bumblebae8

[bumblebae8]

Star Wars has three types of guy: Fump Geezgo from the Womflee system, Stabba Badguyman, and Chris

[bumblebae8]

i’d like to talk about padme. i’d like to talk about padme and anakin. and i’d like to talk about padme as a victim/survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of anakin.

there’s an almost…victim blame-y aspect to padme discourse, both in fandom and in the mainstream. “well I wouldn’t have done that” “didn’t she see the signs” etc. look yeah the signs of anakin’s downfall in aotc are not exactly subtle. (he massacres a village for crissakes)

but here is a key fact: you are not padme. you (the audience) possess knowledge that padme does not; you know that anakin’s dark turn is not a possibility but an inevitability, because you’ve seen the movies that came out before the prequels. even if you haven’t, vader’s reveal is so culturally ubiquitous that you just know anakin skywalker is darth vader.

padme is a woman who as a child became the queen of a whole planet. her only friends were the guards who wore her face, in some instances became her, and were trained to kill and die for her.

when she reconnects and falls in love with anakin as an adult, he is acting in a similar capacity as the handmaidens-he is a protector, a bodyguard. yet he is the first person to truly see padme as not a symbol or a figurehead but as a person. the only genuine smiles padme gives in the trilogy are to anakin.

so of course she falls in love with anakin. and of course she hopes that his goodness will win out, that light will conquer dark—because padme does not know her fate is inevitable. her seeing goodness in anakin, even after he commits what lucas frames as his ultimate sin (choking her) she is still able to forgive him. this is not a moral failing.

reactions to abuse and violence are not a given. it is not a one to one situation and each case is different. it is very easy for us to sit in our comfy chairs with the foreknowledge of the original trilogy and judge padme. what’s harder is trying to empathize and understand her as an imperfect woman who is doing her goddamn best.

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my oldest boba fett headcanon, from before i even knew what a headcanon was, is that this man, who regularly whiled away the hours on kamino as a boy reading novels and who has a job that often requires him to do nothing more than stand around looking menacing for hours on end, definitely has an e-reader app installed on his helmet

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my central padmé take is that she is someone who constantly and increasingly feels like she has blood on her hands that she can never wash off. this is the core of her deal to me. ever since i started seeing her like this she has never ceased to make perfect sense to me

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anyway sound off. at what stage do ppl think Han figured out the Force was real. the boring answer is after seeing Obi-wan vanish but i think he could rationalise that away as his eyes playing tricks on him. what do we think.

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some of my fav 'inconsistencies' between the prequel trilogy & the OT and by fav i mean i genuinely think these were good calls:

it is NOT normal for Jedi to become force ghosts when they die. that's like a brand new skill Yoda just unlocked. if Luke tried to tell ppl about Obi-wan's force ghost literally no-one, even ppl who were familiar w the Jedi when they were around, would know wtf he was talking about

R2-D2 knew everything that went down during the prequels and just opted not to tell anyone ever which is fully in-character for him

becoming a Jedi was a whole process involving 15+ years of training and formal trials to determine if you were ready for knighthood and then with Luke Yoda was just like 'yeah fuck it you're a jedi knight now. burn the jedi temple did. made up all the rules are. gives a shit who does.'

everyone just kind of forgot who the Jedi were within the span of a generation. love that.

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time travel AU where r2d2 is the one who goes back to the clone wars but not in the standard ‘same body new memories’ way. now there’s just two r2s running around the galaxy: one trying to kill the chancellor and another that could be easily convinced to kill the chancellor. their meeting wouldn’t have any time travel ramifications besides doubling the number of r2 units trying to kill the palpatine. this efficiently doubles as c3po’s personal hell.

[bumblebae8]

I think a fun dynamic in the Clone Wars would be the Separatists vs. Padme Amidala. Because I mean, from their perspective, she is LITERALLY insane. She fought tooth and nail against the war, for some reason Dooku was briefly obsessed with her, she literally WALKED into their fortress and demanded that Dooku and the other Confederacy leaders Say Sorry for their crimes, has been hated by the Trade Federation for a literal decade, got wheeled into a death arena for execution, FLEW OUT of said arena on the wings of an army after absolutely killing so so many droids and fighting alongside Jedi LIKE IT'S NORMAL AND SHE DOES IT EVERY DAY, ran after Dooku, and then just??? went home??? and kept fighting against the war. And during the war, she shows up constantly, kicks butt, and takes names. And Anakin Skywalker is perpetually on her heels, obliterating all the enemies she misses.

All I'm saying is Padme Amidala should be the Boogeyman of the Separatists. Where she goes, death (her blaster and Petite Person Rage and scrungly husband who loves her so very much and is Lethal) follows.

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as someone who got 2 concussions this year and inhaled toxic substances at the workplace i can confidently inform you all that all characters in the star wars prequels are absolved of stupidity. they're all dumb as a box of rocks but its not their fault that no one made them wear helmets in wartime. the introduction of SPOSHA (space OSHA) would reduce incidences of darth vader creation by at least one i just know it

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reylos crying on twitter because Adam Driver explicitly confirmed that Bendemption was never originally in the plans for Kylo....this is justice for the last 8 years, actually

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i stand by my insistance that we need an office style comedy series about the first order ship of kylo ren and hux pre force awakens

an officer shows the camera around the ship. he opens a door, sees kylo ren talking to vader's helmet. he closes the door, smiles akwardly into the camera and leads them away.

a stormtrooper whose entire job it is to stand around in a random hallway all day. yesterday he saw a fly. he wonders how it got on the ship

hux is having a hissy fit again. everyone around pretends not to notice. someone glances at the camera.

three people just got blown up by a resistance fighter plane. everyone continues about their day as normal. in the background money changes hands.

kylo ren has destroyed yet another control panel. the mechanics wonder if they should put in the effort to actually repair it or only pretend to (they are very tired)

a woman whose entire job it is to make sure the shields stay up. she plays video games all day. no one notices.

kylo looks out the window dramatically, holding a speech about righting the wrongs of the past and finally bringing an end to the jedi for good. an officer is like "sir, it is two in the morning. please go to sleep."

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i’ll say it til the cows come home but as undeniably strange as the star wars prequels are, george lucas’ direction with anakin was downright fucking inspired. people were waiting for whatever badass backstory lucas was sure to give them, awaiting a naturally intimidating actor with rogueish charm to be cast, waiting for this masterpiece of badass villainy or whatever, and george lucas is like no, no, i’ve got you. and then he finds the one man on the planet who looked babier than baby mark hamill and says, “his main personality trait will be being weird and awkward, secondary personality trait loving his wife, tertiary personality trait being incredibly good at murder, and all of these traits will do battle on the silver screen for three movies until they all win in possibly the worst way.” that fucking rules. george lucas could’ve done anything with darth vader and he willingly, enthusiastically chose mentally unstable college student who is somehow married but his only friend is his kind-of dad. that fucking rules, top down, that’s fucking exquisite. if you don’t think that premise is inherently entertaining you’ve got no taste

[bumblebae8]

looking for a beta reader?? look no further!!

hi! im james. i love reading people’s stories and helping them achieve their work’s vision!! i have been writing for well over a decade and have many fics of my own on ao3 (@/jamesilver) as well as experience with novels, short stories, poetry, and essays. i work well with any of the following fandoms

harry potter

star trek

star wars

witcher

percy jackson

avatar the last airbender

marvel

lord of the rings

i read stories of all genres and am willing to beta for any ship 🥰 i am 22 and if you are 18+ i will also beta read E rated fics. i can also help with determining tags to put on your fic and even summaries.

please reach out either on this post, asks, or dms if you need a beta reader or have any questions (no matter how old this post is). i usually have a very quick turnaround and would love to work with you!!

[bumblebae8]

looking for a beta reader?? look no further!!

hi! im james. i love reading people’s stories and helping them achieve their work’s vision!! i have been writing for well over a decade and have many fics of my own on ao3 (@/jamesilver) as well as experience with novels, short stories, poetry, and essays. i work well with any of the following fandoms

harry potter

star trek

star wars

witcher

percy jackson

avatar the last airbender

marvel

lord of the rings

i read stories of all genres and am willing to beta for any ship 🥰 i am 22 and if you are 18+ i will also beta read E rated fics. i can also help with determining tags to put on your fic and even summaries.

please reach out either on this post, asks, or dms if you need a beta reader or have any questions (no matter how old this post is). i usually have a very quick turnaround and would love to work with you!!