll let Sokari "train" her for a few years first. And... that’s how I came up with Leia Antilles, Senator of Serenno.

They'll be bullshitting Ben as her new master to "finish out the padawanship" since they can't tell everyone she's really in her thirties and he's conveniently there and already knows everything and was half her master anyway. Like Ben was planning on taking on Luke, but Luke is "six" and even he can't swing that as old enough to be a Padawan, and it's not like Sokari will take more than a handful of years to justify knighthood, sooooooooo

#Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Leia Organa #Jango Fett #Obi Wan Kenobi #time travel #de aging #Phoenix Babbles #Uncle Ben and Little Luke #Auntie Soka and Little Leia #I need to excise the bits that are actually funny on their own

[gffa]

Hi!  I’ve found that a lot of this depends on how you want to handle things/how your group of people is putting these things out there.  Like, I’m not going to reblog the posts I see in the tag that have like six notes saying “the Jedi told Anakin to repress his feelings and so it’s their fault he fell” (which is exhaustingly common in the tag but I know where my scroll button is), but if someone comes onto my posts, then I’m free to point out, no, here’s what canon actually says/does. So, a lot depends on the people you’re surrounded with--is bringing this up going to get you somewhere that you’re happy with?  Then, by all means, I have some receipts for you!  But if it’s just going to make you mad to argue with people who aren’t going to change their mind (or vice versa!), then it’s better to just let go usually.  It depends on you and what you want! There are two ways to handle this (if you’re going to get into it--and, remember, you’re not obligated to spend your time on this!): 1.  Ask them what scene from the movies or show specifically makes them believe the Jedi were shown to kidnap kids.  Or ask them, why do Jedi like Yoda and Mace and Obi-Wan, classic “true faith” Jedi, show emotion all over the place if they’re supposed to repress them?  How does that square with Obi-Wan telling Anakin that, say, romantic feelings are normal and of course they’re allowed in TCW? 

2.  Or point out that there’s no evidence that the Jedi kidnapped kids in the movies or TCW, but there is evidence that they don’t: - In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon can’t just take Anakin from Watto, he has to go through a whole huge entire scheme to get Watto to agree to give up Anakin, which shows the Jedi can’t/don’t just take kids. - In “Children of the Force”, Cad Bane poses as a Jedi to try to kidnap Wee Dunn and can’t just take the child, he has to come up with a whole plot to hypnotize her into agreeing to give the child over, which says that the Jedi get permission. - In “The Disappeared”, the Bardottens labeled the Jedi as kidnappers and the Jedi’s response?  They stopped going there.  The scene is deliberately framed as the Bardottens misunderstood them, but the Jedi respected their refusal and so they didn’t adopt Bardotten kids anymore. - They have a list of known Force-sensitives in the galaxy, why would they even need a list if they just took the kids? I have often found that reframing the Jedi Order adopting children makes a big difference for me in terms of arguments against them.  Jedi don’t get a choice about being raised in this culture?  Neither did Leia when she was adopted into Alderaanian culture, is that bad now, too?  Children are raised in their culture, that’s just how raising children works. With the Jedi and the emotions thing, they have never said to repress your emotions, they instead say to control your emotions, because they are psychic space wizards with powers directly tied to their emotions.  A Force-users’s interaction with the Force is based entirely on their own mindset and what they bring into it--if they use the Force in anger, they get blasted in the face with their own dark side feelings. We further see this in the way influential Jedi (like Council members or Jedi we know are generally good representations of what the Jedi are like) express emotion all over the place:

These are all Jedi who are on the Council, the Jedi who would most embody what they’re trying to achieve and yet, look?  Emotion all over the place! A lot of the “the Jedi suppress emotion” is because Anakin goes overboard, coming from understandable places, but that he takes it too far.  He murders children (the Tuskens and the Jedi) because he’s angry.  Whatever happened to cause those feelings, however understandable or not they are, when they are tied directly to the murder of children, no, Anakin was not right, he took things too far.  He lost control of himself. Further, Depa Billaba (Council member and Mace Windu’s former Padawan) directly says it in the Kanan comics:

”Those emotions are valuable and should not be suppressed, but you must learn to rule them, Padawan, lest they rule you.” Often, also, is the argument of “attachment”, like it’s treated as the same thing as “love”, when Star Wars as a narrative isn’t using it in that way, it’s directly tied to “possessive” and “selfish” forms of love, and George Lucas has said so directly and explicitly. “The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth,” he continues, “They’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith Love and attachment cannot be the same thing because “they should love everyone, but they can’t form attachements” would then be “they should love everyone, but they can’t love” and that doesn’t work. Some more posts to read, if you want: - Jedi and emotions - Attachment, greed, and the dark side - The Jedi co-exist with many other Force-users, they do not try to monopolize the Force - What the Jedi actually say/do about adoption in canon - Attachment is not the same thing as love - Big giant meta of what is canon/word of god for the Jedi People are, of course, allowed to hold whatever opinions they want, but I have found that canon paints a pretty positive portrayal of the Jedi Order and how a lot of accusations just don’t wash for me and are instead pretty directly contradicted by what’s actually in the movies and the TV shows and what George Lucas has said about his intentions for them.  People aren’t obligated to take word of god commentary into account if they don’t want to, hell, they’re not even obligated to take canon into account if they don’t want to!  But if we’re arguing about the actual narrative intentions, then this is what they actually say and do! AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, THEY ARE TRYING THEIR BEST IN A REALLY SHITTY GALAXY AND THEY LOVED SO DEEPLY AND THEIR MESSAGE IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD ONE--DON’T LET YOUR FEELINGS RULE YOU, BECAUSE THAT DOESN’T ACTUALLY LEAD TO GOOD PLACES.  ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR FEELINGS (like the Jedi design their tests around, the children going to Ilum have to face their inner fears, acknowledge them and let them go, before they can move forward, the Jedi are actively seeking that out in the canon!) AND THEN WORK PAST THEM, THAT’S SO MUCH HEALTHIER FOR YOU. I mean, look at the characters who most embody the ways of the Jedi and were elected to their High Council and we spend time with them--Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, Depa Billaba, Even Piell.  These are all deeply caring, deeply good people who went through so much shit, shit that would have knocked many people out for the count, but still rose above it and kept their balance.  That says a lot about who the Jedi are right there and what their most faithful people are like.  AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I COULD BARF RAINBOWS ABOUT IT.

#jedi order #obi wan kenobi #mace windu #yoda #depa billaba #meta #long post

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

for @jedijune​​ - I thought I’d contribute some more to all the Jedi love. Press “j” to skip, it’s horrendously long.

A quick (lmao) tour of the Jedi Order’s views on blood ties and nuclear/traditional families in LucasFilms canon.

Basically, instances of Jedi calling each other brother, sister, father, etc. and their peers’ reactions to this. It’s a common misconception that despite the Jedi having their own unorthodox family structures and own ways of demonstrating love, “regular” familial bonds are taboo. Let’s see what canon has to say about that.

(This is already a very long post, so I’m ignoring Luke and Vader’s relationship, as well as Anakin and Shmi’s. Those cases are unusual and very complex, and my goal is to showcase the Jedi’s general take on family, not their opinions on two exceptions.)

1) Likening your Master to a family member = fairly common

AotC Obi-Wan and Anakin

AotC Anakin to Padmé, about Obi-Wan

Jedi Crash, TCW s1e13 Aayla Secura to Ahsoka, about Quinlan Vos and Anakin

Gone Without a Trace, TCW s7e5 Ahsoka to Trace Martez, about Anakin

Ahsoka and Anakin may be unusual Jedi, but Aayla isn’t. In RotS and TCW s7, we see her in a Council meeting despite her being a Knight. It means she is respected and trusted despite her youth and low rank. Aayla isn’t characterized as a maverick in any way despite her chaotic Master, and we have thus no reason to believe her openness about her relationship with Quinlan is an exception. What’s more, in the episode she’s specifically using that relationship to explain to Ahsoka how love for one’s Master and the importance of letting go aren’t contradictory. 

Obi-Wan doesn’t appear in the least uncomfortable after Anakin’s admission. He actually takes it so casually it seems to imply this is not the first time he’s heard this. Far from dismissing Anakin’s feelings or rebuking him for calling him a father figure, Obi-Wan uses the analogy to ask Anakin why he isn’t better behaved - he’s literally asking “well if I’m your dad, why can’t you be a good kid?” 

In all four cases, the Jedi comparing their Master to a family member is either talking to a non-Jedi or within earshot of one. Clearly they are not worried about giving a wrong image of the Order, so it’s safe to assume they’re not alone in their views. So yeah, calling your Master a father/brother - and probably a mother/sister? Not taboo.

2) Having blood ties within the Order = perfectly okay

The Unknown, TCW s6e1 Tiplar and Tiplee

Wookieepedia Stass Allie and Adi Gallia

These four women are Masters, not Knights. It means they have proven themselves to their peers - they’re not under scrutiny for potentially being “attached.” Adi and Stass both served on the Council, indicating the rest of the Council is fine with people having blood connections with other Jedi. If you look up the origin of Stass’ character, you’ll find it was Lucas himself who made her Adi’s cousin. 

Tiplar and Tiplee call each other “sister” in public, they are co-generals and they wear matching outfits (same cut, but the colors are inverted). Tiplee openly displays grief and affection for her sister, in front of Jedi (Anakin) and non-Jedi alike (the troops). Again, no taboo here. 

(Edit: Depa Billaba, Mace Windu’s padawan and Caleb/Kanan’s Master also had a sister in the Order, Sar Labooda. She died on Geonosis and her parentage to Depa is such an obscure piece of trivia that no material in the Legends EU or the Disney EU ever made use of it, but still. Depa served on the Council several times and both Depa and Sar were Masters, so the point stands.) 

3) Acknowledging blood ties to non-Jedi = perfectly okay

Kidnapped, TCW s4e11 Ahsoka to the Jedi Council, about the people of Kiros

RotJ Obi-Wan to Luke, about Leia

Ahsoka claims a connection to the people of Kiros in front of the whole Council, (she’s from Shili btw - she’s thus claiming blood ties as a Togruta, not geographical ties) and nobody reacts in any way to her outburst - no censure, no disapproving looks, nothing. Identifying with your biological people is fine. 

Obi-Wan goes a step further with this and praises Luke for caring about his sister. He is very clear about why Luke shouldn’t acknowledge the connection: their sibling bond is a good thing, but it’ll be used against them. You can’t see it in the screenshots, but Luke actually nods twice in this scene: once when Obi-Wan tells him to bury his feelings, and once when Obi-Wan explains why. Luke agrees that he shouldn’t show his feelings for Leia - so this isn’t a case of a Master forcefully repressing his student’s emotional life.

4) A broader view

a) Obi-Wan and Anakin RotS Obi-Wan to Yoda, about Anakin

RotS Obi-Wan and Anakin

Essays have been written on these two, so I’ll stick to this: when Obi-Wan tells Yoda he cannot kill Anakin because of the bond between them, Yoda does not condemn him. He does not say something along the lines of “suck it up, attachment is forbidden and you should have known better.” 

He says instead “he isn’t your brother anymore. The man you love as part of your family is gone. It’s not your brother you’ll be killing.” That’s very, very, very different. Yoda acknowledges and accepts the connection between Obi-Wan and Anakin, but he cannot let it stop them from doing their duty to the Galaxy. (As Aayla said in Jedi Crash, you can’t lose thousands of lives for the sake of one.)

b) According to the Order itself The Gathering, TCW s5e6 Narrator to the audience, about the Order

Narration guy is rarely entirely objective, so you can take it with a grain of salt. Still, Ahsoka and Plo’s relationship is generally accepted as the more overtly familial one of the show, and that’s what’s illustrating narration guy’s claim here. Seems legit.

c) Outsider POV The Citadel, TCW s3e18 Osi Sobeck to his droids, about the Order

Osi Sobeck is a complete psycho and an enemy of the Jedi, so make of that what you will.

5) BONUS CONTENT (not LucasFilms)

Darth Vader (2017) Kirak Infil’a to Darth Vader, about the Order

Darth Vader (2017)  Jocasta Nu to the Grand Inquisitor, about the Order

RotS novelization, Matthew Stover Dooku to Palpatine, about Obi-Wan

(Please note that I added those last bits because they fit in well, not because I see the old EU or the Disney EU as basis for characterization. For example, I’m not touching Dooku’s convoluted Disney backstory with a twenty-parsec pole.)

tldr: The Jedi Order is portrayed in canon material as pretty chill with traditional family structures among its own members. The Jedi have nothing against brotherly/sisterly bonds and they acknowledge that Masters are very much like parents. Using the complicated issue that is Anakin’s relationship with his own mother as the measure for our understanding of Jedi views on family is unfair and ignores tons of what Lucas (and later Filoni) showed on screen. 

#long post #as in very long post #i'm so sorry #meta #my meta #star wars #jedi order #jedijune #jedi june #jedi order positivity #jedi positivity #jedi on family #lineages #obi-wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #yoda #dooku #jocasta nu #aayla secura #quinlan vos #kirak infil'a #darth vader #adi gallia #stass allie #tiplar and tiplee #tiplar #tiplee #plo koon #luke skywalker

[basimibnishaqs]

Luke Skywalker (for the send a character game specifically. But also just yes.)

Oh my gosh Anon, thank you for giving me the opportunity to gush about my favorite boy Luke. I probably made this way longer than it needed to be but I can’t help it— it’s Luke.

first impression: I first watched the original Star Wars movies a long time ago and honestly don’t remember much besides my dad liking it and being kind of underwhelmed. I grew up with the prequels so I definitely connected to those more (as a little girl growing up in the early 2000s I wanted to be padme so bad). I picked it up years later when I was bored and depressed one day and I watched Empire Strikes Back I think because I couldn’t find a new hope. I just fell in love with the story and especially Luke's character- he wasn’t a perfect hero and I really liked that.

impression now: Luke Skywalker is not only my favorite character in star wars, but in all of fiction pretty much. He makes the hero’s journey but inverts the message and meaning of it. For his time he is a revolutionary character; he’s a male hero that wins the day, not through killing the bad guy and extraordinary power, but through love. His dedication to choosing compassion over violence, even to a man we had been shown was terrifying and deadly. He believes in the good of his father despite being hurt by him before, and represents how love can inspire people to be their best. He represents the power of love and family and faith over power and violence and hatred. I will never get over what Luke Skywalker means as a character to me and to cinema in general.

favorite moment: Listen, the most moving, character-defining, and iconic scene in Star Wars is in rotj when Luke sees what his anger led him to do, and throws away his weapon, and says “I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” By throwing away his weapon it shows that he won’t risk hurting others even at the risk of hurting himself- he throws away even his defense and is ready to die as a Jedi and as his father’s son. His words show who he is and who he knows his father to be- a Jedi not in the traditional sense (as his masters told him killing Vader was the only way) but as a new kind of Jedi, the kind of Jedi Anakin was. The kind of Jedi who loves, and that love being their power. With the context of the prequels it makes it even better- seeing the kind of Jedi Anakin was and the kind Luke became. I could talk about this scene forever. A close second is binary sunset.

idea for a story: Oh boy, don’t even get me started. Luke as a character has so much more we could see of him past rotj. He’s rebuilding the Jedi Order nearly single-handedly. How he deals with that overwhelming weight, how he deals with his own power and balancing the dark and light within him, how he would balance trying to honor the old Jedi Order’s teachings while also honoring his own love for his family and students are all things I love to read and write about. Even if you consider other Jedi being alive post rotj; would Ahsoka Tano’s absence from Luke’s life be seen as abandonment? His lack of connection to the Jedi of the past, thousands and thousands of years of history lost or destroyed- how would he handle it? I could read a million fics about Luke post rotj and still not be satisfied.

unpopular opinion: Some people say they could never see Luke doing what he did in TFA- abandon the galaxy and his family to just die on an unknown planet. And I agree mostly- I could see Luke becoming disillusioned with the Jedi or leaving if he blamed himself for the death of his students, child, and spouse, etc. What I disagree with was the reason for his leaving. But I don’t see Luke just waiting to die on some planet (when he literally had a map to him left behind, he must have been doing SOMETHING, rian, i will fight you). I’m not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but...here I’ll give you another one. I don’t care for Mara Jade and don’t want to see stuff with Luke and her.

favorite relationship: Luke and Leia’s relationship will never fail to make me emotional. So much was taken from them in the war: their families, their homes, their own sense of safety. But even more so, they were robbed of getting to grow up together, they were robbed of each other. Even if it was for their protection. They are as close as two people can be but still don’t know much about each other. They are strangers who are family. That divide must feel miles wide at times and then through the Force like nothing at all. Fun fact about me: play John William’s “Luke & Leia” and I WILL start crying. In terms of romantic relationships, dinluke is my favorite Luke ship. Their parallels and personalities are the perfect match for me.

favorite headcanon: Luke is very close with his students and considers them like surrogate children.. Also, he’s the most powerful Jedi there is or was. No, I will not accept criticism of this.

#ask #ask game

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

"I have some problems with [Luke] as a character)" was mentioned in your Reylo response post. Very interested in what your thoughts are on Luke! 👀

Do you want me to get murdered?! Well, if I didn’t get lynched for calling Sirius Black a Stephen King villain I can surely do no worse here.

Let’s do this.

Caveat that, as usual, I am wearing a heretic hat and expect no one to agree with what I’m saying.

Luke Skywalker, much like Harry Potter, is not the character the authors and vast majority of the audience seem to think he is. Luke is seen as the true coming of the Jedi, the light side of the Force incarnate, and someone so innately good he was able to redeem his father, restore peace to the galaxy, and restore the Jedi Order.

I disagree with all of this.

I think this is what Luke thinks he did but the truth is far sadder and, well, in general worse.

First, let’s start off with Luke’s hero’s journey throughout the saga.

Luke starts your ordinary guy, he’s not bad by any means, but he’s not particularly good either. He lives in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, part of a relatively well off family, and set to inherit the world’s most boring business: moisture farming. He has dreams of going out, seeing the world, and becoming a great pilot.

Important to remember but what most people gloss over: Luke starts if not pro-empire then neutral towards it. Luke wants to attend flight school, given his desire for glory and adventure, he probably wants to join the empire’s military. He might not like Storm Troopers all that much but the fire of revolution doesn’t burn in his heart the way it does Leia’s.

Now, personally, I like this about Luke. It makes sense to me. Given where and how Luke grows up, given all he’s ever known, I think this makes perfect sense for his viewpoint. He might get hassled by stormtroopers now and then but the empire really doesn’t interfere with his life except in a) propaganda b) offering an escape from his dull existence. What would someone like Luke know about the Rebel Alliance?

The movie however... sort of goes out of its way not to acknowledge this, and this is where I start having problems with Luke. Luke gets Leia’s message about Obi-Wan Kenobi, sees the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in his life, and gets to embark on this amazing adventure. The story sort of takes it for granted that he then agrees with old hermit, Obi-Wan, that the empire is evil. This is helped because Luke does too.

In other words, Luke’s opinions are very shallow and lack any introspection. Finding himself in the company of Jedi, smugglers, and hot rebel princesses, Luke suddenly goes, “Ah, yeah, I hate the empire!” We never really see him change his mind by reflecting over what the Death Star means/the destruction of Alderaan, the death of his relatives, or his meeting with Darth Vader. Luke seems to be won over... Honestly, it feels like it’s because the Rebel Alliance let him fly a plane before the Empire did.

Then he blows up the Death Star, is a galactic hero/enemy number one of the empire, and he’s full on board resistance man and the next Jedi.

Which brings us to point number two, Luke legitimately thinks he’s a Jedi.

Obi-Wan gives him half a word of advice for maybe half of a day, watching Luke swing a sword around and get shot at by a robot. Yoda trains Luke in a swamp for, generously, maybe a week or so before Luke ditches him (against his advice even) to go save his friends. Luke has 0 training (beat out only by Rey, who wasn’t trained at all). More, he lives in a world where everything he knows of the Jedi is colored by Palpatine’s propaganda and old legends. The Jedi temples have been ransacked and presumably next to nothing of the Jedi culture remains, I can imagine Palpatine as being nothing but thorough in his elimination of the Jedi religion. The Jedi survived in Obi-Wan, Yoda, and in some sense Anakin Skywalker.

They do not survive in Luke. Luke puts on some quasi-Jedi robes, slashes his sword around a few times to save Leia from Jabba, and he says, “Now I am a Jedi!” Luke is that kid, LARPing, yelling “firebolt, firebolt, firebolt!” Only, that is, if the LARPing consisted of him representing a massacred culture thinking he’s it’s sole legitimate heir. So... Luke is playing Cowboy and Indians, and he’s the Indian.

In my opinion, Vader wasn’t so much redeemed as he always had a very high priority in finding his son and keeping him alive. The obvious way to do this would be to take Luke as an apprentice and, eventually, murder Palpatine. Well, that didn’t pan out, and eventually Anakin chooses murder-suicide to save his son’s life. It’s very touching, I’m not knocking the moment, but I do think a lot of that was Anakin vice the inherent goodness of Luke.

Anyways, Luke and pals save the day, they start a new republic and then they learn life is complicated. The new republic fails within decades, worse, it’s feeble and likely torn apart by civil war, strife, and constant infighting. It is utterly powerless, to the point where the First Order easily rises to replace the Empire and take over its vast resources (with Palpatine building a secret sith army on the side no less). That Leia rather than lead an army through the new republic in the sequels is leading her own private resistance army is very telling.

Fitting in with this, Luke starts a Jedi Academy. The prequels, and yes go ahead and slander them all you like but they’re better than many admit, taught us a few things but one of them is that it is hard to be a Jedi. To walk the path of a Jedi is to open yourself up to great temptation to use the dark side, and the dark side isn’t just some strange quirk or sense of duality, it is the equivalent of selling your soul. It is an unnatural action that leads to unnatural abilities. 

You get a bunch of Force Sensitive kids in a room: you better know what you’re doing.

Luke doesn’t. He collects a handful of the remaining Jedi artifacts that Palpatine somehow didn’t destroy, opens up his Jedi School (even teaching his nephew), and within maybe five years the place is burned to the ground, his students murdered by his nephew, and his nephew runs off to join a Sith Lord who appeared out of nowhere (Luke not realizing that this was just immortal cockroach Palpatine). 

Luke then becomes a grumpy old man who just can’t deal, sits on a rock drinking blue milk, and whines that for how shitty of a teach he was that Obi-Wan guy was worse for messing up with his father. Which, frankly, is very in character for Luke.

Luke has never really failed in his life, or at least, never had to recognize his own failure. So, when he does, he a) doesn’t realize what went wrong b) blames everyone but himself c) sits on a rock and waits to die.

So yeah, that’s Luke for you.

A whiney, shallow, stupid, somewhat narcissistic, hero. I... don’t dislike the concept of his character, played more straight I’d love his character, but I dislike that people talk about him like he’s the most noble creature to ever grace the planet and has this inherent understanding of a murdered people that the murdered people themselves never had. 

(All the Jedi were doing it wrong! Luke made the real Jedi Order! Is something I see a lot and... well... say what you will about their philosophies, but this kid who was not a part of that culture “doing it better”... That’s real problematic folks, real problematic.)

#ask #anon #star wars #anti luke skywalker

[qqueenofhades]

so…now that we all know what you DISLIKE about star wars (and 400% fairly so, you have my full support here)…

what drew you into the universe, what keeps you around?

favorite characters, ships (OTPs or actual spaceships lol), overall themes, do you have a favorite random weird creature or robot that you adore? whatever you wanna talk about!

go off honey (again, but supportively 💖💖💖)

tax paid: the very nerdy star wars punk vest i made and the even nerdier matching vest i made for starsky

Lmaooo, entirely valid. You were like "star wars?" and I was like the drunk person at the bar who can't stop shouting about how much their ex sucks. But now that I have gotten all that off my chest, let's talk about why I love it (since if I didn't love it, I wouldn't have such strong opinions). Basically my feelings on the OG SW trilogy are similar to my feelings on the OG LOTR trilogy, as that tumblr post floating around somewhere put it: sure, they have flaws, but also, they're perfect. I have a complicated relationship with the prequels, as do we all, since George Lucas cannot write dialogue or direct actors to save his life (stick to what you're good at, George, hire other people to do the rest), but even they have their moments. Like. Hit me with that "Across the Stars" love theme, John Williams. Gahh. Just like that.

Because... Star Wars wasn't actually this omnipresent corporate global entertainment monolith when it started out. It was a dorky low-budget indie sci-fi film in the 1970s which everyone thought was going to bomb. But it told a simple and compelling story in an interesting way, everyone agrees that ESB is one of the best films/sequels ever made, and then ROTJ gave it a happy ending while it was still okay to do that. My main thematic gripe with the Disney trilogy (I will try to keep those to a minimum, lol, but I have to bring it up to compare) is that it very clearly fell into the "actual happy endings are naive and unrealistic and a cynical postmodern audience won't accept anything less than things being Bad" trap that, yet again, we have GOT to thank for. It obviously existed to some degree before that, but GOT blew it up to huge levels, where the only valid situation or character is that which is Grimdark and Depressing. Which, in my view, misses the heart and soul of what SW is all about??

Like. ESB is genuinely dark. ANH was this fun plucky little sci-fi film where the scrappy good guys won the day against the Nazi stand-ins, as they were supposed to, and then ESB comes along (speaking of John Williams, let us all chant together, DUH DUH DUH DUHDUHDUH DUHDUHDUH, DUH DUH DUH DUHHHH DUHHH DUHHH DUHHHH) and things go... wrong. Leia and Han are on the run for most of the movie, then get captured and tortured by the Empire and and betrayed (however unwillingly) by Lando. The Rebellion is attacked on Hoth (I tell you, those fuckin AT-AT walkers were SCARY when you see it as a young kid for the first time), and forced into hiding. Luke loses his hand, doubts Obi-Wan and Yoda and realizes that his mentors are fallible, makes dumb mistakes, and of course gets hit with The Most Famous Line In Movie History. But it's also just adrenaline and excitement. THE ASTEROID FIELD! THE HAN-LEIA BANTER! THE FIRST LUKE-VADER DUEL! THE FACT THAT YOU HEAR TWO FRICKING NOTES OF THE IMPERIAL MARCH AND YOU'RE JUST LIKE OH YEAH OH YEAH OH YEAHHHH!

But also then... Return of the Jedi. It gets shat upon for the Ewoks and reusing the Death Star as the Big Bad and being supposedly cheesy and not as Thematically Dark as ESB. Which is all kinda silly, in my opinion, but also, can we talk about Luke Skywalker's character arc and how he chooses possibly the most radical compassion ever demonstrated by a hero in an action movie, let alone a space opera. He insists that Anakin Skywalker is still in there somewhere and puts his own neck on the line to prove it. Luke doesn't save the galaxy by being a Badass Jedi. He saves it by throwing away his lightsaber and saying "I will not fight you, Father." He saves it by trusting that even in the depths of darkness, Anakin can come back from the charred ruins of Darth Vader and finally do what he was supposed to do all along. He can end Palpatine for good and all (we don't talk about "Somehow Palpatine has returned" because it's nonsense, obviously). Anakin can avenge the Jedi and what was done to him and all the lies he believed and the pain he wreaked on the galaxy, even then. It's not too late. It's not too late. Like. I don't care if this is Lightweight or Childish or whatever. It makes me CRY every time I watch it. Especially the moment where Luke takes off Anakin’s helmet and sees how ruined he actually is under there, and yet the downfall and death of the trilogy’s chief villain is not triumphant at all but instead utterly heartbreaking. “You were right about me Luke... tell your sister... you were right.”

Excuse me, I need to just /CRIES INTENSELY/

Luke won't be tempted to the dark side for his own sake, but Leia's ("If you will not join me, then perhaps she will"). I likewise hold firmly that Anakin/Vader is one of the best movie villains/antiheroes of all time and likewise have many feelings and Strong Opinions about his arc, prequel writing clumsiness and eye-rollingly tepid love story aside. (See: he and Obi-Wan were deeply in love and in a way they still are, don't @ me. I have no problems with Padme and obviously stan Natalie Portman at all times, but Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship is the real love story, the heart of the prequels, and in some ways even the subsequent movies, the end.) And “so this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause” is... raw af as a line. For being in a Star Wars prequel movie. What?? (Also, the Revenge of the Sith novelization had no business being as good as it was. If only that dude had also written the movie.)

Anyway, my point is: the OG trilogy had plenty of moments of staggering emotional weight and where things genuinely sucked for the good guys and the outcome wasn’t entirely clear. The difference is that it didn’t choose to dwell on them, and it allowed for a transformative fictional space where a happy ending, fiercely fought for and squarely earned, was the right outcome. We didn’t need to go back thirty years later and make everything suck for fear that a cynical modern audience couldn’t connect with it otherwise. (Like I said, we didn’t need the new movies at all, but Disney heard that Cha-Ching of the Almighty Dollar). Star Wars was sci-fi, sure, but it also had the fantasy elements that allowed a happy ending to be the right choice for what we saw the characters go through and the philosophy that carried us through the original trilogy.

Likewise it’s just... Peak as far as dynamics go. C-3PO the fussy metal butler who worries about Everything and R2-D2 who is the droid embodiment of YOLO? Flawless. Sassy scruffy space pirate and badass politician warrior princess bicker constantly, butt heads, drive each other crazy, and then fall in love? Iconic. (And has shaped my ship tastes for... all of eternity, oops.) The above-discussed transformation of Luke Skywalker, whiny ordinary teenage kid, to the truly great man who fulfills what Obi-Wan, Yoda, AND the rest of the entire Jedi order couldn’t manage to do, because of their own flaws and blind spots and black-and-white moral views that didn’t know what to do with a man who loved as passionately as Anakin Skywalker, for better or for worse? The guy who managed to save the galaxy with love? STAN.

So... what? The Disney trilogy decides to retcon all that, throw everything that they’ve fought for out the window, make Han, Leia, and Luke miserable and rejecting the roles they grew into in the original trilogy, and die without ever really reuniting or seeing each other again as a trio? The underlying message was that “these happy endings aren’t satisfactory/realistic/sophisticated enough” and idk, maybe it’s just the shitshow of the last few years, but I’d like to see some entertainment that had the cojones to tell me that despite all the darkness and despair, maybe there’s a chance for hope. (”Rebellions are built on hope,” thank you Only Valid New Star Wars Movie Rogue One.) And Rogue One worked so well, despite being utterly GUTTING as all the heroes died one by one, because we knew what was coming next (A New Hope) and that their sacrifice was going to be worth it. I don’t care if that’s “realistic” or not. As I’ve said before, that’s what stories are for, and if I only wanted things that were Real Life, I would only read the news. Besides, the idea that happy endings never happen in reality is equally bullshit. We as a culture need to accept that more, instead of finding reasons to tear everything down.

So just... yes. The original trilogy might have flaws, but also, it’s perfect. And do I want to rewatch it all now? Kinda.

(Anyway. I warned you this was gonna be long. Oh look, it’s long, and I’m sure there is even more I could say, but still. Ahem.)

sleepover weekend asks

#buffaluff #ask #star wars #long post

[benthelastskywalker]

@l10ng1rl said: 

She disposed of that lightsaber (which was turned into an Excalibur by JJ and Kasdan to annoit her as the next Chosen One in TFA, a saber that was covered in blood and death, when we know sabers where never treated as super special reverent relics like Obi-Wan wisely told Anakin in the PT that JJ hated) and Leia’s allegedely to honor their previous owners, or the writers intentions may have been something like that, but the way it was delivered it made Rey seem like a lunatic that tried to cover all traces of the family that she forcibly adopted herself into, while simultaneously announcing to the galaxy that now she belongs to said family in name. The main problem here is that they tried to convey certain messages and ideas that they thought were honoring the Skywalkers, but in fact, conveyed the total opposite message, by THE WAY IT WAS DELIVERED AND ACTED. She is hollow and grinning happily when the whole Skywalker family is dead  and the last one of them, who suffered the most at the hands of their nemesis and at their own hands by neglect, is deas and forgetten like the black disposable sheep of the family. Her soulmate, or other half of the dyad, or whatever euphemistic name DLF wants to call it just to avoid romantic tones to describe their relationship (which is completely stupid). So, even if their intentions was not to make her actively usurp or steal their name and legacy, unintentionally  manage to do it. We can have all the good faith in the world to try to pretend that they had good intentions with the main message of the story, but they didn’t. They wanted all the Skywalkers dead to get a clean slate of their own characters so they didn’t have to pay George Lucas anymore. And they wanted to Marvelize the franchise. And they failed completely because they were incapable of understand that this was a fairytale/soap opera about a family dramas set in space. FOR CHILDREN. I’m sorry, but we may twist ourselves into pretzels to try to find a positive, hopeful message for children out of TROS and Rey Palpawalker but I can’t find none. Her good intentions were vaporized in that ending.

There seems to be this disconnect where people think that by defending Rey, I’m defending the end of the trilogy. I’m not. I hate that they killed off Ben. I hate that the last Skywalker is dead. I don’t think Rey taking the Skywalker name is a good creative choice. But also I don’t think that makes her a bad person or that the bad writing in general makes her one.

She may have ended up in Ben’s place, yes, but through circumstance only and not through her own actions and choices. You compared the legacy saber to Excalibur. A good comparison as it has come to symbolize the Skywalker legacy in the ST. So let’s take a look at Rey’s actions in regards to that saber.

The first time Maz offers it to her, what does Rey do? She runs away, saying she’d never touch it again. She doesn’t want anything to do with it. It’s only after Kylo kills Han and knocks Finn out that she reaches for it. She uses it as a weapon to defend herself. 

But even after that she doesn’t want to keep it. She goes to Ach-To and tries to give it back to Luke. She spends almost all of her time on Ach-To, trying to convince him to reclaim his place in the Skywalker legacy. Yes, she gets him to train her, but as she herself says, she feels something inside of her and wants someone to show her her place. 

Once it becomes obvious to her that Luke won’t go back with her and reclaim his place in the Skywalker legacy, what does she do? She goes to find Ben, telling Luke that he is their only hope now. She wants Ben to come back and take his place in the Skywalker legacy and save everyone. Which was the point of my post. How can you accuse Rey of trying to take his place, when she actively tried to get him to reclaim it?

It’s only after Ben too makes it clear that he doesn’t want to reclaim his place that Rey takes the saber from him. In The TROS novel, it’s made clear that by the time the movies starts, Rey has already started constructing her own light saber. She’s already planning on having her own weapon, finding her own path and not relying on the legacy saber. And when Ben arrives on Exegol, it’s the legacy saber that she hands him from their Force bond. 

And then, as you said, she buries it. I don’t agree with her choice of disposal, but it shows that she doesn’t want it. She has her own weapon, her own path. 

Yes, she takes on the name of Skywalker and smiles as she does it. Again, I don't agree with that creative choice. But I don’t think it’s her way of trying to take Ben’s place. It’s her way of trying to say she finally belongs somewhere, which is what she has wanted from the beginning.

Others have said that Ben himself called her out as wanting to adopt herself into his family and that’s true, but he did so in the context of her being so desperate to have family, to belong, to be loved that she latched onto the first kind parental figures she met. Ben himself calls says that Rey viewed Han as the father she never had and we know the same can be said with Leia as a mother. 

People keep constantly bringing up Ben’s backstory, his pain and suffering, to try and justify (or at least explain) his decisions, but completely ignore Rey’s and how they form who she is and her decisions. While I don’t agree with the choice for Rey to claim the Skywalker name, I can understand how the character might make that choice after being alone for so long. 

Rey’s simply a lonely young woman. Not a cold hearted usurper. Yes, the writing (and even the acting at times) is not well done and I wish the trilogy had ended much differently. I just refuse to vilify Rey for that ending. I don’t think she wanted Ben dead so she could take his place. She would have been happy to have him alive and by her side. Their shared loneliness is what made her see there was more to him than just the monster she initially thought he was. I fail to see how she wish to take everything away when she herself knew what that loneliness felt like. 

I’ve asked this several times, but no one has yet answered me: when has Rey ever said that she wanted to take Ben’s place? When? 

#star wars #rey #ben solo #kylo ren #reylo

[helbertinelli]

How do you feel on au ideas of Jedi Padme and Senator Anakin from Tattoine

Ignoring the fact that Tatooine does not have a Senator, before people are gonna get up on this post like “But Tatooine doesn’t have a Senator...“ In this AU it does...

I like that idea. But... Anakin still has to act like Anakin and Padme still has to act like Padme. Like their personalities and most of their backstories shouldn’t change as well. Otherwise it’s just genderbent Anakin and Padme and it’s completely different. Also Anakin can’t be Force Sensitive at all or the Chosen One. Padme must be the Chosen One.

Here is my idea for an ideal AU and this is based on the events of Star Wars because their story was perfect, but with Anakin and Padme’s roles swapped.

Anakin was a former slave on Tatooine. He got released by Watto after winning that pod race and he gets to be Senator when he’s older. He’s mentored by Palpatine. He’s emotional and angry at the Republic that they’re not doing more and he’s trying to push for a lot of change. Then you have Padme, who met Anakin on Tatooine when she was a Padawan and he was a slave. She’s about justice and democracy and freedom for people and she’s very diplomatic, but she isn’t beyond throwing hands with someone as well. She was the Padawan of Qui-Gon Jinn, who died on Tatooine in the duel with Maul. Then Qui-Gon’s former Padawan, Obi-Wan, who was a Jedi Knight already when he joined Qui-Gon on his mission to Tatooine, defeats Maul and agrees to finish Padme’s training. And yes, Anakin still falls completely in love with Padme when they meet on Tatooine.

Anakin is trying to change so many things so fast and he’s also against spending money on wars when there’s so many people in need, so he’s a threat for Palpatine’s plan and the separatists. Palpatine tries to get him assassinated but his attempt fails because Anakin comes to Coruscant on a different ship. He doesn’t really have handmaidens or whatever the term would be, like Padme did. Maybe he sent a cloaked droid as a decoy on the main ship that gets blown up. I don’t know.. anyway... Palpatine says he should get protection from the Jedi. Anakin is against it at first, but then Palpatine assigns Obi-Wan and his Padawan, Padme look after him. Anakin is happy to see Padme again and he’s cool with the plan. He also meets Jar Jar on Coruscant and he talks to him about his worries about Padme not remembering him and he tells Jar Jar he’s been thinking about her everyday.

Then Padme and Obi-Wan get there. Padme is like “My goodness Ani, you’ve grown.“ And he’s like “So have you... grown more beautiful... for a Jedi.“ Padme is extremely flattered by him calling her beautiful and she starts having some feelings for him, but she tries to ignore them. Then the other stuff from AOTC happens and the council decides, Anakin should be guarded off Coruscant and Obi-Wan is sent to investigate the assassination attempt.

>>> I’m putting the rest of this + Padme’s tweaked backstory + notes about the AU under a Read More, because it got super long. So if you want to read about Senator!Anakin and Jedi!Padme in AOTC/ROTS/OT keep reading...

Padme was originally from Naboo and she was found by Qui-Gon right before she had to start her training as a Queen. The Naboo didn’t like that she had to leave to join the Jedi, but they also didnt want to get in a conflict with them. So they found another Queen. So because Padme didn’t start her Jedi training right away, she knew her family and she even kept in contact secretly with her family.

She takes Anakin to Naboo and asks her parents to stay at the Lake House to protect Anakin. All the scenes at the Lake House still happen just the same, except it’s Padme playing with the Force with food. Then Anakin reveals that he’s in love with her, but she turns him down because she’s a Jedi and he’s a Senator.

Then Anakin has a dream that night about his mom needing help and Padme has the same dream. Anakin tells Padme about the dream and she tells him about hers and they decide it’s too much of a coincidence and they go to Tatooine. They find out what happened to Shmi and they both go to find her. She still dies in Anakin’s arms. Anakin gets really angry and he gets his blaster out and starts shooting at the Tuskens who attack both of them. Padme kills some of them with her lightsaber to defend both her and Anakin and to try to leave. Anakin keeps killing Tuskens well after they aren’t attacked anymore and Padme is kinda shocked by that at first.

When they get back to the Lars farm, Anakin has his breakdown and Padme consoles him. They get Obi-Wan’s message and transmit it to the Jedi temple. Padme feels guilty about bringing Anakin to Tatooine and about what they had to do. She tells Anakin she wants to go save Obi-Wan but she doesn’t know what to do. He tells her they should go. They get to Geonosis, they get captured, Padme tells Anakin that she loves him, and they kiss.

Then the fight happens with all the Jedi and the clones. Padme, Anakin, and Obi-Wan go after Dooku. Dooku attacks Anakin, leaving him unconscious and Padme gets angry and starts fighting him without Obi-Wan, she then gets knocked away by Dooku. Obi-Wan has to fight Dooku by himself and he gets knocked out. Padme then attacks Dooku again and they fight. He cuts Padme’s arm. Yoda comes in and fights Dooku. Anakin regains consciousness and her runs to Padme and hugs her.

Padme and Anakin return to Naboo and they get married in secret.

>>> Now for ROTS and the OT... there will be a lot of changes!

Padme comes back from saving Palpatine and she gets reunited with Anakin. She tells him she is pregnant. She isn’t showing yet, but she’s worried about what will happen once she starts showing. Anakin reassures her and he tells her this is the happiest moment in his life. Then there’s the balcony scene where they’re super cute and romantic to each other and talk about how much they love each other. They say that they should go back to Naboo and raise the baby.

Anakin starts having dreams about Padme dying. Padme starts having the same dreams too, but also other dreams of Mustafar. Anakin becomes concerned of losing Padme.

Anakin talks to Palpatine about bringing people back after they die, and Palpatine tells him it is possible. He tries to get more information from Sheev about this and he ends up telling Palpatine about Padme. Sheev tells him that the Jedi won’t allow Padme to leave the Order and keep the baby and more stuff about how the Jedi are evil and Anakin shouldn’t trust them. He convinces Anakin, who is well-liked and respected in the Senate, to introduce and pass more legislation giving Palpatine more power so he can control the Jedi better.

Anakin figures out later on that Palpatine is also a Sith. He tries to go to the temple to talk with Padme but runs into Windu instead and he basically convinces Anakin to tell him what he wants to tell Padme. Anakin tells him about Palpatine and Windu goes to arrest Palpatine. Palpatine wins this time, though. He then uses the fact that Windu and other Jedi tried to attack him and he has Anakin backing him up (because he promised he’d save Padme if Anakin helped him), to declare the Jedi outlaws and he has the clones execute Order 66. He doesn’t make this public though and makes it seem like the clones are unstable and they should stop production. A lot of Jedi die, but some manage to escape.

Meanwhile Padme goes to Mustafar because it kept appearing in her dreams and she wants to know what’s important about it. She is attacked by the Separatist who are waiting for Palpatine there, but she defeats all of them. She is badly injured and Obi-Wan tracks her down and takes her to the medical station. He tells her that Anakin turned against the Jedi. Padme refuses to believe him and tells Obi-Wan about her marriage and about her being pregnant. Obi-Wan along with Bail, take Padme to Alderaan to recover from her injuries safely and to stay there until the twins are born. They keep telling her they’ll try to bring Anakin to her. She believes them at first, but then she gets kinda tired of waiting.

Anakin asks Palpatine to find Padme and he tells Anakin that Padme died during Order 66. Anakin is completely devastated by this. Palpatine asks him to help him rule the Empire and he uses the fact that Anakin is so popular to basically get whatever he wants from the Senate with little resistance. He gives Mustafar to Anakin as a gift for all of his help.

Padme runs away from Alderaan and tracks Anakin down to Mustafar. She’s really late in her pregnancy by this time, kinda like she was during the ending of ROTS. She’s reunited with Anakin. She tells him what Palpatine did and Anakin tells her that Palpatine said she died. Anakin leaves the Empire behind and him and Padme join the Rebellion.

The Rebels are not very happy about Anakin and they don’t trust him at first, but Padme sticks by him and Anakin proves that he’s on their side, too. Padme and Anakin have their own little Rebel cell. They have a ship, the Twilight, that they use for transportation and as a home-base basically. Padme gives birth to twins and they name the twins Luke and Leia. They raise the twins on the Twilight while they fight the Empire.

The Rebels win in the end and they make Bail chancellor of the New Republic. Padme and Anakin eventually move to the Lake House on Naboo after the war is won. The twins are about 3-4 by then.

When the twins are older, Leia trains with Bail to be a senator. Luke is more interested in the Jedi and he wants to restore the Jedi Order. He finds Obi-Wan and asks him to help. In the end, Padme and Anakin leave behind their careers and just focus on being parents and enjoying married life. They have other children too, all of them are Force sensitive as well. Luke ends up restoring the Jedi Order, but better since he takes out the rule prohibiting attachments and he makes it more of a thing to join rather than something you’re forced into. Leia ends up succeeding Bail as Chancellor of the Republic.

>>> Some notes:

- Padme and Obi-Wan don’t bicker as much as him and Anakin did. Padme is more inclined to listen to Obi-Wan. That being said, she does make her own decisions and she does goes completely against his wishes when she thinks it’s necessary. She just doesn’t try to reason with him about why her way is better.

- Palpatine tried to get Padme on her side, but she was hard to control. Anakin is much easier to manipulate since he views Palpatine as a father while he’s training with him.

- Padme’s story of joining the Jedi Order is similar to Anakin’s from the movies: Qui-Gon finds the Chosen One and asks the Jedi to train her. They’re not cool with the idea at first, but decide to let her join in the end.

#anidala #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #anidala au #thanks for the question #i had fun writing this #Anonymous #ask

[frumfrumfroo]

I’m new here and couldn’t tell from the tone of some asks (sorry) but did you like what they did with Ben in TRoKR ? I saw the discussions abt him lacking agency in it and I 100% agree but did you personality agree w/ the passive, “things only happen to me” vibe they gave him? And second question: can u give examples of how soule’s writing was telegrsmed in TFA? Thank u for taking the time xx

Like I’ve said before, it’s exactly the kind of backstory I would have written for him/always imagined. I had expected to find out he didn’t kill the other students/fought them in self defence/it was some kind of accident or emotional overload incident in TLJ. That was where everything was pointing.

Someone this insecure and conflicted about what he’s doing, someone who prays for help to resist his loving nature and cries when he sees his dad, who is so uncomfortable with himself he is covered head to toe not even his voice unmasked, who immediately latches on to the protagonist as a kindred spirit in loneliness and needs her to know he’s not a creature and wants to help her rather than hurt her- that’s not a person who had an eyes-open, all-in fall to the dark side full of decisive action and unhindered agency.

Leia saying ‘it was Snoke’ told us from the get go we’re in a situation where he was haunted and manipulated. His subservience and rote, childish repetition of ‘the Supreme Leader is wise’ when Han tells him Snoke doesn’t care about him. The constant, ongoing contradiction of his behaviour and motives tell us he has no conviction in the cause he’s supposedly supporting. His self-harm and naked suffering in the face of his own actions, his recklessness and inability to commit to selfishness and lack of ambition tell us those aren’t qualities which drove him here. He is highly emotionally driven, there’s no tangible goal and he doesn’t have a vision of the future. So why is he on the dark side?

It’s not that things only happen to him or that he’s passive, it’s that Ben has never pursued or been comfortable with what darkness really is and that has always been obvious. He tries very, very hard and fights tooth and claw to cling to something good in the comic until all of it is in ashes- he’s not passive, but he can’t win. No one can hold out forever against that kind of relentless onslaught. That he was absolutely a victim doesn’t mean he has no agency in his later choices. He’s not absolved of responsibility. But his reluctance and victimhood only makes sense, anything else would be incongruous with TFA.

There was never pursuit of power for power’s sake from him- there’s nothing he wants that the dark side can give him, he is there literally because he felt he had nowhere else to go. I said this before TLJ even came out. He felt he could not escape it, both because of the fatalism his family unintentionally instilled in him and because Snoke convinced him none of them loved him, that he is only useful or valued as a tool. Ben is a person who doesn’t believe he has any inherent value just for himself- just Ben, he believes that he can’t be forgiven for the sin of being born a disappointment, and that everything is his fault because he’s wrong and bad no matter what he does. None of his choices feel to him like real choices, all of his options appear to have been taken from him, and he feels compelled to plunge forward on the only remaining path. The comic provided an emotionally and logically cogent explanation for exactly why he would feel that way which is completely consistent with all the implications about his past and his characterisation from the films.

As I’ve pointed out before, there’s a reason he says ‘it’s too late’ to coming home not ‘I don’t want to’. There’s a reason he says ‘what I have to do’ and ‘he (I) was weak and foolish’- there’s a reason he needs Han’s help to go through with killing his father. It’s not about what he wants (he wants to go home with his dad- he thinks he can’t), he has never felt free to make his own choices or that freedom is possible for him.

Even at his darkest he never became cruel, he never enjoyed killing or hurting people, and he totally fails to suppress his instinct to be compassionate. He has a highly developed conscience and an overflowing core of empathy he can’t seal off. That’s why he’s so miserable as he pushes himself to do things he finds abhorrent- but he thinks he has to, there’s no escape, it’s the only way. In the sequence which establishes this character, even before any layers are stripped away or the investment we naturally have in him because of who he is is revealed, one of the first things we see him do is have compassion for F/nn. Those two characters are connected and a comparison is invited- this is visual storytelling showing you that they have something in common (it will be made clear later on that Ben saw himself in F/nn and that’s why he takes his actions so personally- cognitive dissonance).

F/nn was a good person trapped in the mask of the stormtrooper by circumstances beyond his control, but he is able to reject it and reclaim his identity. Ben is a good person hounded into the mask of Kylo Ren by his family’s failure to reconcile with Vader. The crushing weight of their expectations and their total lack of faith in him combined with their lies and Snoke’s manipulation convinces him there is ‘too much Vader in him’ and that Ben Solo isn’t and never will be good enough for anyone. That his love, compassion, and selflessness are all weaknesses which will only cause both him and the galaxy further suffering.

He is the most morally sensitive person in the new gen, he is the most outward-orientated and loving. His impulse is to be selfless and helpful, but that impulse has been relentlessly punished until he mistrusts it and thinks he must repress his wrong instincts and serve a ‘greater order’ guided by someone stronger than him. He has an acute sense of the impact of his actions and he considers it (even when he loses control of his emotions, he overwhelmingly targets things rather than people and his angry threats are empty).

In contrast, Anakin (who was committed on the dark side and successfully cut himself off from his empathy for many years) was all in on the pursuit of power even when he still had good intentions. Anakin also knew that power was the foundation of the dark side and he and Palpatine would always be at odds, that some day he would overthrow him and take his place. Ben only values power out of fear, and solely primal fear not more abstract, possessive fear like Anakin’s, he wants safety. He doesn’t go to Snoke thinking he’s ever going to take his place or gain his power- he wants Snoke to give him belonging and acceptance. He’s then convinced that the ends justify the means and doing things he knows are wrong and which cause him pain are necessary because his whole life and Snoke’s machinations have set him up to believe that. He is still trying to create safety and doing what he’s convinced must be done and will be done one way or another.

Ben is a beautiful compassionate person and always has been and that is why he’s in such constant, excruciating pain trying to shut himself off from love and vulnerability. He is following Snoke’s demands and trying to kill his past to stop the pain, to kill this vulnerability and need and weakness in himself. Connection was always what he wanted most and he is trying to cut off and cauterise all of the broken, abandoned bonds of love his family has left him with. And even here, he still wants Snoke’s acceptance, Snoke’s validation and esteem. He is still pouring himself out for an other, giving everything to please someone else, the last person left who tells him it’s possible he can achieve value.

He latched on to Rey instantly when he realised they were alike and did everything possible to lift her up and spare her what he went through. He only rejected Han and Rey’s offers to come with them because he thinks their love is conditional and that small, dirty, broken Ben Solo will never be able to meet the conditions. He thinks he is a tool or an obligation to them and it’s easy to understand why he thinks that. Han couldn’t wipe away a lifetime of baggage in a few words. Rey pretends it’s about the cause, she doesn’t tell him she loves him.

He thinks he must ‘become who he was meant to be’ and that his destiny is to become a new Vader. Everyone told him that. Whether with their fear or directly with words. When he finds out the truth about his grandfather, it’s a complete confirmation of what Snoke has told him and how his parents have treated him. Luke deciding he can’t be allowed to live because it’s that inevitable is the nail in the coffin in Ben believing there’s any place for him with his family. There is nowhere for him to exist as himself, he has to be someone else, someone less weak. And in running away from himself, his legacy, and his identity he puts himself under Snoke’s thumb and Snoke can finish inculcating his worldview.

Being able to love is freedom to Ben. He is an immensely loving person who feels like he is not worthy or allowed to love people, that his love has done nothing but make things worse for everyone. The tension and repression of trying not to need or care about people is what makes him so emotionally unstable. Kylo Ren is a mask and a shield and a prison built by Ben’s hurt and anxiety but equally built by Snoke out of his boyhood fancies to control him and shape him into an instrument of pain. Ben could never have conviction in it because it is so alien to his nature. He is so fundamentally unselfish that he never coveted like Anakin eventually did, his love never became possessive or jealous, he never sold his soul for a boon, the only way he could be selfish enough to murder is out of animal fear and pain. Wanting the hurting to stop. Rationalising it post-facto with the philosophy that the ends justify the means.

He pours himself out for Snoke because there is no one else left. All he wants is the safety and acceptance that he has literally never had anywhere. Anakin received unconditional love from his mother, Obi-wan, and Padmé and was warped from giving compassion into selfishness by his fear of loss and need for control. Covetousness became his tragic flaw and thus his fall culminates in trying to kill Padmé rather than lose her. Control became so important that others ceased to matter and love became possession. Anakin (despite also being a victim of manipulation and Jedi hubris) got to make real choices, he had real options, and thus he was a villain with conviction. Ben’s attempts to take control of his life are unfocussed and mostly involve abnegation, he pushes people away instead of trying to clutch them close; his response to loss is to isolate himself not seize power to recover the lost thing by force. Ben never received unconditional love until Han’s sacrifice on the bridge and the experience immediately shatters him from his already tenuous position in the dark. The only thing keeping him from coming home after that is sunk cost and the idea that he can never be forgiven. That it was too late.

He just needed someone to show him it wasn’t.

#ben solo #this is repetitive brain vomit my apologies #I can't words any more everything is too terrible #he is a good boy though okay #the fact that he's a broken person rather than someone more inclined to dark paths doesn't lessen his redemption #he still did Very Bad Things and being convinced it was necessary or inevitable doesn't make it okay when a part of you knows it's not true #healing is the thing everyone has trouble beleiving in #and it's just as difficult to heal from misguidedness you were traumatised into as willful shittiness #maybe more so #because it feels less like a bad decision and more like you're just fucked up and can't help being fucked up #he'd still be just as redeemable if he were far more evil #but he is baby and I LOVE that about him #because there's nothing I love more than characters who are not what they appear to be #anyway reason 487389750783 he needed to live #it's not that he 'deserves' it more it's that you have to show you can recover #that you're not worthless if you can't be the perfect victim and pull yourself up by your bootstraps

[obiwanobi]

What did you mean about the tags in your last reblog? The one about Anakin unknowingly erasing Padmé from history. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it :)

(ref to this post)  #there is so much to say about anakin's actions unconsciously hiding/erasing padmé from history and memories 

It’s a mix of in-universe impression and the perspective I got from watching the original trilogy and prequel, and I think the images of the post are a good metaphor for the way the messy actions of Anakin/Vader reduced Padmé to stay invisible, hidden behind his story and legacy.

I got a bit bitter about the way Padmé’s character is treated bellow so there is a bit of negativity there, just so you know! (I also didn’t read all books and comics connected to Padmé or Vader’s story, so I’m aware that I could be missing some things) 

If we’re talking about in-universe history, Padmé was a queen who played an important role on the political scene of her time (her vote of no confidence got Chancellor Valorum out of office and led Palpatine to be his successor) and became a senator quite vocal about the clone wars. She actively participated in the wars, not just in the Senate, and she died right at the end of the Republic in what must feel like a tragic and quite mysterious way for the public. Because of all of that, it seems logical that she should have been remembered well after her death, and not just on Naboo, right? But she’s just... not. Or at least we never really hear about her, or her legacy. 

I haven’t watched the original trilogy in a long time, but I think Luke only really talks about his father, even before knowing who he is, never his mother. If I remember correctly, only Leia says that her mother was “very beautiful, kind but sad” and I always hated this, because Padmé was so much more than just her pretty face and her sadness! She’s reduced to a few words that you can apply to 90% of mother figures in movies who of course died tragically to create a backstory for the father/son/any male protagonist. I am aware that at the time of the original trilogy, Lucas couldn’t have known that she would play an important role in the saga, but when you think about the major role Padmé played in the Republic and how twenty years later, only this vague image of her remains, it is frustrating.

This is why I really liked the post you’re talking about, with Padmé as the primary subject, but still hidden. We can’t really see her on it, but we can tell she’s beautiful. That’s really the only thing you can say about her because all the rest, what makes her her is hidden behind Anakin. And Anakin is to blame for a part of this. These moments are key moments in his life and he’s in front of Padmé, not looking at her, too focus on what’s in front of him, his action so fast that he’s blurry.

In tpm and aotc, Padmé is shown to be level-headed and responsible. Yes, she falls in love with Anakin: she’s a romantic, she can make some thoughtless decisions once in a while because of that, it’s fine, she’s still young. But how can you show a character who takes her responsibilities seriously and always try to protect people, brush off the fact that Anakin killed a village like it was nothing? Let him get away with it and marry him right after? It’s just not consistent with how she is depicted to me and it’s just a way of saying that what her whole character is based on is less important than Anakin’s decisions. Perhaps you’re going to tell me “Yes, but it was inevitable to show the start of Anakin’s fall”. This is not an argument I can agree with, because there would have been millions of other ways to show Anakin making terrible decisions/killing people without making Padmé complicit in a way that makes zero sense. Of course she’s not perfect, but there is a wide gap between a reasonable senator excusing murder in half a second and a young woman biased because she loves someone.  

I will also never not get bitter about how we barely see her do anything important in rots, where most of her scenes are just here to show the progression of Anakin’s fall. This is a moment of very high tension with the clone wars finally reaching its end and the Senate must be restless, feeling like something big is on the verge of happening, and Padmé is, for the viewer, our way into the political sphere. She’s supposed to give us insights about what’s happening there and show us that however hard you fight, sometimes, you just can’t win. But we never get to see her truly fighting in the movie, because she’s just here to be the love interest. 

 Anakin is one of the main reasons why she’s not a bigger player in the prequel and particularly in rots. In the in-universe perspective, he’s also actively participating in erasing her legacy after her death. In rots (and also in some Clone Wars episodes, notably with Clovis) Anakin places his own ambition, feelings or his desires before hers. He’s blinding himself thinking that what he’s doing is for her and their child, but he never consults her or even really talks with her about what he’s planning to do. It’s not important to him to hear what she wants because he’s sure that it can only be the same as what he wants. 

It’s even worse after her death: He just tried to kill her because she didn’t support him, and even after asking about her and hoping she’s still alive, he still... doesn’t seem to regret his choices. Doesn’t think about what she would have wanted. He actively helps to destroy everything she stood for, helps destroy the Republic she cared so much about and keeps annihilating all her work. 

This is why the caps of this post are fascinating to me and can tell you a lot about these two characters; Anakin slowly turned her into a mute phantom presence, reducing former Queen and Senator of the Republic Padmé Amidala to be a vague feeling her own children have of a “beautiful, kind and sad” unknown woman. 

#padmé amidala #negativity #I guess? #I'm okay with the in-universe perspective because it can be seen as a 'history only remembers the victors' #and anakin putting her aside and not listening to her is in character #(also I think I remember the twins learning a bit more about her after the end of the empire) #but the way padmé's scenes and character development were cut makes me want to scream #asks #anon #Anonymous #sw discussions

[xwingsandlaserswords]

Stories from a Secret Garden

Collab with @jinkouuart​ for @codywanweek​ day 6, fairytale! Be sure to check out her amazing companion piece! 

Cross posted on AO3

Rey will be the first to admit that Finn and Poe's kids are great. They're smart, funny, and respectful. They don't fight and they know how to clean up after themselves. Her friends are great dads; that's evident every time she babysits. 

The one problem is bedtime. 

The minute she remotely mentions the b-word, all hell breaks loose. Damrus starts begging for one more round in his game. Shara hides in the cupboard. Leia tries to negotiate. Even Annihea, who is too young to understand a word anyone says, starts wailing. The babysitter is supposed to love bedtime; Rey can't help but detest it. 

Tonight is no different. Damrus sulked as he brushed his teeth. Leia hugged her teddy and demanded a thirty minute delay. She had to drag Shara out of her hiding place. Even Beebee seemed upset with her. Beebee is never upset with anyone.  

"My final offer is twenty more minutes," Leia stated, holding out her hand. 

"Or," Jannah, her co-babysitter for the evening, said, "you can get in bed now and Auntie Rey will tell you a bedtime story." 

It was like those four words flipped a switch. The kids perked up and hurried to their bedrooms. Rey looked at Jannah, stunned. "Why did you say that?!" She whispered, "I can't tell stories for the life of me!" 

Jannah shrugged and continued to rock and feed Annihea. "It always works when I have to watch them." 

Rey put her hands on her hips. "You, my love, are an excellent storyteller. I, on the other hand-"

"Will be fine," Jannah interrupted, "if you can't think of one, use a story from your life. They're only going to be awake for half of it; no need to panic if you aren't the next Emily Dickinson." 

Rey still frowned. "Why can't you do it?" 

"Because this baby is almost asleep and there's no way I'm risking waking her up." Jannah moved the bottle to the table and shooed Rey off to the bedroom. 

The brunette flipped her girlfriend off before calling the kids to Damrus's bedroom. The three sat in the eldest's bed and eagerly waited for their aunt to begin.

Rey sat across from them and smiled awkwardly. "What story do you want to hear?" 

"Princes!" 

"Knights" 

"Dancing!" 

Shara and Leia shouted their ideas one after the other. Damrus simply shrugged. "I like flowers," he mumbled. 

An idea came to Rey's head quickly. "Okay, here goes.

"A long time ago, in a kingdom far, far away…" 

                                                      ♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡

It really doesn't surprise Cody to learn the prince is missing. 

Everyone was frantically preparing for that night's dance. Soon, dignitaries were arriving from all over to meet the king to be. In a few short months, Prince Anakin would formally take his late father's place as monarch of their young country. Cody wasn't concerned: he'd seen the young man grow into a fearless and noble ruler. He didn't have the most conventional way of doing things, but Cody had to admit his methods were effective.

Most agreed that Anakin would settle down and conform to tradition once he was married. Cody thought that was ludicrous; marriage wouldn't change Anakin's foundation. Regardless, a dance was being held with the secondary hope of finding a spouse for the future king. The young man must have hated the idea as much as Cody if he'd been missing since dusk. 

Good luck finding him, Rex, Cody thought to himself. At least my prince isn't missing.

He walked the cobblestone path to a small, secluded place in the Queen's Garden. The sun wouldn't be up for another hour, but the humidity was already uncomfortable. He hated being outside in his formal wear. The armour encasing his legs and right arm made him sweat. The straps on his shoulders made certain movements difficult. The white uniform underneath was thick and stiff. His sword was positioned in an unfamiliar way. Cody understood that it protected and looked better than his usual outfit, but the dance wasn’t for hours! Did he have to wear it now? 

He would only endure this discomfort for one person. That person was currently sitting on a bench and rereading the same book for the fifth time. Cody would never understand why- he already knew all the words by heart. 

Cody was sent to retrieve him for some final inspection, but he couldn't help but take a moment to admire the prince's beauty. The long cape was swept into his lap, creating a pillow for his book. The golden shoulder plates and buttons glistened under the lamp light. The tailor must have modified the suit recently; Cody didn’t recall ever seeing the golden accents on his right leg and left sleeve. He also couldn’t help his slight jealousy: the prince’s outfit looked much more comfortable than his own. 

"If you stand there any longer the birds will mistake you as stone", the prince said, interrupting Cody's thoughts.

He smiled slightly. "I was allowing you to finish."

"Hm, yes," Obi-Wan turned the page of his book, "and I am oblivious to the fact Anakin is currently with the Queen of Naboo."

"Ah, well…" Cody cleared his throat. "The Duke has requested your presence in the ballroom. He would like your opinion on some things."

 Obi-Wan met his gaze, amusement twinkling in his blue eyes. "It is a shame I cannot be found, then."

"Yes, Sir, it is."

They shared a smile before Obi-Wan stood. He put his book in the bench's hidden compartment. How the prince managed to find these hidden places, Cody would never find out. 

He looked back at the Knight and smiled. "Would you care to escort me around the garden before I must see the Duke?"

Cody offered his arm. "It would be an honor, Your Highness."

Obi-Wan took his arm and they began their stroll. It was easy to get lost while surrounded by the beauteous flowers. The path diverged into three different sections: one leading to the castle, one to the stable and the last to the gates. Cody didn't need direction before heading down the path to the gates. 

"The roses are breathtaking this year," Obi-Wan said, breaking their silence. 

Instead of speaking his thoughts, Cody nodded. "Hevy has been working with Ninety-Nine to ensure the garden is ready for the summer. My suspicion is that he wants to show up the Alderanian gardeners."  

Obi-Wan chuckled. "I will never understand their competition." 

"It's a thing between brothers. Cutup did well for King Bail's wedding; Hevy wants to do better for the prince's coronation." Cody replied with a shrug. 

Obi-Wan put a hand on his own and stopped in the centre of the path. "Do you think he's ready?" 

"Oh, I'm sure Hevy is. Ninety-Nine is a great teacher." 

Obi-Wan shook his head fondly. "I have no doubt in that. I meant do you think Anakin is ready? He's still so…" 

"Headstrong?" 

" Young. At his age all I had to do was smile and nod. He is going to be running a country." 

"You did a little more than smile and nod, Your Highness." 

Cody recalled the prince’s marriage with the late Queen of Mandalore. Prince Obi-Wan had just turned seventeen. He proclaimed the union would unite their two countries for years to come. Cody, a teen himself, couldn’t help but feel bad for the elder. For years, it appeared the prince was stuck in a marriage of convenience. 

Later, he learned this was only partially the case. Yes, the marriage was arranged, but Obi-Wan had quickly fallen in love with the Queen. Years later, the couple had a son. Soon after the prince’s birth, King Qui-Gon passed away. Obi-Wan was forced to return to his home country to take over Anakin’s teachings and the role of acting monarch. For Mandalore to maintain its political position, it was agreed the best course of action was to dissolve Prince Obi-Wan and Queen Satine’s union. This was all before the prince had turned twenty-five.

So, no, Obi-Wan did not just "smile and nod" when he was the age of the young prince. 

Obi-Wan continued, "I had years of learning under Father before I was expected to lead, not to mention what I’d learned from Satine. Anakin-" 

"Anakin has known his duty since he was born," Cody interrupted. "He has watched and learned as you acted in the role he was born to take. You fail to give him enough credit, Your Highness. Anakin will be a fearless and noble ruler, just as you taught him." 

It was no secret Obi-Wan was treated unjustly by the former king. As the child of a non-traditional union, Obi-Wan held no place in line for the throne. Qui-Gon still educated him, but all his attention turned to Anakin when he was born. The younger son was the first born to the King and Queen. The throne was his right, not Obi-Wan’s. 

When Qui-Gon passed away, it was agreed that Obi-Wan would temporarily act as monarch. He was to educate his younger brother so one day, when he turned twenty-three, he may take the throne. Several protested this arrangement, arguing that a bastard should have no such power. By the time anyone cared to listen, Obi-Wan's reign was coming to an end. Now their attention is on the king-to-be and his courtship status. 

"I know you do not want to be king," Cody said softly. "But even the moonlight doesn't hide your worry. What is bothering you?" 

"Many things keep me up at night, my dear. You'll have to be more specific." Cody simply tilted his head and waited until the prince sighed. "I know he is ready, but I still feel Anakin is too young for such responsibility. I fear that his and the Queen from Naboo's courtship will be denied. I worry that my son resents me for leaving when I had no choice. I fear…" He looked to the ground for a moment. "I fear that once Anakin ascends to the throne, he will no longer need me." 

Cody gently tilted the prince's head to meet his gaze. "There is no doubt in my mind that he will always need you. You are his brother, his mentor, his beloved friend. He may not need an advisor anymore, but he will always need you." 

Obi-Wan put a hand over the knight's own. "What would I do without you?" 

"Not have a knight to cover your sorry arse." 

Obi-Wan shook his head. He waited a moment more before speaking again. "I've been thinking of moving upstate." 

Cody recoiled slightly in surprise. "Oh?" 

"Yes, once Anakin is crowned and married to Padmé. Nowhere too far: just somewhere to get away from the politics and so-called royal life." 

"Really?" Cody tried not to let his hope build. 

"Yes. I may invite Krokie to stay. It depends how he'd get along with my fiancé, however." 

"Fiancé?" This is the first time he'd heard the word out of the other's mouth. 

"After the coronation I will have no ties to the throne. I will be able to marry whomever I want." Obi-wan smiled cheekily. "Perhaps you've met him; he is in the guard, after all." 

"There are thousands of men in the guard. You must be more specific." 

"Well, this knight is loyal. He is always two steps behind me. Regardless of my rankings and status, he has never feared to speak his mind." Obi-Wan took a step closer. "He is also quite charming. Handsome too, if I say so myself, especially in his formal wear." 

Cody grimaced. He'd almost forgotten about the uncomfortable garments. "He'd only wear them for you, Sir." 

"Soon he may never have to dawn them again." 

"I love you," Cody admitted, tired of the banter that kept them apart. 

Obi-Wan kissed his cheek and pulled him close. "And I you, cyare." 

Soon, dignitaries would be arriving, Rex would arrive with the upset prince, and someone would pull Obi-Wan away for one reason or another. Cody tried to forget about that; right now it was just him, his beloved, and the stars. 

                                                      ♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡

Rey broke out of her story-telling trance and smiled. "The end!" She said gleefully. 

All three children were fast asleep. Rey looked to the door frame and frowned when Jannah laughed. "How long have they been out?" She asked. 

Jannah shrugged. "Leia fell as soon as you said the first sentence, Shara followed after Cody found the prince and Damrus was out not too long ago." Rey sighed before getting up and gathering Shara in her arms. Jannah came in and followed suit with Leia. "You did well," she continued, "I quite enjoyed your story." 

"Oh, that wasn't a story," Rey called as she exited the room. "That was simply the beginnings of my grandfather and his husband." 

… Well, maybe she had taken some creative liberties, but Jannah didn't need to know that. 

#codywan #codywanweek2020 #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #universe: fairytale #my fics #background finnpoe #background rey x jannah #prince obi-wan #knight cody

[unholyretributioncomes]

How I Would Bring Back Ben Solo

I keep seeing stuff about Ben Solo not being dead. Now I love the character, and I wish he had a better redemption arc than he was given, and was allowed to live so he could properly atone for his mistakes and work to fix them. But bringing him back has to be done even more carefully. So here is what I currently have for that story- including satisfying arcs for the characters who were stripped of everything that we loved about them. Note: this is a WIP. It is in no way finished, and the intended arcs I have for each character has not yet been written for fully fleshed out.

These arcs include Finn finding a purpose for himself outside of Rey and war. Rose getting some proper closure and maybe having a similar arc to Finn. Poe dealing with post-war stuff including prejudices and trauma. Chewie and Rey being a proper family.

1) Possible comic or animated series. A one movie or three might not be enough or would allow for too many essential cuts

2) While the focus would be on Ben Solo, have regular cuts to Rey and the others

3) Make sure it is clear that this isn't just him getting closer, it is also him atoning for anything he has done as Kylo Ren

4) The story: Ben Solo wakes up either on an Exegol looking area (where he "died" at the end of TROS) or some other dark, empty space that is fairly featureless and void of any other signs of life.

He begins looking around for Rey, and only barely being able to Force, is only able to tell that she is in fact alive and well.

Sensing something off about this place, he grabs the lightsaber that is with him (at first it seems to be Luke's but later on possibly is revealed to be Leia's either by similarity in look or some sort of veil that had been shielding it, though that is revealed later on) and proceeds to look for a way out.

Thus begins his journey.

Cut to Rey.

On a planet, possibly with the group, but is taking some time to herself to meditate and reflect. She then feels a familiar presence: Ben. She calls out to him, but receives no response, only able to feel him there. A member of the group arrives (Finn or Chewie) and asks her what is up, and in their talk, she is able to realize that Ben Solo is alive and somewhere out there in the Galaxy and she declares she is going to go find him.

Cut back to Ben.

Everything is looking exactly the same and he is feeling more lost by the minute. He pauses to take a break as it is clear he is either still exhausted from the fight or been walking for hours. He then feels her: Rey. He calls out, but also receives no response. He calls again and again (possibly only seeing a flickering, weak image of her) before he gives up and gives his voice a break. Loneliness sinks in.

Sliding to the ground, his mind starts to process what has happened. He thought he became one with the Force, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. That temptation to the dark is still there, but he is more stable in the light. He is completely alone. There aren’t even any bodies of dead Sith or the Knights of Ren. He begins to wonder if this is his punishment for the things he did while consumed by the dark.

A voice echoes through the emptiness, one he has not heard in person in years, but knows anywhere: his mother, encouraging him to get up. He leaps to his feet and looks around, but doesn’t see her. He hears her voice again, telling him to keep going, and that she is waiting for him.

Without a second thought, he begins running towards his mother’s voice, calling out to her, and while never receiving a direct reply, is continually encouraged by her voice.

Cut back to Rey.

She has shared her discovery with the group (Poe, Finn, Chewie, BB-8, R2, C3PO, and possibly Rose). Finn and Poe and understandably upset by this revelation and when Rey suggests they go after him, are adamantly against it, Poe even going so far as to say that wherever he is rotting away in both body and mind, that it is what he deserves.

Angered by this Rey begins defending him, saying that if Luke can turn Darth Vader to the light and back into Anakin, then why shouldn’t Kylo be allowed to become Ben again as well. Poe argues that while Luke managed that, Darth Vader died before anything could come of it so it wasn’t like it mattered for any other reason than a good story.

Rey bites back that if Ben is indeed alive, then unlike Vader and Anakin, he has the chance to work to atone for his sins and deserves the chance to right his wrongs.

Poe stands firm that whatever fate Kylo Ren is facing is likely the one he deserves.

Rey tells him that she is going to go out looking for him, with or without anyone’s help and nothing will stop her from doing so.

After some silence as Rey waits for reactions/replies, Chewie stands and proclaims he will go with her and they can take the Falcon. 3PO and R2 are instantly on board with this as well. Eyes turn to Finn, waiting to see what side he takes.

Finn, still attached to Rey as she was the first person outside of the First Order he spent more than a few hours with, struggles to agree as he does feel similarly to Poe and also feels that attachment to Poe. With some coaxing from BB-8 (Either having learned to speak Droid or having it translated by 3PO) he agrees to go.

Poe is angered by BB-8’s seeming betrayal and goes on a rant. But after some more coaxing he eventually agrees to go on the condition that he gets one free hit in if/when they find him.

Rey smiles and they begin preparations to go searching.

Cut back to Ben

His mother’s voice has since faded, and he has slowed to cautious steps as he continues on his journey. Surroundings still haven’t changed and he questions if he has been going in circles and having seen no other paths, begins debating if he should maybe start trying to find a way to climb up.

Sensing danger, he ignites the lightsaber and begins combat with whatever comes to attack him.

When the fight is over, a voice compliments Ben’s form in the fight. Ben turns and there is Luke standing there. Ben lashes out and tries to kill Luke despite clearly seeing him as a Force Ghost.

Luke asks him the source of his anger and Ben yells at him. That Luke tried to kill him for things he hadn’t done yet. That rather than sit him down and talk with him about it, tried to destroy something that had yet to actually become a threat. That he was never given the chance to choose.

Luke tries to apologize, but Ben ignores him, and with his saber still lit, begins to continue to walk. Ben doesn’t want to deal with Luke, ghost or otherwise.

Cut to Rey

Rey starts her journey by doing research. She talks with people who knew of the Jedi and other records to see if she can find where Ben might have turned up.

Poe helps with some of his more powerful Resistance contacts, though many are busy helping to rebuild the Republic, so getting a hold of them isn’t easy. Maz, however, is a godsend and shows up when she hears Rey is studying something specific.

She asks what is going on, and Rey and Chewie explain that Ben is alive. That Rey can feel him still out there, and unlike Luke or Leia, he isn’t a ghost. And that in trying to contact Luke, she met another ghost of a Jedi named Obi-wan Kenobi, who she had only ever heard about, and he confirmed that yes, Ben is alive.

Maz is certainly surprised, but joins the party to help find Solo’s wayward son, commenting on how much Ben is actually like Han and of course he would be too stubborn to die.

While this is being explained, Poe looks over to Finn who seems rather distant and not quite paying attention. Poe asks what’s up and Finn tries to brush it off.

Poe pries because Finn has been zoning more and more since the war ended. Finn relents and explains that he has been thinking about the past and about the future. He explains how all he had ever known was the strict regiment and warmongering of the First Order before Poe came along and after defecting, while he did finally get some affection, he mostly got the passion and determination of the Resistance, both busy fighting war. He has never known his life without war or the threat of war.

Poe listens and asks Finn what he wants to do. Finn says he doesn’t know. He knows there is really no chance that he will ever find his parents and very little chance that he will ever even know what planet he was taken from. And now that there is no more fighting, he doesn’t even really know who he is. Just that FN-2187 is gone and Finn is someone he has yet to really figure out.

Poe reminds him that everyone with him sees him as family, and that even if he can’t find his birth family, that he has one here. Finn assures him that he knows that, but that maybe having something to go on for his past that isn’t all about soldiering might help him figure out what he wants to do with the future.

Rose understands the feeling as she has been having similar problems, torn between trying to live a comfortable life, or do something that might be worthwhile, and that all the plans she had originally thought of had all involved her sister in some way and now without her, she isn’t sure she can go through with some of them.

Poe then explains that he will talk to some other of his contacts and see if they can’t find something for Finn, such as maybe a list of systems the First Order preferred to take their soldiers from. Finn gets a little excited and thanks them both.

Cut back to Ben

The area is quiet, Ben has stopped running, and a fog has settled over the area. He can see the walls around him, but cannot see forward and cannot see back. He has the saber ignited and is taking cautious steps, trying to sense everything he can in his surroundings. All around him are whispering voices. Voices that are very familiar to him. At first their whispers seem to be about nothing, and occasionally giggling, but then they seem to notice Ben.

They at first start whispering about him, making comments on how he has gotten older and maybe lamenting they wish they could have too. Then their comments turn bitter, and they start talking about negative aspects of him without talking to him.

Ben tries to interact with these voices, and the area suddenly gets very cold and the whispers harsh. They do start talking to him, angry at him, wind blowing around him as if someone is trying to push him this way and that. In their anger they ask if any of the good times, the good memories they shared meant nothing to him.

Ben asks them who they are and they are insulted that he has to ask.

The fog fades away and he is surrounded by the ghosts of other students at Luke’s Jedi school. They are the students that he killed. They all begin shouting at him, at first taking turns before their voices sync to fully cry out their anger at their deaths.

Ben, knowing he has no way to justify his actions towards these students, begins frantically apologizing and asking how he can prove his remorse, covering his ears as the voices drown out his apologies and over-taking everything else.

The saber has fallen from his hands, going out in the process, and he sinks to his knees as he feels suffocated by the shouting.

In an instant, everything goes silent. Ben hesitantly lowers his hands and raises his head to see the youngest student of the school before him, all the others standing behind them, just looking at them. The youngest asks him if he is truly sorry and if he really regrets it.

Ben says yes, explaining how wrong he was about the dark side. That he never should have done what he had done to the students, and that he wants to be better. He can’t take back what he has done, but if he could, he would in a heartbeat. That he never forgot their deaths, and despite his efforts during his dark times, could never shed the guilt of them.

The youngest asks if he truly means that, will he promise to be better. Will he promise to try and help people if they forgive him.

Ben, still on his knees, tears in his eyes, says yes. His voice is quiet, but his words weighted with all the sincerity and guilt and remorse that he has.

The ghosts smile at them and the youngest bends down and picks up his lightsaber before handing it to him. “Then keep going. We forgive you.”

With a shaking hand, Ben takes the lightsaber, looking at it before looking back at the ghosts as they all fade away leaving him alone. He takes a moment to process what has happened, what he just experienced before letting himself cry, the guilt of his actions digging into his chest, clearly causing him pain, but also feeling a great sense of relief and like a weight has been taken off of his shoulders. One of these emotions alone would be too much for anyone, but both of them together keeps him from even being able to stand.

 -unwritten section-

After searching for so long Rey finds the answers she had been looking for and heads with the group to go and try to find Ben.

 As Ben reaches the end of his journey and is about to enter the land of the living, he is stopped by one more battle. Before him are four figures dressed in black, all of whom he has seen before in some fashion. One is the grandfather he idolized: Darth Vader. One is the man who had twisted his mind for years: Snoke. One is Puppeteer behind all of pain the galaxy has suffered for easily the last half-century: Palpatine. And the last one is the one that both takes Ben by surprise, but also the one he had been preparing for: himself- or rather- Kylo Ren.

Kylo steps forward and begins talking, voice distorted by the cracked mask. “Did you think you would be free? Did you forget the power of the Dark Side? There is no escaping the Darkness! You belong to the Darkness and therefore- to us!”

Leia’s saber in hand, he ignites it and braces, as the four figures do the same. Knowing the power of the people before him, he is expecting this to be a losing fight, but he is still going to put his heart and soul into it.

“Nice to see we’re not too late.”

The slightly gravely voice catches Ben off guard and makes him turn. They have the telltale blue glow of those passed on, one in the Force. Appearing on either side of him, each facing a member of the Sith that are blocking his path, are his real grandfather- Anakin ready to face Vader. His mother, giving him a loving smile and placing an affectionate hand on his shoulder as her eyes harden in an all too familiar look when she is about to eviscerate someone, a look aimed at Snoke that visibly shakes the Sith. And either Luke or Padme who their weapon in hand and facing Palpatine, making a comment about not making the mistake of letting this man live to walk away again.

With these allies, the fight begins. Snoke falls first as no amount of power can fully brace this being for the extent of a mother’s wrath while she protects her child.

Palpatine falls next. Luke/Padme doesn’t dilly dally, doesn’t give him the chance to brag or monologue or charge up an attack. He is executed plain and simple.

Vader is next. Given that he is kind of fighting himself, Anakin does struggle as he knows all the moves and has to change his fighting style and strategy a little bit. The kill is quick, but comes after a bit of a fight as Anakin is laying his regrets and the darkness in them to rest with the end of Vader.

Finally Ben is left with Kylo. Blue clashes with red in quick and angry strikes on both ends. Kylo taunts Ben constantly about the dark side and how it took him over. About how he will never be free of it and no one will ever truly accept him. It is a very hard fight, but one he must fight alone. It ends when Ben swings and cuts part of the mask off, revealing his own face, which stuns Kylo for a moment, before Ben without hesitation runs him through declaring that it doesn’t matter if the rest of the galaxy forgives him, the people that matter to him do and most of all, he forgives himself.

Once Kylo falls, and his body disappears, Ben gets a small reunion with his family. Han shows up for this brief moment and after some hugs and praises about how proud they are of him, as well as promises to be better and make the galaxy better, he is ready to leave, though his eyes are wet and red.

He goes through the final portal/ door, and the first thing he registers is he can’t breathe.

 Above the lake/ ocean of the ancient site, Rey and the others are looking down, trying to find where Ben is.

Rey suddenly feels him, strong and sure as if he were next to them, and she points them in the right direction where a light can be seen under the water’s surface for the briefest moment.

Unable to really truly swim, neither Rey or Finn can go down. Rose is handed the controls and Poe and Chewie open the hatch of the Falcon and once ready to get pulled back up, jump into the water.

They find Ben, close to the surface, but still under it, and pull him out, before being raised to the Falcon where Rey immediately starts calling out to him, noticing he is very pale, and his whole body is cold, as if dead.

Poe raises his fist before slamming it down hard on Kylo’s chest making the man jolt at the sudden pain before coughing up water. Poe grins at Rey before looking at Ben. “Just so you know, that doesn’t count as my free shot.”

Ben looks confused as he is finally able to focus his vision, but before he can do anything, a big, wet, hairy being his holding him almost too tightly, making it difficult to breathe. Despite the suddenness of it, it is one that -while soggy- is instantly familiar and one he is quick to return and relish.

Chewie finally pulls away before smacking Ben upside the head, just barely hard enough to hurt before going into a long lecture that has Ben smiling fondly at the Wookie.

When he looks at Poe, confused, Poe holds up his hands. “Hey, it wasn’t my idea. Besides, it’s her you should be thanking.” He points at Rey and prompts Ben to look at her. “She’s the one that never lost faith in you.”

Que Rey and Ben reunion.

#Kylo Ren #Ben Solo #Redemption Arc #Bringing back the dead #rey #Poe Dameron #Finn #Rose #Chewbacca #BB-8 #Maz #Leia Organa #Luke Skywalker #I'm going to make that boy face his sins #Make him promise to be better #He is going to earn it properly dammit! #Finn is going to get a better arc too! #Finn Deserved better #Poe is not stright

[jyndor]

lol i got mad about a thing reylos said. shocking. (tw: nazism, fascism)

just saw a ridiculous post about how people who talk about the first order as being nazis are ignoring history and disrespecting jewish people and let me tell you

that the only reason I didn’t write this on that post is because I think the op is probably jewish and also a kyle ron/reylo fan and lol well. I don’t need to be told I can’t have an opinion on this or that I am attacking them. this is nothing personal, except that reylos have a history of being racist and dismissive about fascism, and so I am honestly shook that someone could be so disingenuous. lol oop that was personal.

if you know anything about film history, you know that george lucas got his inspiration for the empire’s look, and also for certain shots of the rebels, from nazi propaganda made by leni riefenstahl, specifically triumph of the will. (guys don’t go looking it up if you haven’t seen it unless you have a strong stomach because it is really, really disgusting). now, that is more or less what happens when you have a guy who is a student of film history make a movie about, you guessed it, a band of rebels fighting an imperial force but in space. george lucas also put a lot of politics into star wars, specifically anti-fascist messaging. this is like the most basic argument people make when dealing with right-wing fans of sw. this is what we’ve all said to some dumbass white guy who got mad about rey or finn or poe. I would bet that some reylos have also had that conversation, since they care about rey (I guess, although that might be too strong a word; they certainly don’t care about shipping her with a guy who tortured her lol but I digress).

jj abrams took what was already overt fascist imagery from the empire and turned it up to eleven for the first order. this is actually why I found the inclusion of POC as first order OFFICERS (not low level workers Bodhi or stolen baby stormtroopers like Finn) to be kind of fucked up, because it diluted the narrative. do not come at me with some idiotic YESS MORE BLACK IMPERIALS YESS because I am just not here for that brand of idiot representational pinkwashing(? this is a term we use for putting gay shit on monstrous corporate/imperial shit to seem more progressive but it might not be the right term for this).

if you look at the og trilogy, every single imperial officer is a posh white british man, and while I am sure that was partly because diversity was not really something george seemed mindful of, it was also a deliberate thing. like, they clearly wanted to evoke an image of imperialist, and yes FASCIST, rule. this is not that hard to understand so don’t be fucking obtuse just because you like kyle ron or reylo. not that I believe that the intent of the creator is the end all, be all, but in this case it does matter.

yes the anti-alien biases were mainly a product of legends, but I am pretty sure it is also implicit in the original movies because there are no aliens to be found in imperial ranks, and they are everywhere in the rebellion. and yes, I can understand why this might be offensive because you don’t need metaphors to understand why the nazis were bad, and yet. maybe, sometimes, you do need to give people a metaphorical understanding of things they haven’t experienced. and humans have a notoriously difficult time understanding large numbers - so maybe, a visual example of what the fuck genocide might seem like is... idk, helpful for kids? alderaan being death star’d might not be actual history, and it might not represent what jewish/romani/etc victims of the nazis experienced, but it IS chilling. personally I think that tfa did a better job with its death star knock-off because we actually saw people in their last moments. alderaan’s destruction can be rightfully criticized as too distant, since we only see leia’s response, and not what it felt like on the ground. but undoubtedly this is a fictional representation of fascist, imperial might - and all the destruction that comes with it.

it isn’t just visual, and of course the star war isn’t real and no real alderaanians were harmed in the making of the movies. duh. it’s a metaphor, an allegory. like idk who these reylos are kidding, acting like people who criticize you guys for stanning a fascist fuckboy don’t understand that these are just fiction.

the REASON I get mad about reylo and about kyle ron stans, is because nothing exists in a vacuum. NOTHING. not a damn thing. the dumbing down of stormtroopers and imperial ideology (vague though it might be) is actually how Disney gets away with marketing t-shirts with stormtrooper helmets on them to little kids, or like idk how people have convinced themselves that ben solo is just misunderstood and damaged, and not a thirty-year-old man who has made a deliberate choice to commit genocide. his so-called abuse (which we only get to see in a comic? like I’m sorry do better with your sob story) is no excuse for at best being silently complicit in genocide, and at worst actively campaigning for it.

I think there are good critiques that people make about saying the empire is nazism, because obviously this is fiction. you cannot have it both ways. you cannot say that it is anti-fascist when you are arguing with right-wingers who didn’t get that message, and then turn around when people say your fave is at best neutral on genocide (lol) and say we can’t talk about how he is a fascist.

I saw someone say something like, no one calls darth vader a fascist. LMAO yes we fucking do. now I will be the first to admit that anakin gets a lot more empathy, and part of that is because he is a more beloved character with more nuance than kyle ron. and decades of lore. but also because he didn’t grow up a privileged son of a princess, he grew up enslaved and because of his traumas he went right-wing. which does in fact happen. but yeah, darth vader had to die at the end of rotj for a reason - because no one would forgive him for the crimes he committed against the galaxy. it’s tragic because he had the potential to do great, and he redeems himself by killing the emperor, but approximately no critic of kyle ron would ever say that anakin skywalker deserved to go free and live without consequences for his actions.

if I have more sympathy for him, it is because the movies gave me reason. not because he’s hot. or idk a bad boy.

and after the racist abuse that john boyega got from KYLE RON AND REYLO stans specifically, if I were them I would shut the fuck up about how offended you guys are about calling him a fascist or a nazi. you can like your bad boy wet dream if you want, and you don’t have to even like that people think he is a fascist, and you can deny all you want all of that OVERT FASCIST IMAGERY that jj abrams put into tfa, but it’s there, and we don’t live in a vacuum, and I am not here for people dumbing down cultural phenomenon.

redemptions arcs are great! I believe in rehabilitative justice, and I agree that there is a bit of gatekeeping on who gets to be redeemed in stories. but rehabilitative justice isn’t just like you let people who do bad shit get away with it, it is a long process wherein offenders have to do some serious work on themselves. it is not easy. it is not fun, doesn’t end in sex with daisy ridley. and in many ways, it might be harder than doing hard time.

but I also don’t think we get to just... rehabilitate the lead officers who are complicit in war crimes without dealing with what they’ve done, that is how I feel about george bush, and yes, that is how I feel about kylo ren, no matter how much you try to woobify him. because that is what society already does - we let the monsters at the top of the system get away with war crimes and murder and rape, so maybe we should fight that kind of narrative in fiction, too.

we don’t live in a vacuum.

#i have jewish family members and i am not here for this bullshit #like who you like if you must #but that was some cognitive dissonant shit #fascism tw #nazism tw #war crimes tw #i mean these are pretty vaguely mentioned but still #cait got mad #shocking