#Anakin was born into slavery with nothing and just wanted love understanding and family

[cptsd-skywalker]

@ those people who consider Anakin to be just as bad or worse than Palpatine, are you ok? Like is everything alright up there? Got to be one of the most out there takes I’ve ever heard.

[gch1995]

Hot Take: Leia wasn't adopted. She was abducted even if Bail and Breha loved her to pieces, they had no moral or ethical authority to take her. Padme didn't give any permission to take her babies. Anakin was BBQ, but the next in line to take the twins were their extended family. The Larses got Luke but weren't told about Leia. The Naberries got the body of their daughter/sister/aunt back but not her kids???

| Strongly Agree | Agree | Strongly Disagree | Disagree |

On the one hand, I can completely understand that Palpatine was a monster who would stop at nothing to capture the twins, harm them, and try to turn them to the dark side.

As for Anakin, I know he wouldn’t feel content or happy harming or murdering his own kids if he knew who they were, even on the high of the dark side in that suit. We see that as much in his interactions with Luke in the OT movies after he finds out he is his son. However, he also was a dangerous and unfit parent at that point too because he was high on the power of the dark side, he had a hair trigger temper that he was now regularly using as a weapon when pushed by others getting in his or the Emperor’s way on this new power, and he’d become very emotionally/mentally unstable after being groomed and manipulated to be an obedient weapon and tool in slavery and two space soldier cults for the ends of corrupt authority figures involved in both of them from the time he was a child. He’d need to get out of battle and the Sith altogether, and put in to intense rehab therapy before getting trusted with children again. Thus, I can completely understand why Bail Organa, Obi-Wan, and Yoda would keep the truth of the twins existence away from Anakin after realizing he was still alive.

The ways in which Bail Organa, Obi-Wan, and Yoda went about dealing with the twins after they were born and Padme died, were selfish, unethical, and unfair, though. They deliberately decide to keep Padme’s remaining family entirely out of the loop, and Obi-Wan and Yoda deliberately keep Anakin’s remaining step-relatives half out of the loop. Bail Organa, Obi-Wan, and Yoda all would know the Naberrie family, and they still decides to keep her remaining family completely out of the loop in regards to their grandchildren, niece, and nephew. Bail Organa takes on Leia without telling Padme’s remaining family the truth because his wife has fertility issues, and they “always wanted a little girl.” Obi-Wan and Yoda only hand over Luke and Leia to the Larses and Organas under the condition that they be trained as Jedi “when the time comes.”

It’s not like Obi-Wan and Yoda are really doing this for Luke and Leia completely out of the kindness of their hearts. They’re also doing it because the Jedi are considered criminals under the law of Palpatine with the Empire now and can’t be discovered. Trying to hide powerful force-sensitive infants would make them more vulnerable to discovery as Jedi themselves without a temple to hide in or a galactic government to back them up with support.

While I don’t think that Bail ever meant for any harm to come to Leia, nor do I think he was wrong to come up with the Rebellion, I also do think he was rather arrogant, naive, and selfish, even if not consciously. He takes on a baby of his old friend after she dies and her husband has fallen from grace and lost his mind. He brings the baby to raise on the core planet of Alderaan that’s right next door to Palpatine and the Empire, bans weapons on Alderaan, let’s her speak alone with Vader and Palpatine, raises Leia on stories of how “great” the old Republic was just because it was somewhat better than the Empire that he benefitted from as an elite at the expense of those in the outer rims and working class, and deliberately decides to never tell Leia the truth about her biological family.

For what it’s worth, I really don’t think Bail Organa was intentionally malicious or manipulative in regards to Leia or those below him. I just think he was one of those blindly arrogant, ignorant, and self-centered elites from the broken Republic who was too afraid to lose his power in it to actually push to make a difference for those under him until it was abruptly taken away in a way that was far worse than anyone deserved. I think he was blinded by his privilege and hung out with people who were blinded by their own in the Republic. Padme started to get it because of Anakin, but even she struggled.

He became determined to rebuild the Republic system by creating the Rebellion to take down the Empire, which to be fair, was objectively worse, but he lacks the empathy and self-awareness to fully acknowledge why so many people came to hate the old Republic in the first place. He’s convinced himself it’s all on Sidious and the Empire, but never really understand why the working class and outer rims came to resent the old Republic because he came from a place of privilege within it that only ever benefitted him and those he was closest too. Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, he passed on a similar mindset to Leia in regards to the old Republic as a result.

[jasontoddiefor]

Hi, i hope I don't bother you! I just read about your jedi!palatine Au idea and honestly it sounds amazing! Can you write a bit more about it/ elaborate it? Thanks! :D

You don’t bother me at all!!! Honestly, I love getting asks and talking about ideas! Everyone is always welcome in my inbox :D

And yeah, I’ve actually written the first scene of how I’d start the story? Here we go!

Luke had never been good at hating people. It took effort for him to actively hate somebody, to want to destroy them no matter the cost. Ben said it made him a good Jedi, Leia thought it meant he had a bleeding heart.

The only person Luke might have truly hated was the Emperor. So much suffering, so much death were his fault. There wasn’t a single person whose life hadn’t been ruined by him. It must be hate, Luke was sure.

But now he could only feel pity.

“They’re dead,” the child cried. “He killed them. He- he-.”

The boy couldn’t be much older than twelve, maybe even younger. His clothes were covered in his family’s blood and his throat quickly turning blue from the abuse he’d suffered.

Luke could end it now. Prevent so much useless pain and death with just one hit with his lightsaber. Cut down the source of almost a century of pain as easily as he had slayed his Master and yet-

“You’re safe now,” Luke said.

He crouched down and turned off his lightsaber. He had dealt with enough scared children since he’d joined the Alliance, the New Republic.

“He cannot hurt you anymore.”

The boy looked up at him with watery brown eyes.

“Who- Who are you?”

“Luke Skywalker-“ Kriff, should he have gone with a code name? Too late for that now. “-I’m a Jedi.”

Jedi, still known as peacekeepers, diplomats, teachers and mentors. They didn’t have a reputation as terrifying one-man armies yet. If Luke had anything to say about it, they also never would.

Regardless, the boy knew that Jedi were supposed to be good. As soon as the words had left Luke’s mouth, the boy flung himself into his arms, and started to cry terribly.

“It’ll be alright,” Luke tried to sooth him and stood up.

He ensured that the boy’s face was hidden in Luke’s robes, that he wouldn’t see his parents’ or their killers’ body. He had suffered enough.

Luke left the Palpatine estate behind, the child still clinging to his robes, almost 80 years in a past that would never come to be now.

X

So that’s what I wrote! The idea behind that is fairly simple actually? I looked through Wookiepedia for background info on Palpatine’s early life and I’ll be honest, it didn’t make much sense to me. He had not much family to speak of and wasn’t trained. It just seemed strange that despite being from a prominent family, and apparently so Force-sensitive that Plagueis was like “I want that” the Jedi weren’t familiar with him? So I figured, it would have made more sense if Plagueis abducted him and then I got thinking “wait. what if I fix that”. So Luke travels back in time - accidentally - kills Plagueis and figures good parenting can go a long while.

So Luke shows up at the Jedi temple after travelling with Sheev for a while like “yes, I’m totally a Jedi and this is my Padawan” and makes it his goal to annoy the Council into fixing their relationship with a Senate. He might have only experienced like 2 years of the New Republic before he was brought to the past, but Leia and he had made plans about how the Jedi should be treated.

So Luke tries his best at politics while teaching his Padawan. And, you know, some Force abilities are just innate in general. Used for the dark or light - doesn’t matter. And Sheev is a genius at mind tricks - and it worries Luke.  He knows what he could become and he does his best not just to prevent it, but to teach him better. So he decides he has to teach his dear Padawan how to use those powers responsibly and to show him what it means for someone to be without control.

So, by accident, he creates the Senate and Jedi Council’s biggest headache: Jedi Master Sheev “I will personally eradicate slavery” Palpatine, second only to equally “sorry what are rules I follow the first” Qui-Gon Jinn. Did you know they are the same age? I didn’t. They’d probs be the kind of friends who also hate each other. Either way:

Because turns out showing a teenager who had a nice childhood, got traumatizes terribly, and then a nice Jedi Master that slavery exists and is horrible makes him find his capital P Purpose.

(Luke is proud but also can understand how one man managed to trick everyone. Seeing a seventeen year old talk somebody out of owning slaves opens your eyes.)

And Sheev then gets a reputation for leaving the Jedi Temple with a couple thousand credits and coming back with dozens of newly freed slaves. He has a knack for picking up force sensitive people.

Luke is An Old Man, 80ish and not on the council anymore because  “I’m too old” *side eyes Yoda*, but helps out in the crèche. He teaches maybe one or two other Padawans, or spends a lot of his days seeking out other Force traditions and learning from them. He brings back his own grandpadawan from such a trip. Sheev and Maul make the strangest pair together but they work.

But yeah, one day while Luke is teaching a class and Sheev just decides crash the lesson asking “Master, didn’t you say your family was from Tatooine?”

“Yes, why?”

“Did you have any siblings by chance?”

“Sheev, What’s going on.”

“I just freed a mother and her son, both are highly Force sensitive.”

And then Luke gets to meet small three-year-old Anakin Skywalker and the weight he’s been holding for decades finally lifts from his shoulders as he figures that he has actually done it.

And idk maybe out of sheer spite or the Force what do I know, Luke manages to get old enough to see his younger self and sister be born and he dies peacefully, knowing that all is well.

Nothing Bad Ever Happens.

The End.

[antidisneystarwars]

Darth Vader Vs Kylo Ren: What Makes a Good Villain

One thing that always got on my nerves about the Sequel trilogy was the treatment of its villains, especially Kylo Ren. First, we have Phasma and she’s...there. Yeah, that’s about right. General Hux who is the butt of every joke. Knights of Ren? Never heard of them and neither did the writers. Snoke who dies like a bitch and then we find out he was basically a puppet for Palpatine who proceeds to announce his plan to takeover the galaxy for everyone to hear and give them time to prepare to take him down. Finally, we have the emo brat himself Kylo Ren who has nothing on Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Now before I decimate this bitch into tiny pieces, let’s look at the backstory of Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker was born on Tattooinee into slavery with his mother where they were no doubt abuse emotionally and physically and one day a Jedi comes and takes him away but not his mother who is left to waste away on a backwater planet and now alone. 10 years later, Anakin is back only to learn that his mother had been captured and tortured practically to death and while he finds her she ends up dying in his arms which could’ve been avoided had he listened to his visions and gone to help her. Three years later, he begins having similar visions of his pregnant wife dying in childbirth and has nowhere to go with these issues as their marriage had to remain a secret and feels constantly disrespected by the council who abandoned his padawan causing her to leave and continually deny him the rank of master which ends up with him believing in Palpatine more and more. Well, long story short the galaxy was doomed. 

Now, look at Kylo Ren...I guess it’s hinted his parents were busy a lot and there was something about Snoke or Palpatine or whoever the writers wanted that day manipulating him. Oh then he thinks his uncle tries to kill him so there’s that. Yeah not a lot of story to explain and yet I’m supposed to feel bad for him and want him to come back to the light when I really know nothing about him? Yeah no. Which is my main problem.

With Darth Vader, after the prequels we know what happened and how he was pushed to the dark side but the movies never try to excuse his actions and show how terrible he was after falling to dark side (heck, he choked his own wife who was pregnant by the way after she begged him to come with her). Even when we don’t know his backstory and in Return of the Jedi, where he is portrayed in a more sympathetic light, he still does capture his own son and lead a team to destroy the Rebel Alliance. Sure we can feel bad for him but the movies don’t go out of their way to place the blame on everyone else unlike with Kylo Ren. 

With Kylo Ren, the movies basically say, ‘Oh, it was his mom’s fault.’ ‘It was his dad’s fault.’ ‘It was Luke’s fault.’ ‘He was being manipulated, it wasn’t really his fault.’ Give me a minute to facepalm at the ridiculousness of these points. Sure, someone can have a bad childhood (which he didn’t really. He grew up in the lap of luxury with a family who loved him who just had to work a lot, how horrible) and do bad things but at some point their actions are their own. I mean we’re not talking about 17 year old who does marijuana or go crazy with his dad’s car, we’re talking an adult who is part of an organization that is hellbent to restore the authoritarian government that his family fought tooth and nail to defeat and ends up killing his own father. However, all of this is swept under the rug, because...he’s marginally attractive I guess so it can’t really be his fault. Allow me another facepalm. That’s not a good villain, sorry to say. He doesn’t evoke a sense of dread and terror in the ‘heroes’ or the audience and is more of the emo-goth kid who thinks nobody can understand him. Also,  the main character of a Twilight fanfiction where he can be as abusive as much as he wants but the love of a good woman will fix him (thanks Disney for continuing to push that toxic stereotype). 

Honestly, it’s sad.

[ivy-miranda-2390]

In Defense of Anakin Skywalker (and Hayden Christensen)

I grew up with Star Wars, my whole family loves Star Wars. I was 8 when I saw Episode I and afterwards, I was completely immersed in the Star Wars universe. Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi was probably my first fictional boyfriend and I'm unashamedly still in love with him too.

Episode II: The Attack of the Clones came out when I was 11 and so naturally I was excited to see the continuation of the Star Wars prequel universe. However, nothing could have prepared me for the absolute utter gorgeousness of Canadian actor, Hayden Christensen who was cast to play the adolescent Anakin Skywalker.

My memories of first seeing Episode II are fond because I got to see the movies with my older siblings while on vacation in Myrtle Beach. It was probably my first experience of being accepted among my older adult brothers and sisters or the feeling of 'grownupness' as I like to call it.

So Attack of the Clones has always been an special film to me because I saw it at a time when I was no longer being viewed as a child, but as a growing teenager.

It's also why I've always been rather defensive of the film too. While the film was titled Attack of the Clones, it may as well have been re-titled, "Attack of Anakin Skywalker (and subsequently, Hayden Christensen)". For over 20 years, there has been an absolute and indescribable hatred of Anakin Skywalker and many people blamed both Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen's supposed poor acting as the result of a badly done Anakin.

And to be honest even though I had a massive crush on Hayden Christensen and was hardly a movie critic at the time, I felt that at times that Anakin could have been better acted. However, I was young and didn't care about the script or the acting. Yet, for years I constantly defended, Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker and Hayden Christensen. Partly due to nostalgia, partly to being a teenage girl and most of all partly to do with understanding the character of Anakin as being misunderstood, misinterpreted and not being treated as an adult by the elders in his life.

Did Anakin have problems? Yes.

Were most of these problems his fault? No.

Did Anakin ever try to fix these problems and better himself? Everyday of his life.

He had nothing, but he gave everything

 The prequels were written as a timeline of a boy's journey from goodness into darkness. Anakin's life is a story arch of sacrifice and redemption. Life has not always been good to Anakin. He was born a slave with no father. He was raised in the strong love of wonderful mother Shmi Skywalker. While Shmi may have been scared and confused as to how she conceived a child without a man, she raised her son in love and simple contentment.

Chances are Anakin and his mother probably faced terrible abuse in their time as slaves and more than once, Anakin may have been separated from Shmi as leverage for greedy slave owners. Although a slave, Anakin was never a victim. He may have been physically owned, but his heart and mind were free. He was his own person, always thinking outside of the box, building, creating, questioning everything and everyone. Not to mention a little wild and rather reckless.

Even as a child Anakin was a little strange to people. For a slave to have such a hopeful and positive attitude may have seemed bizarre to outsiders, but that was just the norm for him. Shmi once remarked that her son knew nothing of greed. For a boy raised with nothing, all he had were his talents as an inventor and growing pilot. And he used his talents for other people. He built C-3PO to help his mom, he entered the podrace to help Qui-Gon Jinn, he always gave without any expectation of being thanked.

A spirit that refused to surrender

After Anakin is freed and sent to train as a Jedi, that wild spirit was still intact. Much to his by-the-book master's dismay. Anakin didn't have the opportunity to grow up in the strict Jedi Temple that was built on order, rules and tradition. As a child, Anakin was use to being himself and not fitting into anyone's mold. His original dream was to be a pilot, not a Jedi. No one asked him if he wanted to be a Jedi, no one asked him if he wanted to be trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi.

While Anakin may have been grateful for both opportunities presented to him, overtime he may have seen this new life as not to different from the one he left. A life run by others. Telling him what to do, where to go, how to dress, how to behave. He survived as a slave because he dared to dream and imagine and refused to be defined by others.

Now he's thrown into a culture where individuality is looked down upon. He lived through the stifling Jedi order because he still held onto those qualities. He was going to be himself on his terms. He would nod his head and say yes when he needed to, but off the clock he would live by his own rules. Something that Obi-Wan and the Jedi order could not understand. And Anakin is getting frustrated by this.

So now we get to Attack of the Clones (and the Attack of Hayden Christensen). Critics came down hard on both Anakin and Hayden. Constantly complaining about Anakin's constant complaining, his tantrums, broodiness and being a crybaby about everything. Critics blamed the disaster of Anakin Skywalker on the terrible miscasting of Hayden Christensen. The only redeeming quality Hayden Christensen had that saved him was the fact he was so easy to look at.

For years, fans were desperate to know who Anakin Skywalker was. And so the pressure to deliver a good character that could measure up to the icon of Darth Vader may have seemed insurmountable. And so when people got this confused, overemotional 19 year old, who has no experience in love or sex, but is madly in love with a beautiful young women; and who wants to be respected in a highly established culture, without losing himself or conforming, well people were just disappointed. The disappointment can be explained in one of Anakin's most famous lines.

"HE'S HOLDING ME BACK!"

He, being George Lucas who was holding back Hayden's actual talent to create a good three dimensional character. Plus his bad script writing. Poor Hayden was just made to read lines on a page and somehow make this sad character somebody that people can root for. Unfortunately fans and critics ate him alive. It's only in recent years that people have begun to realize that they were blaming the wrong person. And by blaming Hayden, they were completely misunderstanding Anakin as a character.

His most beautiful gift, his most fatal flaw

Of all of Anakin's gifts, his ability to love deeply was probably his most profound and his most dangerous. The Jedi Temple forbade romantic attachments to others and for good reason. When you become attached to or love someone beyond the boundaries of platonic friendship you become afraid of losing them. The end of my review for the Star Wars prequels sums it up the best:

In The Phantom Menace, Yoda warns Anakin about the dangers of being afraid. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. Anakin's most beautiful attribute is also his most fatal flaw. His ability to love deeply. Yet, if you love someone you will always live in fear of losing them. Anakin was created by darkness, but raised in the light of his mother's love. His own love was made manifest by Padme and then by their unborn child/children. However, Love no matter how strong can be weakened and even be destroyed by the evil of fear. If the prequels taught anything about life, it taught how fear (even in its smallest form) can be be our most detrimental enemy. Living alone in fear and not seeking help is a signing of our own death warrants. What might have happened if Anakin had gone to Obi-Wan and seek his help? Would things have been different? The prequels were not meant to tell a happy story. They were written as a timeline of a boy's journey from goodness into darkness. No, they don't have the silliness or humor of the Originals, because there is nothing humorous about someone's self-destruction. Yet, the story of Anakin Skywalker's transformation had to be told in a way that was real and heartbreaking. To take Darth Vader and make him a human who could feel and understand and love could be an insurmountable task. Yet, you only need to watch his death scene at the end of Return of The Jedi to see that the humane part of Anakin Skywalker had always been there. The prequels were made to be built on that final scene of redemption and human love. A husband's love to save his wife became a father's love that could overcome darkness and hate. An extreme love that defied fear and held on to hope. That was the love of Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin could be a bratty and immature young adult. However, to only base a character by his few annoying flaws is overlooking the bigger and better picture. Anakin was an outsider his whole life and yet that never seemed to bother him. He never cared about fitting in. He was content being himself and he refused to let Obi-Wan or the Jedi Order or even Padme change him. He held onto who he was for as long as he was able to. Then the tragedy of losing his wife changed that. The indomitable spirit wasn't broken, it was destroyed. Anakin re-entered a life of slavery for over 20 years.

And he was ultimately freed by one person. An orphan who once had nothing but a talent as an inventor and dreams of being a pilot. A young Jedi with an unbreakable spirit that refused to surrender to evil or fear or pain or loss. A son who loved his father so deeply that he would fight to the death to free Anakin Skywalker forever.

[commanderscody]

character ask meme- fives, cody, or rex?

i’ll do rex !! i’ll maybe do fives and cody later !

first impression

as a kid i loved rex (i still do of course) i thought he had a v interesting personality and in all honesty i found him more interesting than the main cast??? i was a dork & i had the biggest crush on him lmao

impression now

i still love rex & i find him to be a really complex character, but he’s been bastardized by the writers to suit their need of glorifying the jedi & excusing them of any implications of slavery and war crimes because of the whole conception of a clone army controlled by them. i feel like the writers wanted us, the viewers, to think this is a very individualized and unique character (of course he is), but in the end just using him to portray the jedi in a positive light.

i know this point has been rehashed before but i think it needs to be said a lot so people actually get it through their heads. sadly this happens so often in real life too (a person of color being forcefully convinced or even brainwashed to think that their oppressors have been good to them, that nothing has been done wrong), so i think it is important to understand how rex has been used poorly and how much it would benefit his character as well as the rest of his brothers to be written by people of color (a great point raised by maylovelies / arctrooper-ross ). i particularly am passionate about this topic because this has happened too much in my father’s culture, and it being shown in media like this only encourages the behavior.

favorite moment

so many favorite moments that i don’t even know where to start lol. definitely meeting cut and his family, those were such nice scenes with him. the whole umbara arc was great, i feel like we see some good character development & the complexity of his emotions ,,, i just really enjoyed it

unpopular opinion

the only reason he didn’t desert was because of his loyalty to his brothers & nothing else. he knows that without him, many of his brothers would be lost, and he did not want any of them to die in a senseless war. he has no personal loyalty to anakin, ahsoka, or any of the other jedi, especially as he sees many of them brushing off the deaths of his brothers like nothing… he really comes to resent them. rex is a very conflicted individual, so i don’t see him ‘betraying’ them per se, i totally think he would be in support of some sort of rebellion against the jedi order. (tho…. i would have loved to see how a windu-rex relationship would work out, bc i feel like windu would actually be one of the very few jedi that rex actually respects).

favorite relationship

his relationship with cody !! i have a lot of headcanons on them (i don’t care about canon thank you very much), like them being batch brothers, and being very close despite their vastly different personalities and strategies. i plan on writing a few fics on the relationship between cody and rex as well as another brother very close to them sunbeam (my oc).

from the first time i saw him, i had an oc to pair with him and that was a long time ago,,, but i’ve developed that relationship and i really like where it’s going. i honestly love all the relationships that people have developed for rex !! he really deserves to have a partner that truly loves and appreciates him and care for him because he is just so tired,,,,

favorite headcanon

once his daughter is born he absolutely loves doing her hair and playing with it. his partner loved him playing with her hair and he naturally thinks this is a good way of expressing his affection (he wasn’t raised with much affection you know), and so he really enjoys doing her hair for her. he doesn’t care if it’s too complicated, it just makes him happy and even more so that he can make his daughter happy himself.

[whorevader]

So I’ve been thinking a lot about Obi-Wan thinking Anakin was irredeemable, and it’s significance to both narrative and character. Obviously it’s indicative of his Jedi roots, but there’s more than that. It’s a contrast to Padme and Luke, and aligns him, oddly enough, with Leia. And another thing these two have in common is that they’re military leaders - actual Generals, who fight in actual wars, rather than a Senator and a farm-boy turned rebel pilot, both of whom do have experience with combat zones but unquestionably to a lesser degree. Anyways, it doesn’t seem coincidental.

Obi-Wan and Leia are more often exposed to the cost of warfare, and for prolonged periods of time. (You could say they’re overexposed, that they’re saturated in it.) There’s no question in war that you will see your men fall on the battlefield. (And there’s no question that your loved ones will disappoint you, especially in hard times.) When you get shot in the company of somebody like Leia or Obi-Wan, they’re focused on the fact that the enemy is closing in and the other men will still need a leader tomorrow. Every battle has casualties. Generals can’t afford to go back and take your pulse; there’s no point. 

But when you get shot in the company of somebody like Luke or Padme, they focus on the fact that you’re still breathing. They want to save you. They still think they can.

First instinct might be to look at the way that people like Leia and Obi-Wan think and be unnerved, but this clearly is not the result of some moral failing on their parts. It’s different from the detached, unfeeling calculations of institutional leaders like those in the Senate dealing in hypothetical battles and economic equations, or even those on the Council who never commanded troops. Those leaders get to indulge in a degree of separation between the issuing of orders, untouched from a distance, and the actual execution of them. (Not to mention that many in the Republic treat clones as weapons rather than soldiers.)

No, Leia and Obi-Wan don’t operate the same way. It’s different, because they have to decide how their men will risk their lives. Then, during the battle, if they have to retreat, or push forward, or change course, they have to decide who to leave behind. That isn’t to say they won’t try to save all they can. There will be guilt for those they can’t save (you can see Kenobi’s guilt on Mustafar for his inability to bring Anakin back as well). But commanders understand that the future depends on soldiers that can fight. This is the survival mode that people lapse into after being charged with the responsibility of military leadership. It’s a survival mode which requires one take on the care of a cause, and an army, not just oneself.

Luke and Padme have experience with the military to a certain extent (Padme more so than Luke in this regard) but they aren’t ever responsible for what happens on the battlefield, who dies and who lives. Padme has the small amount of control that being a Senator and a diplomat grants her, but again, this is different from being a military commander. Even Luke’s direct military involvement, throughout the series, is kept to being a pilot, and an independent operative, at least as far as I’m aware, and if we keep to the span of the OT. They had happy enough childhoods, with little to no impact from their respective trilogy’s wars, as Padme was an adult by the time the Clone Wars began, and Luke’s residence on Tatooine in the Outer Rim was the least of the Rebellion’s, and I’m sure, the Empire’s concerns. 

In the face of Luke and Padme, and Leia and Obi-Wan, Anakin is an outlier, which aligns with his role as the one who falls rather than the one who reacts. His situation is much closer to Leia and Obi-Wan’s, but in the face of multiple battles and the exile of Ahsoka, he doesn’t exactly show that same mentality. Sure, he’s an important leader who understood the costs of war and acted rationally (as far as he goes) in handling them. But, despite being a general, he never seemed to truly adopt that military mentality of “you can’t save them all” - he literally falls in his attempt to save his family’s lives. And I’d be willing to argue that this is largely because, unlike Obi-Wan, and unlike Leia, Anakin entered the war with a survival mode already installed - that of a child slave.

Speaking of Anakin’s military history and its affect on his character, it also offers a different lense through which to analyse Obi-Wan’s infamous “certain point of view”. After all, Anakin dying a young, Jedi war hero was, at one point, a real possibility. How does this interact with his real-life fall to the Dark Side? Well, you could claim that in both versions, Anakin was a casualty of war and institutional corruption. After all, it was Palpatine who orchestrated both environments, and in both versions, the Jedi Order failed to save him - does it matter much (outside of the OT) if he fell in combat during the war or to the Dark Side after?

It is interesting also to examine Obi-Wan’s claim that it was Vader who killed Anakin. The meaning in this is obvious - it’s discussed outright in the OT. There’s no need to go over it. However, it does hold implications, upon further inspection, to something crucial in Obi-Wan’s perspective about his former padawan’s fall. Anakin, as Obi-Wan knew and cared for him, was dead, and while Darth Vader may have finished him off, is it so unreasonable to suggest that it was General Skywalker who had chipped away at him for so many years? This is a metaphor that Kenobi could never have used with young Luke, for obvious reasons, but it is, if nothing else, something to contemplate further. Did Obi-Wan consider Anakin’s fall a decline or a sudden drop? Did he consider it inevitable or did he factor in the stresses of the war? Of dealing with Jedi culture? Of being born into slavery?

It’s so easy to forget, in the context of the films, and what we’re shown, that Anakin and Leia were generals before reaching their twenties, that Ahsoka Tano was taken from her home and raised a child soldier, that Obi-Wan was tasked with the responsibility of raising a child that he later had to watch be turned into a weapon for the powerful and unburdened, twice. It’s even easier to miss exactly how much impact their histories have on their characters and relationships. It’s brilliant though, and I suppose the point is that Star Wars, like all important works of media, is chock-full of fascinating characters with histories and behaviors that mirror the real world that we live in, and it’s a shame to see anyone reduce them to anything less.

[gffa]

Anakin deserves a punch in the face for his behavior in RoTS. I hope his victims haunt him for the rest of his life and beyond.

HAHA OMG OKAY I’m going to get mildly serious on a message that probably wasn’t intended to be all that serious!  Sorry not sorry and all that!  XDI actually do sort of agree that Anakin deserves (at least a metaphorical) punch in the face for his behavior in Revenge of the Sith (and one really important thing in Attack of the Clones).  I think he is going to be haunted by his victims for the rest of his life and beyond, that no amount of forgiveness from those still around to give it can match those that aren’t around to forgive it.  And I would go further in that, while I will never say anyone deserves the pain Darth Vader had to live through, there’s a large part of me that’s not exactly sympathetic because of all the people he’d killed, all the people he’d hurt and betrayed, that he actively helped in cultural and physical genocide, that he murdered innocent children he should have been protecting, that were part of his culture, his family. That we sometimes go, “Oh, yes, Anakin did bad things but–”No, it wasn’t just “bad things” or “bad choices”.  They were monstrous choices.  They cannot be overstated.  The level of horror he wrought on the galaxy, in killing children, in killing the Jedi and destroying their culture, in the enslavement of worlds that he helped under the Empire, the terror that he helped put forth, the suffering he left in his wake.  None of that can be overstated.This does not mean that the path there is unimportant, that Anakin was a victim when he was a child, that he had problems so many of us can empathize with (our fears eating away at us, the anger that boils inside us that we can’t let go of, that we become too attached to things that we wind up hurting them and ourselves, that we can’t admit when mistakes have been made because it feels like then we’ve walked this path for nothing), that once upon a time he was a good person who did so much good and that he loved so very genuinely.But one thing does not negate the other.  They go hand in hand, but you can’t use his being a victim to offset the abuse he doled out and you can’t use the abuse he doled out to offset that he was a victim.Anakin was a victim of slavery and, in my opinion (not canon, but one I have a difficult time separating out from his character because I can’t not see it!), a victim of poor mental health.  He A L O N E is responsible for the choices he made in ROTS, he was a grown ass adult and had many choices laid out in front of him–he chose the path he walked.  But understanding why he did and offering a hand out when he’s truly ready to redeem himself (and no one can make him want to be better, he had to be ready to do it himself) and recognizing that he’s suffered for everything that was his choice and suffered for things that weren’t his choice are just as important.To say that he was evil from the start or that he was nothing but a monster, to say that he was worthless, it really misses the point of him, why Obi-Wan and Padme and Luke loved him so much, even after everything. It misses the point that this wasn’t a story about someone born evil, but about someone who had more power than he knew what to do with and his fears ate away at him until the good was cast into too much shadow to see anymore. All that the people who loved him had was faith that it was still there, because none of them could see it anymore.  They just had to know.  They had to see it come back.But they wouldn’t have loved him if he hadn’t been so, so worthwhile in the first place.  They wouldn’t have worked so hard or been so happy to see him if he hadn’t been so, so worthwhile in the first place.Anakin has paid for his monstrous choices, in ways that of course make me upset and sad, because I don’t like to see anyone suffer in pain.  He will continue to pay for them because he has to live (or whatever it is Force Ghosts do) with what he’s done, has to remember every bad thing he did that hurt someone he loved.This is not an attempt to sway you or anyone else into “oh, but you have to like him because of [various reasons he was good and was a victim]” because some people have a line and Anakin will have crossed it for them.  Nor am I really trying to sway you or anyone else into saying that you have to hate him or be angry with him, I can’t control anyone else’s views on Anakin Skywalker any more than they could (or should) try to control mine!If a person hates him, well, we can take comfort in that he really, really paid for those choices–24+ years of pain and, yes, he’s a Force Ghost but one who has to live with almost everyone he ever knew either hating his guts or dead, one who has to live with trying to make peace with what he’d done, one who has three people who are invested in him (Obi-Wan, Luke, and Yoda) while everyone else doesn’t give a shit about him or hates him.And if a person loves him, we can take comfort in that Anakin finally returned to the light and he has a chance to make peace with everything, that there was still good in him, and that he does have those three people who care about him, who love him.  (AND BOY DO I LOVE HIM.  I will also say, love him or hate him, he certainly is a worthy central character, god knows I’ve written so much meta about him and STILL HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO GO, because Anakin Skywalker gives me so many feelings.)Either way, Anakin Skywalker may have died to be redeemed but he still has to live with it and that cannot possibly be an easy thing.