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because i was luke skywalker - a legend.

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GENERAL ANAKIN SKYWALKER in his The Clone Wars glory

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This night is sparkling, don't you let it go I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home

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kenobi drops tomorrow and this is how i’m coping

text creds from @/sithzuko !

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#I’m fine

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Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth

The Mandalorian, 2.01 “Chapter 9: The Marshal”

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PEDRO PASCAL star wars cover shoot | vanity fair 2022 

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Happy ace awareness week!! :D have some ace (and aro) headcanons for some of my favorite Star Wars characters!

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OBI-WAN KENOBI (2022) ⪢ part VI —  Anakin is  g o n e . I am what remains.

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STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH (EPISODE III) OBI-WAN KENOBI: PART VI

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also thinking about the tragedy that is the way anakin, buried under years of vader, is still just a child seeking approval and respect.

by the time we reach anh, vader hasn’t (visibly) thought about obi wan in years. why, when he was so utterly obsessed just nine years prior?

because all anakin has ever wanted was to be respected, his actions and especially his character approved of. and the second the emperor questions his ability, his worth, due to his obsession with obi wan, anakin simply drops it. just like that. because palpatine is threatening to withdraw his respect and approval and vader, anakin, will do anything to keep it.

palpatine saw anakin’s weak spot, the one thing he wasn’t getting enough of from the jedi, and he exploited it from day one. and anakin never stood a chance. because at the end of the day, he’s still just a 9 year old boy wanting to be treated like someone with value and worth.

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This isn't me trying to shift blame or anything, but I will say I think something fandom seems to fundamentally misunderstand about Anakin's insecurities and issues with the Council, is that he wasn't actually power hungry really at all. He consistently expressed discomfort with certain responsibilities - especially power over others. He had a strong sense of duty, but also felt that he knew where he was best suited, and didn't think he should be wasting time on things that he felt others could handle.

And his biggest issue with the Council and Mace Windu? Was that he felt they didn't respect him.

Anakin very clearly functions off of the mindset that "respect is earned and not given". While the members of the Council arguably have done plenty to earn that respect, Anakin - especially with his background of being a former slave - is not going to see just the rank of Master and a seat on the Council as proof of their accomplishments and therefore worthy of respect. Especially when he feels that they don't respect him in return.

In ROTS when he complains about getting a seat on the Council but not the title of Master is unfair, he isn't just protesting because he thinks he's owed the title or anything or because he's whiny. He feels that by granting him a council seat but no title means they don't respect him. It's hard for him to see that just him getting a seat on the Council is an honor, when by keeping him at Knight it feels like they are still keeping him below them. (It also doesn't help that any of Anakin's own efforts to work through his emotions healthily or by talking to the other Jedi are always undermined by Palpatine sowing doubt in his ear, but that's another post.)

I think that's where a lot of his perceived arrogance comes from, too. Not to say he can't be a cocky little shit, but also anyone who knows Anakin as a character knows how deeply insecure and anxious he is as well. He's not really asking people to sing his praises (he will point to his men and Padawan and their efforts just as much), just that people acknowledge that he does good work and is therefore worthy of respect.

Respect is just, so, so important to Anakin. One of the first things Anakin says on screen is that he's Anakin Skywalker and "I'm a person", demanding respect and autonomy for himself when he has none.

He also consistently wields disrespect as a weapon, I think some like to see him as simply irreverent but I really do think it's something he does on purpose. Age is not necessarily a factor, nor is skill or position. So much of it is about treatment of him and treatment of others, that is what he is measuring the world by.

Of course, this doesn't always pan out in his favor (gestures at Palpatine) but I just don't think it's as malicious on either side of the constant disputes between Anakin and the Council as some people make it out to be. I don't think that the Council viewed him as lesser really when Qui-Gon brought him before the Council, it's easy to see how a recently enslaved 9 year old would view that interaction poorly. And it can be very hard to shake first impressions. I also think that Anakin feeling disrespected can come across as really childish to the Council when you forget the context of his upbringing and how important respect can be for people in bad situations.

It's something that very much carries over into his time as Vader too, considering that Vader is known for going after disrespectful and maliciously incompetent officers and not normally his troopers or those further down the rankings.

(I could honestly use even more examples if I dove into Legends with this, but was trying to keep it mostly canon verse for this post, so I'll end it here.)

Just! The thing Anakin values possibly even more than loyalty is! Proper respect!

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don’t mind me, just thinking about how obi wan never got to be a jedi knight on his own. never got to be his own man, never got to navigate the world and the jedi as an individual. instead he was forced from padawan to teacher, essentially from child straight to parent

obi wan may have been ready to be a jedi knight at the age of 25, but he wasn’t ready to be anyone’s teacher or even parent. and sadly both he and anakin, and ultimately the entire galaxy, suffer for it

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OBI-WAN KENOBI – PART VI

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“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. I failed them. He killed them all, and I couldn’t do it.“ “You haven’t failed them. By showing mercy, you have given them peace.“ I was in tears, Reva going after Luke because she wanted to take away Vader’s family, wanted to kill the child that should have meant everything to him, just like he killed the children that meant everything to her, wanting to avenge her family, but she only sees herself when she looks at Luke passed out, she only sees a  youngling who doesn’t deserve what happened. Contrasted against Vader having a chance to come back to a better path as well, to not be what he’s chosen to be, that Obi-Wan offers him a way back, offers him love and compassion, but Vader rejects it.  Reva cannot reject it, she couldn’t do it, couldn’t kill that part of herself. Because Obi-Wan is right, the other Jedi younglings wouldn’t have been avenged by murdering the child of Anakin Skywalker, it wouldn’t bring them peace.  Mercy brings them peace, Reva’s inability to become what Vader is is everything those Jedi younglings, her family, would have wanted for her.  They would never have wanted her to become him, they would want the light for her. Moses Ingram absolutely destroyed that scene, she had me in tears right along with Reva, this young woman who was so ruthless and lived on her rage and pain, but in the end, she was still Jedi enough to turn back.  She couldn’t do. She will never be Vader.  And her family is at peace for it.

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in a happier world, i’d like to think that leia would run to obi-wan whenever she’d have a tiff with anakin lmao 😭