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I would’ve rather they returned from Planet X, were confronted by the Jedi Council about their relationship and had to choose between being a Jedi and their relationship. Which would’ve been a real choice instead of the non-choice that happened in Trials of the Jedi.

Honestly I have mixed feelings about the ending we got for them… I enjoy the bittersweetness of it and the fact that they didn’t just die, but I also wanted more for them. And I hate that it’s just another case of doomed romance trope. We’ve had too many main pairings (especially involving Jedi) that ended tragically. I wanted Avar and Elzar’s romance to be different.

Edit: oh yeah, and Yoda never even thinks about them in the epilogue for some reason? It’s really weird.

tbh i would've rather just had them die. the ambiguous non-sacrifice sacrifice pisses me off so bad

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So that whole interaction between Ahsoka and Huyang, where they talk about Sabine's choice to help the enemy find Thrawn (in hopes that she can then find Ezra) is clearly meant to be subtext for what happened with Anakin.

I mean change the pronoun from "she/her" to "he/him", tweak some of the names and...

... it's just blatant.

The parallels were already clear in the previous episode, as pointed out in this post here, and it still holds true:

Sabine's struggle with attachment mirrors Anakin's.

We know Filoni's whole stance on why Anakin fell to the Dark Side: he'll usually acknowledge that Anakin was ruled by his attachments, got possessive of Padmé, but then adds:

"HOWEVER is loving that way really that bad?"

"HOWEVER he never stood a chance because Qui-Gon wasn't there to teach him properly and be the father Anakin needed."

I've already gone into why both these statements don't track with Lucas' intended narrative here and here... but I wanna touch on this notion that "Anakin wasn't trained enough to make a better choice."

He was.

You know how we know? Because we saw him overcome his attachments before.

We saw him explain the theory of the non-attachment rule, before.

In fact, wee saw him pass down a lot of the Jedi lessons, in The Clone Wars, including being disciplined, following orders and not acting impulsively.

The issue is that - while Anakin knows the theory, even has a few minor successes applying it - he never builds the self-discipline needed to master it because... deep down... he doesn't want to.

This is partially because you got Palpatine telling him he doesn't need to, molding him into an arrogant, power-craving person... but the fact remains that Anakin made the choice himself.

Which Filoni acknowledges, sure... but not quite. The difference between his thesis and George Lucas' is that the latter picks a stance and defends it.

"He started out as a very loving and compassionate person. And as he progressed, it was his inability to control his temper, his inability to let go of things, and his quest for power that were his undoing." - George Lucas, E! Behind the Scenes - ROTS, 2005

Anakin fell because he was greedy, just like any one of us can be.

Cool. Filoni, on the other hand, doesn't seem to land anywhere.

He dances around the issue (as can be seen by the debate between Ahsoka and Huyang, with no clear winner) and merely questions whether it's as simple as that.

Clearly he wants to justify Anakin's actions to some degree... but y'know, the narrative considers those actions so reprehensible that Anakin gets friggin' burned alive for it.

"I felt it was important that we actually see that happen so that we could see the consequences of these bad things that he did. […] He forces his friends to turn against him. Which is heartbreaking." - George Lucas, “The Chosen One” Featurette, 2005

Because Anakin's actions are not meant to be justified.

It's easy to see why Filoni likes Anakin. One of the earliest tasks he had when writing The Clone Wars was humanizing a character whose sole functional purpose was to carry out a narrative about how:

"Without self-discipline, greed [can] force a character off the path to freedom." - Micael Hearn, The Cinema of George Lucas, 2005

And Anakin is a very sympathetic character.

His flaws are flaws that we all carry.

Q: Is it fair to assess Anakin is kind of cursed by his own goodness/good qualities? "I wouldn't say that’s true. He’s cursed by the same flaws, and issues that he has to overcome, that all humans are cursed with. There's a lot going on there. [...] The whole point is—and the reason I started the story where I did—is that Anakin is a normal, good kid. And how does somebody who is normal and good turn bad? What are the qualities, what is it that we all have within us that will turn us bad?" - George Lucas, Star Wars Insider #52, 2000

But narratively, Anakin is selfish.

He doesn't want to save Padmé's life, he wants to save himself from the pain of losing Padmé.

And while you're supposed to sympathize with him, you're not meant to agree with him. He's Darth Vader, the space nazi. He messes up and consequentially "leaves the Force in darkness" for 20 years, instead of ushering it towards the light in the chancellor's office, when he has the chance.

So to shift the blame and say that...

HOWEVER, Anakin didn't have the proper support system or training to make a better choice.

... when the whole point of the narrative is about taking personal responsibility and being selfless instead of selfish... well, it is missing that point.

He did know better. He just didn't want to choose better, so he convinced himself he wasn't able to.

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I feel like this is a super wonderful time to point out that Qui Gon literally won Anakin as property in a pod race bet. Anakin, for all intents and purposes, literally belongs to the Jedi Order. When he is “freed” it is becuase Qui Gon chooses to do so; not because Anakin is a child who deserves to live his life, but becuase he was useful to the order as the Chosen One. Qui Fon said himself that they did not come to Tatooine to free slaves, and that he can not help them. Only when Anakin is revealed to be powerful do they decide to try to take him, and even then it’s through winning him in a game. Seriously messed up. And that’s got to weigh on Anakin all his life, that he was only worth something when his power could be of use to others.

Ask yourselves, If Anakin hadn’t been allowed to train by the council, what would have happened to him? And given the circumstances at which he arrived at the order, can Anakin really be considered to have joined as his own free will? Can he ever consider the Jedi as family? Can he ever consider them more than the people whom he “owes” everything for “saving” him from his life which he “should be so grateful for”? I don’t think so, and I guarantee you that Anakin had these same doubts but felt to ashamed of his own self doubt enforced by those around him to voice his concerns. He is shamed and criticized for missing his mother whom he was forced to leave in slavery, and lectured for feeling the slightest of negative emotional responses.

When people say Anakin joined the Jedi of his own free will and could leave whenever he wanted I honestly have to wonder if they’ve experienced the same cannon as me, becuase to me a 9 year old enslaved child can not make the free will choice to join a faction that will send him back to be a slave as soon as he doesn’t meet their expectations. To me a young man who feels like he owes them his life cannot “just leave” when his whole identity is pensioned on his usefulness to others.

This is exactly how cults operate and honestly Anakin’s transition into The Jedi Order is cast in a dark light when you realize he stood to lose everything either way, he lost his mother is he was a Jedi and he lost his freedom if he wasn’t. It was a lose lose situation that no reasonable person would consider a real choice for a child to make. In some cannon materials Anakin even asks himself if his life as a slave would have been better for him than his life as a Jedi. Just let that sink in.

And before any one jumps on here with “BuT sHmi WaNteD HIm to Go” I would like to argue “what the hell was she supposed to say in that situation????”. Was she supposed to have said “nah, I think I’d rather keep my son in slavery forever rather than give him at least a CHANCE to be free to live a life on his own. I think I’d rather risk him DYING in the sun or by torture than I would allow his dream of becoming a space wizard come true.” I mean to argue that she has full autonomy in this situation us LUDICROUS. Qui Gon doesn’t even ASK her to test Anakin’s blood because he doesn’t even owe her that dignity since she has no legal existence. It’s gross. Let’s not use her desire to give her son a chance at something other than hellish slavery as a free choice to allow her son to be taken away.

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Sixty years later and I'm still thinking about Susan Foreman. anyway. Yeah her exit sucks and is sexist. But it also sucks in a thematic way. This is the first of a long line of instances where the doctor runs away and abandons people. Steven. Sarah. Jack. Donna. Yaz. But the doctor abandoning Susan (without even giving her another shoe) isn't because she loves a guy and he thinks women should settle and marry as soon as possible, it's because Susan wanted more than anything to settle down and have something like a normal life, but she stayed with her grandfather out of obligation, because he was so weak and old that Susan was willing to throw her own life away to take care of him given the choice. So the doctor doesn't give her a choice. And he does this over and over

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One thing that’s become really clear while watching Classic Doctor Who alongside the current era—especially starting with the Fifteenth Doctor—is how well the Ninth through Twelfth Doctor eras nailed the balance of episode length and story structure.

Classic Who usually split its stories into four or five 20–25 minute episodes per arc, which roughly equals the runtime of a modern two-parter. But while that format allowed for sprawling narratives, it came with a tradeoff: pacing. Entire episodes sometimes feel like narrative treading water—not because the writing was bad, but because of the constraints of mid-20th century television. (That’s its own fascinating rabbit hole, but we’ll save that for another time.)

To be fair, Classic Who did experiment with its format. Some stories, like The Edge of Destruction—a tight, two-part psychological thriller set entirely inside the TARDIS—used a smaller runtime to great effect. It’s still one of the strongest entries of Season 1, partly because it had no room to meander.

Later, the show dabbled in stories of two 45-minute episodes during Season 22. But those episodes often had the same problem: some stories still didn’t need the extra time. Take The Mark of the Rani, for example. It was padded out to fit that two-part, 45-minute-per-episode format (roughly 90 minutes total), but honestly? It could’ve been a sharper, more effective 40-minute story. There’s a lot of unnecessary fluff that drags the pacing down.

But then you get something like The Keys of Marinus—a six-parter (20 min each part) that essentially functions as a sci-fi anthology. Each episode throws the Doctor and co. into a completely new setting with its own self-contained mini-plot. It uses its extended format to experiment and surprise without feeling stale. That’s when the long form works.

Then came the 2005–2017 revival era, and honestly? The show hit its structural gold standard: twelve episodes per season, blending 40-minute standalones with 80-minute two-parters. And it just worked.

Episodes like Blink and Midnight were tight, high-impact stories that landed precisely because they didn’t overstay their welcome. Try stretching either one to feature-length, and the tension would unravel. Meanwhile, two-parters like The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances had room to build atmosphere, layer in character development, and deliver those signature emotional wallops. They remain fan favorites for a reason: the format gave them the breathing room they needed—and then stopped.

Which brings us to the Fifteenth Doctor’s era.

Right now, we’re back to a one-size-fits-all approach but the opposite direction: single 40-minute episodes across the season, with only the finale allowed to be a two-parter. And the result? Some stories just aren’t getting the space they need to land.

Doctor Who thrives on structural flexibility. Some stories need 80 minutes to unfold. Others are perfect little 40-minute excursions. Locking every episode into the same runtime is like asking every alien to fit inside a human suit: it works until it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t, it’s obvious.

The point is: variety in format has always been one of Doctor Who’s strengths. When the show leans into that, it sings. When it forgets that… well, you end up with stories that could’ve soared if they were just given a little more space to breathe.

(Also I don’t mean to exclude 13—it’s just that her era experimented with structure so much across her run that it’s kind of its own thing, there’s a whole separate post to be written about what worked and didn’t there.)

(Fun fact for reading this far: The Edge of Destruction was only two 25-minute parts because the production team didn’t know if the show was getting picked up for more episodes. They wrote a short, self-contained story set entirely inside the TARDIS to avoid building new sets. It was meant to be cheap filler—and it ended up being one of the highlights of the First Doctor’s era.)

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Classic Who — The Keys of Marinus: A Summary

The Doctor lands on a planet with a big ol’ mind-control machine that makes everyone be good instead of bad.

Doctor: “Cool machine! Anyway, let’s bounce.” Mysterious Robe Guy: “Wait—you have to help me find the keys to turn it back on.” Doctor: “That sounds like a you problem.” Robe Guy: “Well I’ve got your time machine now, sooo…”

Smash cut to: everyone being strong-armed into a planet-hopping fetch quest across six wildly inconsistent episodes.

Highlights include:

– an ocean made entirely of acid – a bunch of brains in jars that can mind-control what you see—but only if they sneak into your room at night and tape tiny plastic pyramids to your forehead – a sentient forest that tries to kill everyone – Someone: “We should split up!” Everyone else: “What a brilliant idea, what could possibly go wrong?” Cue absolutely everything going wrong. Instantly. (x3) – Ian gets framed for murder – The Doctor volunteers as his lawyer – The Doctor then proceeds to be so bad at it that Ian is sentenced to death by extreme boredom in a room where the punishment is “stare at this clock until you die”

Eventually: “Hi Robe Guy! We got the keys!” Robe Guy: is now dead Everyone: “Oh no!” Also everyone: accidentally explodes the machine

Doctor: “Well, mind-controlling an entire population is ethically questionable anyway, so… hooray for accidental justice? Byeee!”

leaves

(I love this serial btw)

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Baby girl I'm so sorry for what they did to you

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Holy shit I can’t believe how close this post came to Avar and Elzar’s actual ending. Well done OP!

Guys, hear me out. What if….

Elvar cottagecore retirement on Planet X?

Whether they stay or simply can’t leave, it could work!

They have to protect the life on the plant and become guardians of Planet X so they build a cute, quant like house together, they spend their days meditating, learning of the diverse fauna of the planet and Elzar gets to fish with the Force.

I’m so reaching, but a woman can dream 😭

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You hate yoda? why?

Because, in addition to other things, the self-righteous gremlin had this to say to a man whose mother had died in his arms after weeks of torture only three years prior:

"Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is."

So basically, if you grieve someone or miss them, you're unhealthily attached and selfish. Screw that.

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I kind of hate when people miss the point of anakin skywalker's character and why he thinks and acts the way he does. He was a slave as a child. He grew up in a culture till he was ten where everyone he loved and knew where slaves and could easily be blown up if they disobey. He was than bought(not freed, bought it happens in the movies so you obessesive pro jedi order people don't come after me) by the jedi and was told he was a peacekeeper now, but also how to fight. He was told he was the chosen one, but not really because no one was sure and no one was 100% sure what to do with him. All while his mother was left to be a slave. Again this all happens before he was ten! Of course Anakin is going to grow some resentment and confusing feelings about the jedi and the republic and poltics. Of course he's going to have complicated feelings about that. That doesn't mean he's wasn't good. That he wasn't capable of seeing good in people. But that's the thing, Anakin trusts people, not organizations, not groups, not politicians. Groups with power have screwed him over all his life. Why I can see why he would think the way he does and want to give Padme (the kindness person he knows) the universe so she can make everything better. It's not an excuse, but it is a reason. Anakin has trauma, and the jedi did not know how help people in their cult with trauma. So I really hate when people say Anakin is creepy or intense or this and this before his fall. Because hey news flash he's like this for a reason and it's trauma. It's not black and white thinking of he was always evil and here are the reasons why. Anakin has trauma and other than the few handful of people who really get him( Padme Obi wan, Ashoka, his clone troopers) no one knew how to help with it. People were either making it worse or grooming him. And don't come at me that they didn't need to help him, because they were the ones who bought him and never helped correct him of that mindset. Was it still Anakins fault for the choices he made in ROS? Yes, but the blame is not his alone. In fact a lot of it is the fault of the Jedi. It's amazing in fact that Anakin stayed good that long with everything he was dealing with. Of course he would break like that with his wife and child in danger.

(Don't like don't read. Post hate and I'll block you!)

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Controversial star wars opinion:

The romance between Anakin and Padme in the prequels is actually good, and not as cheesey as people make it out to be(at least not more cheesey than star wars generally is)

it's just some scenes for the romance where cut.

Anakin and Padme are ment to be fairy tale soulmates in star wars canon by the force it's self, it's suppose to be unrealistic like that. It's so Luke and Leia can be born to save the universe.

Anakin and Padme are ment to be tragic because the prequels are like a Greek tragedy so the originals can have a fairy tale happy ending. But if they were in a different setting they wouldn't be toxic. They would be happy and have their family.

Anakin fell in love at first sight in the first movie because the force told him so. Padme look so angel like to him because of the force, and the force sent him feelings and visions that she would be his wife.

In the novelizations, Padme doesn't fully understand, but she feels that pull too. I think she can feel a bit of the force because of her soulmate connection to Anakin.

Padme doesn't accept this soulmate connection till the final act of attack of the clones.

People do not need to have realistic expectations to a Sci fi fantasy movie. It would be counter productive to the meaning of the two trilogies(the sequels do not exist) if anidala's love was the problem.

Anidala is not the problem. The problem is the sith and the jedi and the republic becoming corrupt.

Symbolically Anidala represent Luke and Leia and they deserve to exist.

Yes Anakin turned to the dark side. But he has never treated Padme like that before. Him treating her like that adds to the greek tragedy of the movies. It's to show how messed up the dark side has made him and him finally snapping because of all the things Palpatine did to him. If given a second chance Anakin would never do that to her again. It's his fault but the blame does not only rest on him. The whole point is that the situation is complicated.

Padme is not stupid for believing that there's still good in Anakin. Anakin has good in him. It's just incredibly tiny light that only his son can bring out of him, some of the people he loves can help bring it out, but only Luke and fully break the hold of the dark side to bring him out of it.

Luke represents Padme and Anakins love for each other.

Love doomed Anakin Skywalker but it also saved him and his son.

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My feelings about this are mixed.

On the one hand their fate is kind of beautiful in a way and not really done before (as far as I can tell—I haven’t read much of the EU).

On the other hand, it feels like just another case of the “doomed romance” trope which I’m getting really tired of. I just want a major epic romance that doesn’t end tragically. Is that too much to ask?

Plus, now they can’t be included in future Star Wars High Republic projects, which means we’ll probably never see them again. Which also makes me sad.

WAIT. okay. i think i figured out why i didn't like the one thing. trials of the jedi spoilers below

the elzar avar ending. the sacrifice play that doesn't really feel like a sacrifice, i think i know why it weirded me out. (or part of why it did)

walk with me here - it gave me the same feeling as the end of avengers: endgame with steve going back to the 50s and living out his stupid little life and then showing up again in the future as old (and then future projects being vague as fuck about whether he's dead or not).

avar and elzar being together forever (or until they die; whenever that is, which could be whenever given they're on a planet that is a living force vergence), combined with the weird love-triangle stellan vision elzar had, is giving that same monogamous, heteronormative "happy" ending as steve going back to the 50s to be with peggy, leaving all of his friends and the life he's lived for over a decade behind like it's nothing.

am i making any sense

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Senator Rayencourt: You don't like me. You think my campaign for an external review of the Jedi is a personal vendetta.

Vernestra Rwoh: If you want my honest opinion, yes.

Senator Rayencourt: Good. Here's mine. I think the Jedi are a massive system of unchecked power, posing as a religion, a delusional cult that claims to control the uncontrollable.

Vernestra Rwoh: We don't control the Force.

Senator Rayencourt: Not the Force. Your emotions. You project an imagine of goodness and restraint, but it's only a matter of time before one of you snaps. And when, not 'if', that happens, who will be strong enough to stop him?

*👏👏👏👏 Love this quote because it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. At least Luke was able to stop it from getting worse.*

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Just binged The Acolyte and I am heartbroken that it’s cancelled. Like I know I am late to the party but I had kinda given up on Disney Star Wars halfway through Bad Batch s1 because it just felt like they were milking the cash cow to death by then. And the general consensus on the show appeared to be bad. APPEARED being the keyword. Because really the media was just amplifying the hate because it’s a lot more surprising than “oh ANOTHER really good show that expands on the Star Wars universe is out!” Like, I wasn’t hugely invested in what they had going on with The Mandalorian, just because post Empire stuff isn’t super appealing to me. I’m an Old Republic girl, have been since I was like 10. High Republic is different but it really allows for exploration of who the Jedi are, independent of their war against the Sith, which will always skew the narrative.

The Acolyte allows us to see the Jedi as they are instead being in a consistently high pressure environment that forces quick action and therefore decisions that can be easily defended. The show exposes the Jedi for what they are, people, who make choices, who make mistakes, who don’t always agree, who are flawed. The enemies they fight are not pure evil. They don’t seek domination or control over others. They don’t torture innocents. They simply are, and they are in a way that caused the Jedi to deem them a threat. The Jedi started the conflict, Mae, and later Osha, and to an unverified degree maybe Qimir, just respond. Maybe Mae went looking for the conflict again after it had passed, but in a way that was more akin to hunting escaped criminals to make them account for their crimes than just senseless rage. She wanted them to atone, to face what they had done rather than hide from it. Yes she was violent but she only went looking for people she saw as responsible, people who chose to be involved, who chose violence and deception.

The Jedi in The Acolyte are a religious institution with government ties and presumably funding who have unchecked power that they attempt to keep only for themselves. They falsely believe that the only way to use the Force safely is their own and they never question whether or not that’s true, or those that do are expelled or killed for questioning it. In actuality there are many ways to access the Force, just as many as there are minds connected to it. There are numerous examples of different ways to channel it, different disciplines and mindsets, the Je’daii, the Dai Bendu, the Voss, Witches, even the Knights of Zakkul, all used the Force in ways that aligned with neither Light nor Dark philosophies. The Jedi’s refusal to acknowledge that their way isn’t the only way is what led to their downfall. They made enemies where there were none and pushed all the Force sensitives who didn’t become Jedi into the arms of the Sith.

Not to mention the cult tactics that keep their own members reliant on being part of the Order, which The Acolyte was able to subtly showcase with Osha. After leaving the Order she had no transferable skills or money and was forced to take on a job that was both dangerous and illegal. That illustrates the situation all Jedi are in very well. Follow the religious teachings of the Order and the actual orders and assignments given by the Masters or strike out completely on your own, with no money or close friends or marketable skills to help support you, oh and don’t use become a rouge Force User or you’ll end up in prison or dead.

Yes the Jedi mean well, but at the end of the day they are just a collection of people. Powerful people, yes, but still people. They feel and think and have individual personalities and limitations and desires and values. They are people. People. Nothing more and nothing less.

And The Acolyte is the first canon story that truly explores all that means. I think it’s a wonderful story that allows its characters to be, rather than constantly fight for the ability to be. The intensity and the stakes being lower allows for a clearer understanding that I really appreciated.

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Senator Rayencourt: Not the Force. Your emotions. You project an imagine of goodness and restraint, but it's only a matter of time before one of you snaps. And when, not 'if', that happens, who will be strong enough to stop him?

The one person strong enough to stop "him":

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I don’t want to come off as ‘condescending’ when I say this but I really don’t think people who aren’t as invested in Anidala’s relationship the way the shippers are have room to insinuate what we know and understand of their love story. You can’t go around saying things like “Anidala shippers ignore the darker parts of their relationship to enjoy the cuter and more adorable parts.” because that’s just plain false. Nobody understands Anidala more than the people who love them. Anidala shippers are more than aware of all the aspects of their beautiful and pure love story, that also holds darker themes at some points too. And may I add that “accepting” the existence of their “darker moments” doesn’t mean they’re “unhealthy” or “toxic” btw.

Anakin & Padmé have always been a devoted, domestic, insanely, and madly in love married couple who support each other and help each other up in their toughest times together, did their best to work things out when it went wrong, and never lost hope for a better future together. Everything they did was literally out of pure and deep-passionate love for each other. They were the ‘picture perfect’ of married love birds, and anything bad in their love mostly came from outwardly forces working against them.

You can’t compare them to another canon couple (whom are also healthy, adorable, and perfect together) that have a completely different writing style to Anakin & Padmé’s. Keep in mind that Anakin & Padmé are written in the inspiration of a Shakespearean tragedy, a fairytalistic fantasy, a literal Space Opera. Their love story is going to be a lot more enhanced in theatrics, dramatics, and intensity… which means a lot more problems, trauma, and tragedy. Which makes sense because they hold the key to the entire narrative in the ‘Skywalker Saga’, they’re quite literally the “plot.” (Mother and Father of Star Wars.) You can’t go comparing something as huge as that to another normal and domesticated couple that hold a smaller purpose in the story. Their writing style won’t be the same as Anidala’s, which may give you the illusion that Anidala is “toxic” or “unhealthy” but they’re really not. They’re just written from a different and much larger perspective thus it takes media literacy to be able to intake both forms of writing styles to understand both couples.

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"from my point of view the Jedi are evil"

And the thing that really gets me is that Anakin knows that Palpatine is evil, he knows that what he doing is wrong and selfish

But Anakin became a Jedi to protect his loved ones and instead found himself as a weapon in an endless war He had to watch so many die or be alienated or enslaved bc of the Jedi From his point of view the Jedi are also wrong and selfish

From his point of view the Jedi are evil

So what does it matter if you choose one evil or another

There is the one who ostracized him— put him so high on a pedestal that he could never live up to it— and threatened him with excommunication if he tried to live in any way but how they decided is the right way

Or there is the one that listened eagerly to his despair and whispered words of comfort and temptation back at him

Who did they think he would choose?