jedijoanna

[jedijoanna]

People are SLEEPING on the most interesting Leia & Padme comparisons because there's so much focus on Leia being "like Anakin" because she gets annoyed sometimes and Padme being this perfect moral beacon of truth and justice despite all of her very canonical lies and cover-ups and obstructing of justice.

If Luke is the Jedi that Anakin should've been, then Leia is the LEADER that Padme should've been.

Padme is a hypocrite, proclaiming that all people deserve basic decency and the right to safety, but at the same time allowing Anakin to get away with a mass murder with no consequences by covering it up.

Leia doesn't even let Han get away with being a little bit of an asshole, there's no way she'd let him get away with mass murder. She holds everyone around her to a higher standard, believing in the best of them but also but refusing to accept excuses for cowardice and selfishness.

Padme talks so much about wanting the war to end, but then allows one of the opposition's biggest generals go free just to get Anakin back because she cares about him, causing the war to continue to go on for even longer.

Leia lets Luke sacrifice himself because she knows it's possibly the only way they might have a victory and beat the Empire, even though she knows what he is to her and loves him. She knows what has to be done and respects the choice Luke is making and would never condemn their efforts just to keep him with her.

Padme's story parallels Anakin's, she devolves as the narrative goes on, until she's barely a shell of the person she used to be. That strength and moral clarity she showed as a Queen is entirely gone, leaving only a scared woman pleading with a murderer to come back to her.

Leia's story parallels Luke's, she gains more and more strength and clarity as the narrative moves forward. The bossy young woman we first met has become a confident rebel leader who knows she doesn't have to harden her heart to be strong.

[jedijoanna]

Mace Windu and all the Jedi are, infact, better that 'child murderer, wife beater' Anakin Skywalker, what a fucking take.

[jedijoanna]

# If Hera Can Do It Then Why Can’t Anakin???

[jedijoanna]

Jedi: teach emotional regulation, responsibility to their power, and a duty to help others.

Politicians: sell out democracy, allow a genocide. Applaud for a dictator.

The Jedi teachings are so corrupt! It's their fault entirely that the Republic fell!

[jedijoanna]

Jedi?

A tragedy that I will forever think about for a very long time.

If we completely disregard everything Palp says, and look at what Jedi do and say and even some of Anakin's line in AOTC about how they operate. You see that their unconditional love of life and balance is that of very mindful people.

Such as the idea of not acting in anger or ill will is something as someone of faith struggles with at times because emotions are messy and never going to be fully conculsive. But the Jedi are about doing what you can to deal with your actions, Jedi doubt but they still want to learn so they can make sure that they understand all sides. Take the scene of Phantom Menace where the Council are doubtful of Jinn's claim before meeting Anakin but still give him a chance as to explain and see for themselves as to make the correct judgement.

It may appear harsh to a child, but as an adult, you can see that they want to make sure that Anakin can have the best outcome given the circumstance that the Council is privy to. The Council ask Anakin how he feels, and Anakin takes this as an attack on his person because he was raised to keep everything appearing fine as to not be caught by his master. His anger at the question and his attempts to hide his emotions is what worries the Council. As a child, I viewed this scene as adults not being fair. But as an adult with more context, I can say they were seeing if Anakin would fair well with them.

The Jedi are aware of their emotions and frequently make sure to feel them, process them and then let them ease. Fear, anger and hate are not avoidable but they can be managed if you understand that acting within them does not help you. Anakin unable to vocal his problems with fear is shown in how he lashes out in anger to not be pressed on it. As a Jedi, as a teacher or mediator being heavily part of their culture, his inability to manage it or vocalise it is a concerning trait that they are unsure will be fixed with time with them.

The Jedi can help better those who want it rather than help someone who refuses they need it. This is something I see a lot in the prequels, and in the OG, they are always ready to help. Their help, in fact, instilled hope in the foundations of the Rebellion. The politicians, Bail, Mon Mothma, Riyo Chuchi to name a few, understood that the Jedi were figures and individuals that aided those.

You see it in the OG Star Wars Film, Episode 4, that the Rebel meeting ends with "May the Force be with you" a very Jedi farewell. It in fact made me cry when I rewatched the film, as you could see on my blog. But you can see it in the symbols of the Rebels being a reconfigured Jedi Symbol, the wings and the star moved up.

In the end, the action of taking in Anakin. Obi-wan's act of duty to master and child, something that could be easily disallowed by the Council but they allowed it. Backfired on them. They taught this child, then teenager then man, that they are encouraged to love, unconditionally to those that could labour ill will to them. They died by a betrayal that stung so deep. Not just because Anakin was the Chosen One. But because that was their friend, classmate, possible tutor and helped around.

The children saw him and saw safety. But he killed them. Those children in a similar position to him as a child, before an adult asking for direction and only be met with a gruesome end.

The tragedy of the Jedi is that their kindness and their way, of going down with their principles was their downfall. They tried to help the clones by not resisting the draft as to make sure the clones weren't subjected to unfair Admirals, they tried to make sure that they could help the planets they were stationed on as much as they could in their stay, they tried to keep eachother up when there was so much death. It was all difficult and a few slipped through the cracks because they couldn't be everywhere at once. And the amount of Jedi dying was happening at such a high number that the council wasn't the same number it was at the beginning of Phantom Menace. And that as before Order 66.

In the end, the Galaxy lost the Jedi Order and the Jedi Order died the way they lived. Hopeful and trusting. After it all, the rebellion had some Jedi around, such as Ahsoka, Kannan, and Erza, doing what the Jedi before them did. Helping those who needed it.

I haven't watched Andor but I've seen a few talk about the lack of Jedi showed how much the Galaxy needed the Jedi. So I will leave that comment at that.

But my god, I love the Jedi.

[jedijoanna]

An Anakin who doesn't turn to the dark is not Anakin for me. Even in a fix-it AU where Palpatine dies before Anakin goes full Sith, Anakin is still on a path towards darkness, he's already a mass murderer and a child murderer if it's set post-AOTC, he's already a hypocrite and a liar, he's already emotionally manipulative and arguably abusive in several of his relationships. This is not an emotionally stable person. He's a person who is four slightly bad days of sleep away from genocide. Anakin is still going to go dark without Palpatine for as long as he continues to refuse help, and there's really zero indication Anakin WOULD accept help even if Palpatine died early. Any attempt the Jedi attempt to give Anakin is rebuffed immediately. Anakin is a master at lying to himself about everything, he's never going to admit that he NEEDS any kind of help, let alone seek it out or accept it being given to him.

Anakin, even in a fix-it AU, is almost guaranteed to spiral down into darkness in some way shape or form still. Because that is who he is. That is the entire point of the character. He has to fall. He has to lose that particular struggle. He can get back up later if you want to make it happier, but he has to fall first in order for it to be recognizably Anakin. An Anakin who just somehow magically starts to get better because Palpatine dies is not truly Anakin at all. It's just his shadow, and not even a particularly interesting or compelling one at that.

[jedijoanna]

"The Jedi should have gone to Tatooine and stopped slavery!!!"

........... You want the Jedi to go to another planet, that is not part of the Republic, is run by another government, and they have no political power on, and...... What? Force them to follow the Jedi's rules and laws? When they say no should the Jedi kill the dissenters?

There are words for that behavior actually. Conquest. Imperialism. Dictatorship. These things are generally frowned upon.

Ignoring how impossible it would be for a small group like the Jedi to control every planet with slavery.... The "nice" dictators with "good" laws are still bad actually.

[jedijoanna]

Another reason why the idea that Palpatine didn't lose his fight with Mace and in fact threw the fight is ridiculous:

It's completely out of character for Palpatine

Palpatine does not risk his life like that

Look at every other situation where Palpatine's life is "in danger", I'm talking Naboo at the end of the hardeen arc, his "capture" by Grievous, his encounter with Luke on the Death Star, the confrontation with Rey on exegol

The "danger" is either one of Palpatine's minions (Dooku/grievous) or he has an apprentice (Vader) or guards (sith eternal sovreign protectors) to defend him, he rarely takes action and fights himself

That's not to say he wasn't in any danger, the latter two prove that, rather that palpatine's mo is to set up situations where the danger is offset, where the "threat" isn't actually so or where he has an angle to work the threat and get them on his side

You don't have that with Mace, because Palpatine has no strings on Mace, there is nothing Palpatine can offer that interests Mace and he has nothing standing in Mace's way, he had to fight Mace himself, Palpatine had to rely on his own combat abilities to stay alive

They weren't enough

[jedijoanna]

There's a moment in Mace's duel with Palpatine (which I can't find ANY gifs of FUCK!) where there's a cut between Mace's face and Palpatine's and I just love the contrast between them

Mace is steel faced, stoic and determined, an unyielding unbreakable focus on defeating his enemy

But palpatine's is what's really interesting, there's anger there, but you can also see terror, a fear, this is not going the way he was expecting and Palpatine is terrified! You can just see him realizing "oh shit, I could lose"

And he does

[jedijoanna]

I just read a fic description for a Star Wars fic (do not go bother the author) that said "They don’t exactly teach healthy coping mechanisms at the Temple."

And like... what the fuck are you talking about? From what we see of canon, healthy coping methods are the thing that the Jedi teach you in the Temple. They are fucking constantly talking about mastering your emotions and they're always checking up on each other and shit.

You could even argue that "flunking out of all the healthy coping mechanism lessons the other Jedi take" was the problem with Anakin, who constantly responded to people asking about his wellbeing as if he was being interrogated and literally, empirically, could not healthily manage his emotional responses to things even when his life depended on it.

Not getting the groundwork training that all other Jedi get from infancy in this and related subjects was, like, the whole thing about Anakin being "too old." Remember? That whole massive plotpoint? The thing that loads of people complain about the Jedi doing, even though demonstrably, the Jedi making an exception to this rule was an existential mistake?

[jedijoanna]

I swear, anytime I've ever argued with someone who thinks that the Jedi either 1. enslaved the clones themselves or 2. were complicit in their slavery because they didn't do anything about it---literally none of them have ever been able to answer my very simple question:

What would YOU have them do, instead of what they did?

Because, looking at it logically, there was literally nothing they could've done that wouldn't have either put the clones in MORE danger or condemned everyone else in the galaxy to death and dictatorship.

Like, first of all, the Jedi didn't enslave the clones themselves because they didn't even KNOW about them until Obi-Wan ended up on Kamino while investigating Padme's attempted assassination. The only people who know about the clones are:

1. Palpatine, the fascist who's literally plotting to wipe out the Jedi using the clones AND the person who likely came up with the whole thing or---at the very least---greenlit it and said "oh yeah, let's make an army of slaves and eventually mind control them to murder people, sounds fun!"

2. Dooku, another fascist who's plotting to wipe out the Jedi using the clones, and the person who wiped Kamino out of the Jedi Archives SPECIFICALLY SO THEY WOULDN'T FIND OUT ABOUT IT AND STOP THEM.

And 3. Jango, who doesn't give a DAMN about the clones, is in it for the paycheck, and who literally hates the Jedi so he's also 100% on board for the whole "use the clones to murder the Jedi" thing.

All of these people have a vested interest in keeping the clones a secret from the Jedi and we literally SEE them do everything they can to keep the Jedi from finding out. Obi-Wan finding out was an accident and, by then, it's out of their hands---it's too far gone to stop it and they have to alert the Senate, especially given that it's connected to a senator's would-be assassinator.

Obi-Wan couldn't exactly be like- "oh, what happened during my investigation? Nothing, don't worry about it, don't check my navigator" -like, exactly how well do y'all think it would've gone if the Jedi had tried to hide the clones from the Senate and the Senate found out about it? You do realize that Palpatine would've just used that against the Jedi as well, right?

SECONDLY, what about the fucking LOGISTICS of trying to save the clones from the Senate once they ARE found out?

Assuming that the Jedi just decide to take the clones, pack up, and LEAVE---which would mean abandoning their ancestral temple, likely abandoning all of their sacred artifacts that likely can't be moved (either bc they're permanent, too delicate, or there just wouldn't be enough room), and the dangerous artifacts like sith holocrons that could very well hurt anyone who comes into contact with them + give Palpatine more power if he finds them.

And ALSO assuming that the Jedi can somehow take care of themselves---including their sick, injured, elderly, and CHILDREN---after abandoning their home and all their resources and without any funding from the Republic. AS WELL AS just ignoring the fact that, by doing this, they'd be abandoning every other planet and cause that they would usually help because---again---they no longer have the resources or support of the Republic + they have to focus solely on protecting the clones...

1. Where would they keep the clones? In the Republic they’d just be captured and forced to fight in the war anyway, the Separatists would kill them or force them to fight for a dictatorship, and they definitely wouldn’t be safe in the Outer Rim where gangs and criminal empires run rampant and would turn them in for a quick buck---not to mention that it'd be incredibly dangerous for the Jedi, since they aren't well-liked among those planets + some factions literally keep Jedi slaves as a show of power/money

2. How would the Jedi take care of them? what about food, water, clothes, medical supplies, shelter, other necessities? Again, this is assuming that the Jedi THEMSELVES don't factor into needing the food, water, etc. which they actually would, which would mean needing even more resources. They don’t have tons of money, “their money” is allocated to them by the Republic—who, in this case, would not be giving them money

And 3. that’d either just get civilians killed because they aren’t fighting at all in TCW or get clones killed because they DO fight but just don't take orders from the Republic, which would cut off their supplies, which would make the “saving clones” thing pointless.

So, very obviously, the Jedi can't just fucking pack up and leave---if you say that they can and that it's a totally feasible thing for them to do as of the Prequels, you're a liar and you're ignoring all of the logistical questions because you know that it won't work.

"B- But why don't they just force the Senate to listen/free the clones? They didn't do anything to try and fight for them!"

Well, I hate to tell you this, but the Jedi were kinda in the middle of a fucking WAR, they didn't exactly have the time to draft up a "Clone Rights Act," present it in the Senate, argue about it for days/months/years, revamp it, gather political allies to back the bill, etc. etc. while they were juggling a thousand other things and trying to protect the Republic from the fucking fascist dictatorship attacking and enslaving entire planets. In fact, it's one of several reasons why the Jedi were unable to uncover Palpatine's plot until the end of the war- (before then being betrayed by Anakin, who fucked everything up).

Ignoring all of that, though, how would you propose the Jedi "force" the Senate to do anything?

1. They can’t go on strike to protest what the clones are going through, that’d get people killed since they're no longer helping anyone/protecting people from the Separatists.

2. They can’t physically force anyone to do anything or use a mind trick to force their way, that’s sith behavior and a dictatorship---and we all know that if the Jedi DID do this y'all would scream, cry, and complain about how "evil" the Jedi were.

and 3. the Jedi have no political power, so it’s not like they can push the Senate to free the clones in that way either, they couldn't even stop the Senate from DRAFTING THEM INTO THE WAR---what makes you think they could convince the Senate to give up their ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY in the MIDDLE OF A FUCKING WAR???

The Jedi literally have no way to help the clones without making things worse, the only thing they can do is try to keep them alive in battle, encourage them to embrace their individuality, and hope that once the war is over they'll be able to do more to help! That's all they can do!

Not to mention that the same people that whine and cry about how "evil" the Jedi are for not somehow saving the clones NEVER seem to hold the same vitrol for the POLITICIANS who ACTUALLY HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THINGS!!!

No one ever rages against Padme or Bail or Mon Mothma for not doing anything to help the clones, no one bashes Riyo Chuchi for only helping the clones AFTER the war when the Empire was tossing them out---why is that? Why are they never held accountable? Why is it never THEIR responsibility, even though they have more power than the Jedi?

Why are the Jedi the only ones to blame?

[jedijoanna]

obi-wan Kenobi will always be the best Star Wars character because his character itself is such a good reflection of what Star Wars is. Perseverance in the face of defeat, hope in the face of horror, life and death being disregarded for the Force, and family and hope being the reasons to continue

[jedijoanna]

TIME TO THRASH FOR THE HOLIDAY

[jedijoanna]

JUSTICE FOR YADDLE

[jedijoanna]

Bonding with the Living Force :)

✨🌙 ART LOG -> @404ama

[jedijoanna]

People are SLEEPING on the most interesting Leia & Padme comparisons because there's so much focus on Leia being "like Anakin" because she gets annoyed sometimes and Padme being this perfect moral beacon of truth and justice despite all of her very canonical lies and cover-ups and obstructing of justice.

If Luke is the Jedi that Anakin should've been, then Leia is the LEADER that Padme should've been.

Padme is a hypocrite, proclaiming that all people deserve basic decency and the right to safety, but at the same time allowing Anakin to get away with a mass murder with no consequences by covering it up.

Leia doesn't even let Han get away with being a little bit of an asshole, there's no way she'd let him get away with mass murder. She holds everyone around her to a higher standard, believing in the best of them but also but refusing to accept excuses for cowardice and selfishness.

Padme talks so much about wanting the war to end, but then allows one of the opposition's biggest generals go free just to get Anakin back because she cares about him, causing the war to continue to go on for even longer.

Leia lets Luke sacrifice himself because she knows it's possibly the only way they might have a victory and beat the Empire, even though she knows what he is to her and loves him. She knows what has to be done and respects the choice Luke is making and would never condemn their efforts just to keep him with her.

Padme's story parallels Anakin's, she devolves as the narrative goes on, until she's barely a shell of the person she used to be. That strength and moral clarity she showed as a Queen is entirely gone, leaving only a scared woman pleading with a murderer to come back to her.

Leia's story parallels Luke's, she gains more and more strength and clarity as the narrative moves forward. The bossy young woman we first met has become a confident rebel leader who knows she doesn't have to harden her heart to be strong.

[jedijoanna]

Peek A Boo! I plan on doing a whole series of Famtheon comics addressing the lives, relationships, and pasts of my designs for the greek gods. So keep your eyes peeled for more in the near future!