#And I think that the movie says something like Obi-Wan will take over her training once Anakin decides he doesn't want a padawan

[tomicaleto]

I saw a post mentioning Ahsoka was originally assigned to Obi-Wan and I’m like ??? Like, yes Obi-Wan asked for a new padawan but the first thing Ahsoka says as she arrives is that she was assigned to Anakin

Edit: if you don’t want to read the tags: I rewatched the scenes from the movies and it’s said several times she was assigned to Anakin by Yoda himself and at the end it’s implied Obi-Wan helped. She was never assigned to Obi-Wan.

[gffa]

What do you do when you start hating/gets annoyed with a character that you previously liked/was cool about bc of bad or "i personally don't like it" writing? I loved the mandalorian, but since the slight at the jedi in that random episode in the middle of tbobf i'm so bitter about him, i can logically reason with myself that he's being kinda prejudiced since he doesn't know shit about jedi but i just can't get over it and i feel stupid tbh. That's also happening with ahsoka and i'm sad about it

It can be hard to get over a character bashing other faves or when they’re used as a weapon against your other faves and I don’t have a perfect answer, I still have to work at it and I can’t always get over it. But a few things help me: - I have friends who like those characters, like Din or Ahsoka or Qui-Gon, and they also like the Jedi at the same time.  I think of their affection for those characters and I want to be on their side, I want to share in that joy, so I determinedly look at the bad writing as “how dare you do this to my friend’s Blorbo!” and focus back on the things that they love about those characters. - I stop and think about:  What do I really want out of my experience in Star Wars fandom?  Sure, I get mad about Felony’s writing sometimes or I get mad at how people try to use Qui-Gon as a weapon against the other Jedi, but then I try to take a step back and ask myself if I really need the whole of fandom to be my playground.  Hell, do I even need the newer content to be my playground all of the time? And the answer is that I don’t.  I have the movies and TCW.  I have my group of people who like the same things I like and enjoy the characters in a fun way.  In five or ten years, when I look back on my time in this fandom, I want that to be what I experienced.  Because when I look back at my fandoms from 10 years ago--that’s what I remember.  Hanging out with funny people in our little corner of the fandom.  I don’t remember the vast majority of dumb things people said or the things that annoyed me about the writing, I remember chatting with people about character interpretation or what if ideas. The entirety of Star Wars doesn’t have to be for me.  I can just mentally snip out the parts I don’t feel like dealing with, nobody can stop me from going, “Felony has to prove himself to me with each episode and he failed on that one, so NOPE bye bye to that dumbass interpretation.” - Fake it until you make it.  We’re all human, we all have our salt days, we all get annoyed by stuff, but the more we focus on those parts, the bigger they loom in our minds.  I find that it actually genuinely does help to just say nice things about the character!  I find myself annoyed by how fandom uses Ahsoka as a weapon against the Jedi sometimes, I find myself salty every time I try to talk about Filoni’s writing of her, so when I got a lovely ask about her relationship with Obi-Wan in season 7, I decided I was determinedly going to talk about her with as much sympathy as I could.  And you know what?  By the time I was halfway through that, ruthlessly snipping out any parts where I started to get salty about her or complain about her writing, I was back on the Ahsoka Affection Train! Writing something that is purely affectionate about those characters can genuinely help.  All you need from fandom is the corner of people you surround yourself with, and if you’re surrounding yourself with people who love Din or Ahsoka or Qui-Gon and who love the Jedi--that’s what the Star Wars fandom experience is.  You don’t have to “win” at the source material or anything, all you gotta do is “win” at fandom, and you can do that by building the space you want around you and just going, “Nah.” to the rest of it!

[daisychainsandbowties]

(trying to find the right poses)

What would you say are the preferred lightsaber forms of our dearly beloved disaster trio? (and also Mary and Shannon)

For me, I can see Beatrice switching between the elegance of Makashi and the unbreaking wall of Soresu (the little overachiever would of course be more than capable of using more than one form) (and that fight in chapter 2 of LB had total Soresu vibes from Bea).

And Ava, who is always so aware/absorbed/active in the Force, I can see leaning more into Niman to compensate between use of the force and the actual physical demands of the form. Or maybe Ataru, because of how she already automatically leans into the Force to enhance her natural movements, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for her to take it further in her lightsaber form (and also the little energizer bunny isn't exactly the type to stay contained. she totally has ketamine-gremlin-yoda vibes)

Lilith, I can see with Forms V or VII (or both, considering her proficiency with a blade). I can see her leaning into the physicality required for Shien/Djem So, as well as the practicality of it for both saber and blaster combat. But also Juyo, for the aggressive chaos and sheer strength of body, mind, and will it requires to sustain (and I cannot unsee the parallels between her and Maul).

What do you think?

oh you are wonderful for getting me thinking seriously about this. i trained in kendo for years as a kid, so usually i meld that and my karate to write (sword)fighting scenes, but this is giving me so much more to work with.

so, thinking on the lighsaber form of the star wars au cast:

Mary would definitely use form 5. probably both variations. she fought extensively during the Clone Wars & would have seen the value in a lightsaber form that prioritised deflecting blaster bolts over duelling.

she wouldn’t have gravitated towards Soresu, i think, because she is naturally more aggressive than that, and she wants options available to her for initiating conflict, as opposed to responding to it. Shien is excellent for fighting in battlefield conditions. like Soresu in its emphasis on deflecting blaster bolts, but also more assertive - often redirecting those bolts into other opponents, or environmental hazards.

the Djem So side of things she would be less, but still somewhat, practiced in. she'd see the value in aggressive close combat duelling tactics, but ultimately her preference is for Shien. Djem So is her go-to for fighting other lightsaber-users though, because it offers a solid set of options, but relies less on the kind of wild acrobatics that many other Jedi employ.

she is not so accomplished at Djem So as in Shien, mostly because she’s not a natural duelist, specialising in battlefield command, usually fighting among Republic Clone Troopers. Mary also, even before Order 66, carried and used a blaster in addition to her lightsaber.

Shannon: Soresu. Shannon is a very Obi-Wan Kenobi/ Luke Skywalker character. she’s dedicated to the beliefs of the Jedi - she is about balance, harmony, hence why she has a green saber - and Soresu exemplifies the Jedi philosophy.

it is also incredibly useful in a variety of situations (all about exposing minimal targets to the enemy, thinking of Luke practicing en-route to Alderaan); it’s resilliant and adaptable, and as a diplomat - probably one of the few Jedi who were called in to deal with complex scientific issues (read: the time when Shannon ended up in a star wars equivalent of the movie “Alien” along with Mary, back in their early days together) Shannon would have favoured Soresu as a defensive form.

she’s a self-sacrificial sort of person, too, and you can see Soresu in the way that she defends Ava from Crimson in chapter 1 (an echo of Obi-Wan in A New Hope). i think she almost took Niman after mastering form 1 back in her padawan days, but something (Mary) changed her mind about spending 10 years studying it. 

Bea: oh! i definitely think that Bea is melding different forms together (certainly she’s borrowing aspects from her Jedi and her Sith training).

so yes, she uses Makashi on the Sith side of things (because it is Lilith who retrains her in the lightsaber after she is tortured; she has to adapt to her shattered elbow, which will always be weak. hence why Makashi - a (frequently) one-handed fighting style - is an ideal style for her to fall back).

i think she is trained in Soresu, but she had to abandon it - again, because of her injury - though she retains the tactical instincts of that style, despite adapting to a more aggressive outlook. Soresu requires too much dual-dexterity.

instead of Soresu, Bea picks up Ataru. the force-assisted acrobatics and the fluidity of it suit her perfectly - plus the aggression. she’s all about sliding through an opponent’s space, slipping past their guard, or simply coming at them from an angle they don’t expect. the combo of Makashi - THE duelling form - and Ataru would i think be Potent. both elegant, but Makashi playing into her calculating, strategic side - all about the footwork and controlling yourself AND your foe - plus the explosive power of Ataru and also its use of the Force, which, as we all know, Beatrice is incredibly powerful with. bringing out the blunt-force side of her fighting instincts. i think the ch 2 pit fight showcased her ability to balance aggression with manipulation, and also to come at her opponent with vicious speed and end the fight swiftly and efficiently (a hallmark of Ataru)

Lilith: you’re totally right. i think 100% Lilith would use form 7 - and Juyo specifically. she’s not trained in the same way as others, & i think was pretty swiftly thrown into battle after mastering form 1 and being taught elements of Makashi (which she later perfected, just because she could) but in her heart she’s a form 7 practitioner.

it requires both immense aggression, a level of viciousness, and also a focus on emotion and domination. i think from what we see of Lilith’s fighting style she is MUCH more brutal than Beatrice (her fight style resembles Kenpo karate)

Juyo is described in one of the novels as a form filled with “malignant grace” <- could we describe darling dearest Lil any better?? in ch. 2 her leaping attack really exemplifies the sudden volatility of form 7.

it also requires a lot of internalised Force energy, which, considering Lilith’s unique relationship with the Force (and her augmentation with magick) would be ideal for her. it also LOOKS messy, but it is, in fact, astonishing grace hidden inside of staccato movements. considering Some Plans i have, that would suit Lilith perfectly - yes, she seems like an untamed thing, but she is in fact as deft and calculated as Beatrice, and Juyo allows her to use her fury to her advantage, and also her overwhelming physical prowess, because she really IS probably the most physically adept out of all of them.

Ava: i think for Ava i spoke in ch 1 about her being absolutely angelic with the lightsaber, and also Ava knows physics. she loves acrobatics and she ADORES aerial acrobatics, specifically - particularly aviation and ship manoeuvers. she knows g-forces and how not to pass out while pitching and rolling in atmosphere.

so i think she is a pure Ataru practitioner. form 4, with its focus on acrobatics and dynamic movement, would appeal to her desire to move and to fly and to be rooted anywhere but into the ground. it is also incredibly offensive (a good echo of Ava’s ‘i’m more of a punch-first type girl’ comment). and it DOES emphasise the force, but specifically for movement.

i think Ava, depending a lot of Shannon’s incredibly Force-abilities, would lean into the more embodied side of the Force - speed, agility, and a no-holds-barred offence would absolutely suit Ava - though, of course, Ataru is really incredibly dependent on the practitioner’s strong connection to the Force, which early-star wars au Ava does not have.

but yes the quickness of it, the jumping and the almost phasing through space with Force-enhanced speed, all of it would suit Ava. i think, probably, she will have to adjust eventually to learn some techniques for dealing efficiently with blaster-bolts and projectiles. i think also there’s an extent to which Ava’s use of Ataru is tempered somewhat by her training in Soresu, from Shannon. i think she leaned into the beauty and the ferociousness of Ataru, but now that she doesn’t have her Master anymore there’ll be an element of melding those styles together, learning to protect herself because Shannon - who always, always protected her - has stood between Ava and her death for the last time. 

[vaderssidechick]

Sequel Trilogy Rant Time

Ok, I’m going on pure stream of consciousness here, so maybe a lot of this won’t make sense. But hey, that didn’t stop the Sequel Trilogy now, did it?

But you know what would have made it all make sense? If Rey was, indeed, the reincarnation of Anakin Skywalker.

Hear me out.

So, once again, we have a magical child who is basically a slave on a desert planet in the form of Rey. This Rey girl, she’s something else-- a scavenger who knows exactly what she’s looking for and what it’s worth, a crack pilot, a mechanic, and a really good fighter.  

 Sound familiar? Yeah, of course it does. Now, if JJ and Rian didn’t have their heads up their asses, it seems to be that Rey is freakin’ Anakin Skywalker reborn. Maybe even down to the “divine” birth, because they first 2 movies did everything they could to make sure WE KEEP GUESSING WHO REY’S PARENTS ARE. 

So we find out that Rey’s parents sold her for drinking money-- but then they didn’t according to Kylo. But then they did? But not really? UGH!! So here’s what might have happened-- yes, she was sold, but not for drinking money. She was sold because her “father” discovered that Rey was not actually his biological child. Her mother of course thought she was his as well until Rey received her “chain code”, which is based on DNA. Rey’s chain code divulged that she had none of her father’s DNA-- and that her paternal DNA couldn’t be connected to any living human male in the New Republic system. Enraged and thinking that her mother cheated on him, Rey’s “father” takes the child and sells her into slavery because he can’t stand looking at her. Maybe he used the money to tie one on. 

Now let’s take a look at the cave scene in TLJ. She keeps seeing herself in a mirror image, over and over again. A scene, which of course, IS NEVER EXPLAINED WHAT IT FUCKING MEANS. Well, if you go with the Anakin Reincarnation Theory (ART from here on out), it makes complete sense. SHE’S BEEN HERE BEFORE, MANY TIMES. And she’ll keep coming back when she’s needed. Because she is The Chosen One (oh yeah, that whole concept just got swept under the rug, didn’t it?).

Then there’s the whole vision scene in TFA. Um, The Force AWAKENS??? Like, from a deep sleep? Or possibly DEATH? Why does Rey have such an intense response to touching Luke and Anakin’s lightsaber? She sees the past, she sees the future? Could it be, possibly, I dunno, because it was HERS all along? Because the kyber crystal inside it was not only chosen by Anakin, but by every Chosen One before or since? Because that particular kyber crystal was specifically for The Chosen One? 

Why is she so strong in the Force without training? Why can she do the things she can do? And why do her powers suddenly emerge? Could it be because her powers manifested when SHE MET ANOTHER FORCE SENSITIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME? Say, I dunno, FINN? Like Luke’s Force powers finally came about after he met Obi Wan? More on that later. Maybe, Like I said, stream of consciousness. 

And then there’s Kylo Ren. Why is he so drawn to her? Yeah, we’re skipping the whole Diad thang here. Why is he so obsessed with her, like he’s obsessed with, I dunno, Grampy Vader? In fact, why would he react so strongly when Rey says to him in their torture session, “You’ll never be as strong as Darth Vader?” Yeah, she got in his head, sure. But Kylo was so shook, he basically ran out of the room. And then in TLJ, he says, “Let the past die!” He doesn’t need to worship a ghost anymore, because the “ghost” is here now, with him. Why do they Force Bond so quickly? How can they hear and see each other across the galaxy? Because they are bonded not only through the Force, but through generations. 

Because ANAKIN came back to save him. He came back to save his children, and to save the galaxy. Because he is The Chosen One. And that’s what they do. 

Anakin, being Anakin of course, can see what’s happening from the Cosmic Force, and he doesn’t like it one damn bit. He even argues with Obi Wan and Yoda, insisting that he GOES BACK AND RIGHTS HIS WRONGS. He sees Luke losing hope, he sees Leia still fighting a fascist regime now headed by his own grandson. His work is NOT finished and, frankly, Anakin feels that he didn’t deserve his redemption. His family is still suffering, even decades later, because of his actions. He HAS to go back.

Obi Wan and Yoda of course don’t like the idea. Qui Gong, however, LOVES it. He gives Anakin his blessing, and Anakin asks how he can go back. Qui Gong answers, “They way you got there the first time, of course.”

So Anakin casts his gaze over the galaxy, and hones in on a woman on Jakku, a woman who resembled his own beloved mother. He smiles, thinking Jakku is the perfect place to come back, the planet that saw the Empire’s final defeat. 

Hence, the title “The Rise of Skywalker” makes some goddamn sense. Rey IS a Skywalker, just the way Anakin was a Skywalker. Through Rey, Anakin saves his grandson and yes, defeats Palpatine once and for all. Rey brings Luke back from his exile, she leads Leia’s armed forces, she makes Finn a founding member of the new Jedi Academy. How incredibly fitting would that be???

And it would make all the freakin sense in the world when, at the end of TROS, when the old woman asks Rey her name, she proudly says, “Skywalker.” Because she IS Rey Skywalker. 

End of rant. 

[agirlunderarock]

Spoilers for Episode 3 of Obi-Wan Kenobi under the cut

I'm just having a lot of thoughts about Leia tonight guys

I-

I watched it early in the morning and I was not okay. I wanted to SCREAM several times. I almost cried when Leia asked Obi-Wan if he was her real dad- and thats really what I want to talk about in this post. I know it was visually and emotionally upsetting to see Anakin dragging Obi-Wan through the fire (even if before he got dragged, I had to pause it the moment Anakin started the fire to fucking laugh because Anakin literally just never stops being a fucking petty drama queen- then I was screaming into a pillow in horror), but I want to talk about how all of this is going to look to Leia.

Leia doesn't know who her real parents are. She straight up asked Obi-Wan if he was her father. She's probably vaguely heard of Vader at this point, he's the right hand to the Emperor, how could she not. She doesn't think much of it, until she's with Obi-Wan, until she sees the absolute fear and anxiety in this tired old man's eyes. She sees fear in a jedi, a jedi who she probably heard a few stories about from her father, a jedi who the galaxy seems to agree is untouchable. This larger than life jedi who is so broken and twisted by circumstances she can't even imagine at this point, but the moment she sees that fear, sees that anxiety whenever Vader or his inquisitors are brought up, she knows it has something to do with them. Her first impression about her biological father is that he is a MONSTER. Of course Leia doesn't know that Vader is her father, how could she? But over 10 years later, her twin brother is going to end up telling her, the truth. I just- The first time she really encounters Vader is in this episode. She knows he's after a man who has protected her and done everything he possibly could to keep her safe and know she understands why Obi-Wan was so afraid, and hesitant. She sees Vader dragging people out of their homes just to kill them to get to Obi-Wan. Reva kiddnapped her to get to Obi-Wan, she has no doubts that Vader would kill her to get to Obi-Wan. When she eventually sees Obi-Wan again, sees the burns and scars, she's going to know Vader did it. He won't have to say it, she knows. Who else could have done it but someone who has no value for any kind of life. Vader becomes the monster that would haunt her through out her life. He might never recognize her, might not ever see her, but she's going to feel that same twist of fear and maybe even anger whenever she hears about him for the next 9 years. Theres no doubt in my mind that seeing this, adds fuel to her fire when she gets older, when she actively takes part in the rebellion.

I just- I have to wonder if part of why Leia didn't complete her jedi training is because she could also feel Anakin still in the force. Like we're just uncovering some child trauma for her involving Vader in this series, but then she's taken captive 9 years later, watches her crew get slaughtered by Vader, they interrogated/tortured her (I assume given that the same probe was used on Rex in rebels and it sounded like he was being tortured), held her back to force her to watch the destruction of her planet, killed the only other person who made her feel loved and safe aside from her family in front of her, tortured a man she was falling in love with and again made her watch while afore mentioned man was frozen and sold to bounty hunters, saw the after math of him fighting he man she'd realize is her twin brother- only to list the things in the movies. But like, I know the reason she stopped her training or something had to do with seeing the death of her son at the end of her journey or something right- and that was a lot to deal with. But I also imagine Anakin tried to communicate with Leia a lot in the force, she could still feel him when she drew on the force. How could she want a connection to man who's haunted her nightmares for so long, the man who caused her so much pain over the course of her life? For nearly all her life she's known him to be a monster.

I like to imagine hat Anakin, maybe even Luke try to get her to soften up, but Leia can't let go of that. LIke if you've heard Requiem from dear evan handson- the ending part all feels like Leia's attitude

Why should I play the grieving girl and lie Saying that I miss you And that my world has gone dark without your light?

Who the hell was Anakin Skywalker to her? She never knew him. She might have heard stories about him every once in a while, but I guaranee he was a secondary character to Padme Amidala.

'Cause when the villains fall, the kingdoms never weep No one lights a candle to remember No, no one mourns at all When they lay them down to sleep

So, don't tell me that I didn't have it right Don't tell me that it wasn't black and white After all you put me through Don't say it wasn't true That you were not the monster That I knew

Literally the only thing Leia has ever known Vader to be, is a monster. Even if he saved Luke, that doesn't mean she can forget the shit she went through because of Vader, all he destruction she witnessed because of Vader, all the pain she endured because of Vader. From the moment Vader walked into that town and started dragging people out of their homes, Leia was going to view him as a monster. Always.

[imagineyourworld]

How the clones would ask you out (Genderneutral)

Includes Rex, Fives, Echo, Jesse, Kix, Cody and Wolffe 

Warnings: None

Rex

Poor Rex would be so, so nervous 

It took pep talks vom Anakin, Ahsoka and several of his brothers to get up the courage to actually ask you out (though not all of them were all that helpful) 

Rex wouldn’t ask you out in public or at work, he’d go to your flat instead

His strong knock doesn’t betray his nerves, but the second you open the door he cannot remember what he was going to say for the life of him 

Luckily he was trained as a soldier his entire life and it only takes him a few second to forget about his nerves and continue with his plan 

“I was wondering if you’d like to go on a picnic with me tomorrow?” 

A picnic, Ahsoka had convinced him, would be the perfect first date. The two of them had even decided on a nice place in one of Coruscant’s few parks together 

(Plus Rex likes to bake and cook, it’s his way of dealing with the stress of war (and his brothers’ shenanigans)) 

“I’d love to.” 

You have never seen such a big smile on Rex’s face 

“Great. That’s great.” 

You chatted for a few more minutes before Rex had to excuse himself. Just as you were closing the door you stuck your head out again.  “Rex?”  “Yes.”  “Is this a date?”  The small blush on his face was adorable.  “I’d like it to be, if that’s fine with you.”  You smiled.  “It’s more than fine.” 

Fives

If anyone has an actual pickup line it’s Fives, not in a creepy way though, he’s cute about it 

The two of you have been flirting back and forth for a while now and Fives, after finally no longer denying his feelings, decides to ask you out 

He walks up to you with every bit of confidence he can muster 

“Hey handsome, what brings you here?”, you ask. Your usual greeting, but Fives doesn’t reply in the way he usually does (”Hey mesh’la, just coming to admire the view.”)  “Since you make my heart sing I was wondering if you’d like to accompany to a concert tomorrow.” 

You could tell that he wasn’t joking this time, but still decided to have your fun with him. 

“So sorry, I already promised another handsome young man with a number as his name to spend the day with him.”  As soon as the words left your mouth the smile fell from Fives’ face and instantly made you regret your words.  “Oh, baby, no. I was only joking. I’d love to go out with you.”  The smirk was back and brighter than ever.  “It’s a date!”, he said a bit louder than he had to. 

He’d kiss you on the cheek before saying goodbye. 

(And maybe he even whispers suggestions for what you could do after the concert in your ear.) 

Echo

Much like Rex, Echo is quite nervous

At first he was glad to have Fives on his side to give him advice, but he soon learned that not everything his brother suggested would go down well 

He’d wait for you at work and offer to walk you home, because someone once told him that travelling in the same direction eases conversation 

When you exit the building your eyes immediately fall on Echo, who is standing nearby with flowers in his hand.  “What are you doing here?”, you ask with a smile on your face.  “I... well... I saw these flowers in the market downton and they made me think of you.” He hands you the flowers, suddenly even more nervous now that he doesn’t have anything in his hands.  “That’s so sweet”, you say as you lift the flowers to your nose. “I was just on my way home, would you like to join me and come in for a cup of caf?”

The two spend the rest of the day together. Walking home, drinking caf, cooking dinner. After a while Echo’s nervousness fades and only returns when he realises it’s time for him to return to the barracks. 

“Actually I had another reason to come to see you today. I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me sometime. Like on a date. If you would like to go on a date with me.”  You laugh and the sound Echo usually cherishes breaks his heart, which you soon realise. “Oh, Echo, honey, no! I mean yes, but I just thought that today was kinda like... a date... I’m sorry, I was just assuming, I should have actually asked you.”  A smile mirroring yours appeared on his face.  “So... How about a second date?” 

Jesse 

Jesse only realises that he needs to ask you out as soon as possible after a particularly tough mission. A lot of his brothers died, even more got hurt, and he spent a few days in the medbay as well. 

The second he’s back on Coruscant he comms you asking where you are and no matter where you are or what you’re doing, he’s on his way to you as soon as you answer. 

“Stars, Jesse, what’s gotten into you?”, you ask when you open the door to his rapid knocking.  “I like you, I really like you and I don’t want to die without ever asking you out. So, (Y/N), will you go out with me?”  At first you don’t know what to say.  “Of course I’ll go out with you. But maybe you should sit down for a minute, you don’t seem like yourself.” 

After just a few minutes and a cup of herbal tea the two of you were talking and joking like always. That is until you remember an appointment you had to hurry to make.  “I’d hate to throw you out, but I really need to go.”  “That’s fine”, Jesse says with a smile. “How about I pick you up tomorrow at seven for our date?”  You nod your head smiling. 

Kix 

Kix asks you out more or less on accident. It’s been a long day, he’s tired, and all he wants is a relaxing evening with you. 

“Hey, Kix, you wanna come to 79s with us?”, Fives, who just popped into the medbay, asks.  Kix shook his head. “I really don’t. If it were up to me I’d spend the evening with some takeout and (Y/N).”  “(Y/N)?”, Jesse follows up.  “They help me relax like no one else and that’s what I need after stitching you idiots up all day”, Kix says, glancing at Fives and Hardcase at his last words.  “Then how about we grab something to eat and spend the evening on my couch?”, you offer.  Everyone turns to you, who had just entered the room. Echo bursts in a second later. “Sorry, I tried to stop her from coming in.” 

Kix blushes like crazy, you weren’t supposed to hear that. He tells you as much. 

You walk over to where he’s sitting, miraculously the others have disappeared, and place a hand on his shoulder. If it weren’t for the armour covering him you would have loved nothing more than giving him a soothing massage. 

“You know what? I’m here because I wanted to ask you out, but I guess you just did that for me.”  He chuckled. “Guess so. Let’s go, I cannot wait for our date.” 

Cody 

Cody would be so smooth when asking you out, mainly because he got advice from Obi-Wan, who flirts with everyone and could teach him a few good moves. 

His tactic is pretending you already agreed, which is why he spent the afternoon transforming his room into a small movie theatre for the two of you, complete with snacks and drinks and a holoprojector. 

He then makes his way over to your apartment to actually ask you out. And though he hadn’t been nervous all day, the second you open the door he’s at a loss for words. 

“(Y/N), cyare, I was wondering... No, that’s not it... I’m here to ask you... No, wait... Would you like to...” Though you can’t help but find his out of character rambling cute, you want nothing more than to put poor Cody out of his misery.  “Would you care for a glass of water?”, you ask, opening the door further to invite him in. 

For some reason the cool water helps him sort out his thoughts and he can finally ask the question he’d prepared earlier.  “Would you like to watch a movie with me tonight?”, he asks, his voice smooth and steady.  For a fraction of a second there was something that might have been disappointment in your eyes, but then you nodded.  “Sure. Why don’t we invite Waxer and Boil as well?”  Cody had been quite sure that you’d agree, but the second part caught him off guard. Maybe he should have been more obvious with his intention.  “Actually, I was hoping it’d be just the two of us.”  You raised an eyebrow.  “Wait a minute, Cody, did you just ask me on a date?”  A shy smile made it’s way on his face, though to his credit he didn’t blush.  “I did.”  He had no idea how it was possible, but the smile on your face was even brighter than his own.  “In that case, yes! I’d love to watch a movie with you.” 

Wolffe 

The main reason Wolffe was reluctant to ask you out was not nerves, but rather not wanting to admit his feelings, not wanting to admit a weakness. It was actually Plo Koon who, through ambiguous comments, convinced him to just do it.  

He didn’t want it to be a big ceremony, he wasn’t the type for big gestures, but that night, as you were sitting at 79s with the Wolfpack and your eyes were glittering in the multicoloured lights and your perfume made its way to Wolffe’s nose, he just had to ask you out before it was too late, before anything happened to either of you or someone else asked you before he did. 

And so, when most of the others were scattered across the bar, he asked you if you’d like to get some air with him. He may not be one for big gestures, but he’d be damned if he asked you out in a stuffy bar surrounded by his drunk brothers. 

Outside, he realized was not the perfect environment either. There were still drunk clones around and instead of stuffy it was cold, cold enough to make you shiver in your thin clothes and Wolffe wished he had a jacket he could give you.  “I’ll make this quick so you can go back inside. I-”, he stopped himself.  You were suddenly a lot closer than just a few moments ago, he could feel your warm breath on his face and it made him lose all focus.  “Yes, Wolffe?”, you questioned.  He cleared his throat and continued. “I was hoping that you’d like to go on a date with me sometime.” 

The atmosphere may not have been perfect, neither were his words, but your smile was and it made up for everything else.  “I don’t know, Commander, what’s in it for me?”, you asked with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t know. Dinner, maybe flowers or chocolate”, he replied, trying his best to hide the sudden insecurity.  You crossed your arms over your chest and sighed. Wolffe knew what was coming next, he knew you’d let him down and it would be awkward. He never should have asked you out.  “You know, I had been hoping you’d say The pleasure of my company or something like that, but I suppose chocolate will do.”  A smirk had made it’s way to your lips and a low chuckled escaped Wolffe’s.  “Is that a yes, mesh’la?”  “It is.” 

[gch1995]

Okay so rereading ROTS novelization and something rubs me wrong. Yoda and Obi Wan are talking about what to do with the twins and instantly Kenobi starts talking about TRAINING them in the ways of the Force. Yoda even says when the time is right they will be brought to them for training. How did they even know the twins would be force sensitive? Yoda said the Force runs strong in the Skywalker line but how does he know? Shmi wasn’t Force sensitive and neither was Padme so how can they just assume? And the BALLS they both had to just decide for the twins that they would be Jedi. I’m sorry I don’t think you two are exactly the best to decide the fate of children. At this point I see why uncle Owen didn’t want Kenobi around Luke. He was itching to train this kid from birth! Talking about how Luke would be trained how Anakin SHOULD have been… sir you can’t teach. Even when Bail offers to take Leia, Yoda and Kenobi exchange a LOOK, as if they are wary about letting go one of the twins. Also, the straight DISRESPECT Kenobi showed to Anakin when he took Luke to Tatooine knowing that was were Anakin first experienced slavery and the death of his mom. His excuse? “Anakin survived it. Luke can too.” Direct quote. So essentially Luke is like Yoda and Kenobi’s controlled experiment with almost the same situations thinking they’ll get a different outcome. I don’t know it just all rubs me wrong.

It depends on how much of the RotS novelization you actually consider canon, but, yeah, Obi-Wan is a grossly overrated character by most of this fandom.

No, he was never an outright evil conquerer like the gray Jedi believed in Legends from Empire/Sith propaganda, but he was never a particularly idealistic, kind, good, open-minded, or selfless type of character who made a truly heroic person. That’s why, as awful and dark as Anakin Skywalker became, his story is a tragedy, because, at his best, he displayed all the same qualities that Luke did in the OT movies to be that kind, progressive, revolutionary, selfless, and self-sacrificing hero for the Jedi Order and the galaxy at large, if his life hadn’t constantly been a living hell of abuse, neglect, and oppression under corrupt authority and he hadn’t become too afraid to say no and do better after awhile.

Yoda looked upon Obi-Wan Kenobi as the ideal Jedi of the of the old Order because he was a teacher’s pet who repeatedly made a conscious effort to not have any aspirations, ideals, interests, relationships, or personal values, life outside of kissing his ass to fit in and get ahead to be on the Council, even if that meant repeatedly screwing over his own integrity and those he cared about to do it.

It’s both a blessing and curse for him to be that way. On the one hand, he can never be vulnerable to the dark side because he’s learned to be so content with being a perfect Jedi™️ at all costs. On the other hand, because Obi-Wan is so content and dedicated to being that way, he can never reach the same level of true heroism that other characters like his master Qui Gonn met at his best, Anakin met at his best, Ahsoka at her best, Luke met at his best, or Ezra met at his best because his sense of motivation comes primarily from the Jedi Council and Yoda with his desire to fit in and get ahead with them generally outweighing his desire to be good by listening to his own instincts and conscience. For someone to accomplish truly heroic deeds with a truly heroic motivation, they can’t just be doing good things because someone else with power of authority over them tells them it’s right, tells them it’s for a reward, or tells them it’s the only way to fit in.

Obi-Wan can’t reach that level of true heroism that those other characters he met could at their best as a person himself because he generally was all about Yoda’s and the Council’s validation, and he never really put in much effort to be anything better than that. He never had a great enough desire to become anything better than what he had been taught to be by Yoda and the Council for as long as he could remember. He never had a great enough interest to understand the galaxy outside of Yoda’s temple.

It’s not all his fault he grew up to be that way because he was a victim of Yoda’s cult of total emotional/individual denial for life, but he also consistently made a conscious effort to not be like the sort of curious, kind, open-minded, and spontaneously good people he had met throughout his life more than once because they were free thinkers and idealists, who he secretly admired, but also saw didn’t get ahead with Yoda.

You’re right, though, nonny. Obi-Wan and Yoda really didn’t have the right to be planning out Luke’s and Leia’s fates before they even reached their first birthday. To plan on using them as weapons to destroy the monster of a man they inadvertently helped turn their father into before they were even born is also just cowardly of them. The worst part is that they never express any sort of remorse or self-awareness of just how wrong it was to attempt to deceive and manipulate the Skywalker twins to kill off the monster they helped turn his dad. The only one of Luke’s predecessors who gets the importance of taking personal responsibility for bad decisions by the end of the OT movies, rather than letting Luke pay for his sins, or trying to manipulate him for their own ends, is Anakin Skywalker.

Obi-Wan and Yoda never seem to get that it wasn’t okay to use the Skywalker twins as weapons to clean up the mess they inadvertently helped create with their father, but they still get the force ghost treatment, in spite of seemingly learning nothing from their pasts, because they are Jedi.

[into-daylight-hope]

Qui-Gon Jinn: Certified Hypocrite, Fascinating Failure, Mass of Contradictions

For starters, I am just going to let direct quotes from the man speak for itself.

Some excerpts from Master & Apprentice

Wise words.

Wait a minute...

😯😯 What the hell is happening here? All quotes are from the same man in one book.

Qui-Gon Jinn doesn't have an ounce of self-awareness and it is so hilariously terrible.

What is even better (or worse), this is perfectly in line with The Phantom Menace characterization .

I mean,

Remember when he said all this than spent the rest of the movie obsessing over prophecies, the chosen one and literally the future?

"He still has so much to learn of the living force." Qui-Gon Jinn about Obi-Wan in the council scene

After that scene

"The boy is dangerous. They all sense it why can't you?" Obi-Wan Kenobi about Anakin Skywalker to Qui-Gon Jinn

You see Obi-Wan, Master Jinn here has completely lost any sense of "here and now" between his crusade against darkness and divine mission to save the Galaxy.

This in turn, unsurprisingly blinds him to the fact Anakin is not suitable to become a Jedi. Or at least not ready to directly move on to becoming a padawan.

Anakin himself would suffer in a road that is not meant for him. But he is not planning for Anakin the child. He is thinking about The Glorious Chose One.

He is the chosen one. You all must, see it.

And yet from Qui-Gon's perspective it is Obi-Wan who doesn't understand the Living Force.

I have to say if he is truly a student of the living force as many fans claim he has been failing the class for at least 8 years.

Let's move on to another set of entertaining and horrifyingly oblivious quotes from M&A.

If you look upward you can observe Mr. Here and Now in his natural habitat.

He really acts like future is set in stone than thinks he is the right person to talk about about concentrating in the moment. Unbelievable.

Let's look at this dialogue again. In contrast with the excerpt from above.

He is all about the future when it suits him. But when Obi-Wan makes a remark on it he obviously should just focus on the moment. This is actually the third time in this post where he contradicts himself while specifically chastising or criticizing Obi-Wan for something Qui-Gon actually does.

Now I don't think Qui-Gon acts with malice. But it is important to point out his obliviousness has become a way of ensuring he is never in the wrong.

He suffers from an immense hubris. And a man obsessed with prophecies and chosen ones definitely has some kind of savior complex.

But notably Jinn doesn't actually want to put any effort into enacting real change with his limited yet existent capabilities.

He turns down a council seat in M&A because he thinks it would hold him down. From what? Dear God, the reason they offered him a seat was for different opinions. Qui-Gon can complain all he wants but one time he actually had a chance to make his opinions a reality he freaking bailed.

Why? He doesn't want to face his own limits. He can't bare to try and fail. It is much easier to sustain a superiority complex when you are complaining from the sidewalk.

So he fixates all this belief onto prophecies, visions that will magically cure the Galaxy. And of course his place to help fulfill them. To the point where it is the one thing that keeps him standing.

He has binded meaning of his life and belief for goodness dangerously close to his supposed importance in the Galaxy. (You can feel the influences of his former master)

His absolute refusal to engage with reality turns him into mass of contradictions. Cause he doesn't know what he will find or become if he is mistaken in his belief of himself.

He can't face reinvention on the event of defeat.

But this situation was different. It had to be, because the only thing Qui-Gon knew to be absolutely true was that his vision was real.

Oh by the way, it turned out he misunderstood the vision. But when does being wrong ever stopped Qui-Gon Jinn?

No words.

Only Qui-Gon could have come near declaring himself a prophet after making a mistake. Maybe stop and reflect man? Just stop and think about your actions.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: I have a bad feeling about this.

Qui-Gon Jinn: I don't sense anything.

Of course you don't.

Honestly he doesn't have much to speak for in the cosmic force department either.

(There is the whole force ghost thing I guess. But I have no idea if that is more connected with living or cosmic force. It seems to be more about spiritual enlightenment. Which is ridiculous when you consider Yoda had go through so many trials, face his darkside, learn to truly let go just for Force priestesses to deem him worthy enough to study immortality. Yes Qui-Gon never became a force ghost but he had started his training before he died. And much of Yoda's tests on TCW was about self-awareness. It is not just about being a good person. How did Force Priestesses approve Qui-Gon "I was meant to misinterpret this vision." Jinn? I would understand if he became wiser after death and faced his flaws and all but he never was on that level before he died. You might say even Anakin became a force ghost. But I would remind you, Anakin in the end broke out of denial, acknowledged the wrong of his ways and took that leap to the light side. Self-awareness seems such an important key to becoming a force ghost. Right there with selflessness. Personally it doesn't quite feel right for a character whose biggest flaws are their lack of introspection and hubris which we never see him rise above to be the one that discovers immortality again. It feels more like a rushed plot point to explain how we get from A to B.)

This post got out of control 😂. I honestly just wanted to point out lack of communication might be one of the reasons Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon have trouble understanding each other but it is sometimes even harder to understand Qui-Gon when he actually says something. Cause ration is not what drives him.

Qui-Gon is such a complex character. He is undeniably good especially compared to other SW characters. Yet for all fandom's deifying he might be the most flawed Jedi we see on the franchise. (The ones that fell to the dark side not included.)

It is a shame wider fandom completely write off his flaws to the degree I can't even recognize the character when they talk about Jinn. Cause that Qui-Gon is so hard to feel empathy for.

When people constantly make statements like "He is The Wisest sw character." his hypocrisy stops being amusing. It doesn't end on screen or page instead often used to bash other characters.

An unbelievable analysis from Wookiepedia:

When Jinn saved the Gungan exile Jar Jar Binks, who in turn swore a life-debt to him, his compassionate nature was such that Jinn took the hapless Gungan under his wing, much to Kenobi's dismay. His empathy toward all life forms, including the most pitiful and unfortunate, was Jinn's greatest strength. Additionally, he remained understanding and patient with Queen Padmé Amidala. During the short time they knew each other, he never asked for her to do more than she was willing to.

You know out of the two, Qui-Gon was the one who insulted Jar Jar to his face. And he didn't took Jar Jar under his wing. They forced him to take them to a city where Jar Jar could have been punished for entering. Now it was the pragmatic thing to do. For all three's survival not for their own gain. Understandable. But compassion is just pushing it.

Also he never asked Padme to do more than she was willing to do?

Padmé : Are you sure about this? Trusting our fate to a boy we hardly know? The Queen will not approve.

Qui-Gon Jinn : The Queen does not need to know.

Padmé : Well, I don't approve.

And he is aware she is the queen, herself. Padme was nearly tearing out her because of this man in TPM.

What is weird, Jinn in his bewildering hypocrisy probably thinks he is being admirably compassionate with Jar Jar, highly understanding and patient with Padme. We clearly see he is not.

Out of universe he has been a force ghost for decades now but fandom is nowhere near acknowledging his flaws than he is.

And honestly SW doesn't have that many major morally complex characters. People like Maul, Palpatine, Anakin,Ventress don't think they are serving a higher purpose or oblivious to the evils they commit.

Emotionally complicated, yes. Going through moral dilemmas, no.

Three major characters come to mind who make huge mistakes, condone or commit atrocities while thinking they are in the right/with good intentions/for a greater cause. With varying degrees of culpability.

Qui-Gon. Padme. Dooku.

In that order.

Let these characters be interesting instead of demonizing nearly inhumanly selfless Jedi characters. (They make mistakes too but funnily enough they are still way better beings than most people on our planet.)

By the way I found the epitaph "Fascinating Failure" from the article here. Especially the last paragraphs make some interesting points. ⬇️

👀

This post might seem harsh but that is expected since it focuses on Qui-Gon's flaws.

"People are more than their worst act,” Quote from Qui-Gon Jinn in Master & Apprentice

[tennessoui]

50 but its Obi-Wan tired and stressed going through a messy divorce who mets ray of sunshine Anakin ❤

This is basically the Prologue to the story of how Homeowner Obi-Wan Adopts Two Children and A Husband Without Realizing It

50. Going Through a Divorce (Divorced!Obi-Wan)

Buy a house, they had said. You have a wife. You should have a house, they had said. The market is in your favor right now, they had said. This area is nice. Good for kids if that’s something you’re thinking about. Buy a house.

No one ever told Obi-Wan what to do if your wife divorces you and moves out, but the house is legally in your name and the weight of the mortgage is slowly killing you because while you’re a great English professor, you don’t exactly get paid a commission for how many kids decide to take your class after looking at your chili pepper score on Rate My Professor.

Obi-Wan sits in his study with the windows shut and the door closed. It’s the only room in the house that doesn’t feel like something’s glaringly missing. Every other place held at least a few of Satine’s possessions, and if he leaves the shelter of this one final safe haven, he knows himself well enough to know that he’ll prod at all those little absences the way a tongue ghosts over the pit left by a lost tooth.

But this study has always been his, and it still feels like it now. And while the house is, arguably, also still his and has always been, it feels too big now. Too empty.

He is not enough for the house either, it seems.

Obi-Wan snorts at the thought and pours himself a drink. He’s getting maudlin in his old age. Sentimental. What he should be doing is thinking of the logistics going forward, although he knows few. How To Get Divorced was never something they taught in schools, nor something he had thought to be in his future.

How To Pick Up The Pieces of Your Shattered Heart had been a tough lesson to learn a year ago when his wife--ex-wife now--had broached the topic of separation. Separation, as if that wasn’t simply a long-drawn out end. She hadn’t taken that criticism lightly, nor should she have. Their ensuing fight had only ended when she had gasped wetly through her tears and told him, “See? Who are we anymore? I don’t want to fight anymore, Obi.”

To which Obi-Wan had said, of course, “Don’t call me that.” and Satine had left without another word. Given enough time to reflect upon her argument, he did find the logic in it. They’d married young and then changed in ways that couldn’t click together. Obi-Wan would have been fine with continuing to try to force them to work, but Satine had never been one to hate herself in that way.

The papers had come on a rainy day in October. The love had stayed on, unwelcome and bitter and agonizing in turn, well into April. Now it’s autumn again, and Obi-Wan has a house that’s too big for just him and no wife or partner or lover to fill its gaps.

There’s a loud ping of his phone that brings him out of his thoughts. It’s a message from Quinlan, just a link. Obi-Wan almost doesn’t click it, not in the mood for a funny video or in-depth but frightfully out-of-touch opinion on a recent movie. Then Quinlan texts again. I know you like your blondes fiery is all he says, and now Obi-Wan has to know.

He touches the link and it takes him to a posting on a website dedicated to finding roommates. The text loads slowly, probably because there’s a lot of it.

IN NEED OF ROOMMATE ASAP the title screams. Reflexively, Obi-Wan checks the time-stamp, but this was posted only a day ago. His heart warms at the idea of Quinlan checking this website trying to solve Obi-Wan’s problem of the mortgage for him.

Then he keeps reading.

Hi, I’m Anakin, 26, it reads. Working in tech right now--should make any sort of income required. Recently and unexpectedly kicked out of my place. Parent of two toddlers, but they’re angels (separately)! They are past the point of drawing on walls and they are potty-trained. Would be willing to put down a pet deposit but no pets, just the twins. Being evicted in the next five days so desperately need place. Twins’ mom could take twins while I move out and then move in but she can’t have them longer than a couple of weeks because of her job.

Also full disclosure, I have to move out because I “assaulted” my landlord! He was being a creep about my friend and touched her without her consent. I’m not actually a violent person and will not hit you! Just if you call my landlord for a tenant reference, he won’t be nice. He’ll be very, very biased.

Before twins can move in, I will need to run a background check on you as well just to make sure you’re not a creep (creeps DNI)

Let me know if you’re interested!

(Please give me a chance.)

There’s a couple of pictures at the bottom, just after the man’s phone number and email. One depicts a smiling, attractive man, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans with a young child on each hip. The next is a close-up of the kids in fancy clothing, probably to prove that they’re not messy. The girl is scowling at the camera while the boy is crying though, so the overall effect is ruined. Still, Obi-Wan finds iit endearing. The last picture is Anakin’s mugshot, the man in question looking decidedly which makes Obi-Wan snort. He appreciates the level of honesty and loyalty Anakin’s clearly showing.

But this is a lot.

Obi-Wan hasn’t started to look into the option of finding a roommate to lessen the burden of his mortgage payments. And to jump straight to a man with a violent past and his two small children?

His house would be absolute chaos. He and Satine had always kept an orderly space, one that featured long bouts of quietly enjoying the other’s company from opposite ends of the living room, but there would be no quiet with two children and what he’s positive is a very lively man.

But hadn’t he just been thinking that the house was too silent now? Too empty? It would be--

Well. It wouldn’t feel like his and Satine’s house anymore. It would be unrecognizable.

Somehow he’s jotting down the number before he even realizes what he’s doing. And then he’s putting it into his phone. And then it’s ringing.

“Hello?” A distinctly masculine voice says on the other side. Obi-Wan clears his throat, suddenly unsure of what to say.

“Hi, hello yes. I’m calling about the ad you posted online yesterday?”

“What about it?” Anakin asks slowly, sounding suspicious. Obi-Wan has to fight to roll his eyes. If he hadn’t already committed himself to following through on the worst idea he’s had in years, he’d hang up at the other man’s clear distrust. He wants to berate him that this is not how you sell yourself to potential homeowners, but that isn’t his place.

“My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi,” he says instead. “And I fear I may be your only hope.”

[dexters-bluemilkshakes]

i made “the 501st go to target”, “the disaster lineage goes to target”, “The Clone Wars Squad ™ (+Satine) goes to target”, and “The Rebels go to target” and now i give you:

The Original Trilogy Gang Goes TO Target:

R2: knows his way around from when anakin used to take him to target. the floor tiles are so sleek that when r2 rolls down them its a speed boost. needless to say, he speeds down every aisle he could find, cursing and ricocheting off of the shelves. the employees are too scared to kick him out. 3po has little success in calming him down, but leia says his name once and he quiets for the rest of the trip.

C3PO : poor 3PO. r2 drives him INSANE with his shenanigans. he is shuffling to and fro as fast as he can to try and stop his chaos best friend. cue: many distressed protocol droid noises throughout the day. he attempts to buy some oil bath things, but he got so chatty and nervous at the checkout that he never ended up purchasing it. (he wasn’t going to get that bath anytime soon anyway due to r2 not being able to sit still for more than two seconds and causing issues.)

after not purchasing his materials, he ended up drifting between people in the gang, helping them find the best deals and quality of materials. he’s more annoying than helpful tbh, but most people appreciate the effort.

Wedge: spends his time in the video game and technology sections. he likes playing with the display data pads they have out. he checks out the cool features and games they have available to practice with. he ends up buying a large lego set to do during all that hyperspace travel. he just hopes that it would get destroyed like the last one. (an incident that included luke trying to clean r2, r2 screaming and running in frantic circles, and a very small amount of space to do the running around in. im sure you can imagine the rest)

Luke: after wedge buys his lego set, luke finds him and they walk around together as luke shops for the many padawans he is training. luke buys leia and han a card and a box of chocolates for their anniversary. he’s garbage at giving gifts because that’s not a common thing on tatooine, so it was actually wedge and 3po who helped him pick it out. He of course buys some designer clothes and boots, because the skywalkers are nothing if not on-brand.

luke and wedge’s hands brushed against each other at one point and they both turned bright red.

when han went to try on a pair of jeans he liked, luke and leia immediately ran off. leia hopped in the cart and luke pushed her. cue: brother sister shenanigans until han finds them and grumbles something about how this was supposed to be his and leia’s anniversary that got interrupted.

Lando: dude tries on everything. he looks amazing in all of it, obviously, and he buys an array of many different items. lots of patterns and silk and belts and hats. luke helps him put together a few outfits at one point.

he flirts with everything and everyone he sees, including inanimate objects. han is the only one who isn’t aware that it’s a joke and it drives him insane. lando buys han and leia a gift card with over two hundred credits on it for a very fancy restaurant. leia is estatic because she and han don’t really go out to dinner much (see: they are fighting in a war and han is still probably a fugitive on a lot of planets bc smuggling). but han actually agreed to go when they opened the gift card.

He bought r2 and himself matching hats and if anyone tries to take it off either of them they lose their minds and/or screech at the offender.

Han: he came with leia because 1) anniversary and 2) he likes hanging out with his awesome space wife but he also really needed hair product. (funnily enough it’s the same type obi-wan used to use. luke couldn’t figure out why the Force was cackling around him and why r2 was as well.)

Han s a y s he wakes up with his hair looking this good, but leia shakes her head from behind him as he tries to sell that story. (Luke is still very confused as to what r2 and the Force find so funny.)

Han also buys leia every single thing she even mentions thinking is cool or cute or useful. His excuse is that he’s spoiling her from her anniversary but then 3po pops out of nowhere and says that odds are he would do it no matter what. (cue: han angrily yelling “never tell me the odds!” while leia grins and teases him. but once 3po leaves she kisses his cheek and han can’t remember why he was complaining in the first place.)

Leia: leia came to Target with a plan in mind. She was going to buy a microwave pizza and a movie, and she and han were staying in for their anniversary night. But of course, 3po insisted on coming with them, and r2 hadn’t been to target in years, luke needed supplies for his school of Force-sensitive children, lando called in one of his favors from han, and wedge didn’t want to be left alone.

So she did end up buying that pizza and movie for her and her husband’s anniversary, all while holding his hand and strolling down the aisle. But her brother was there, and so was his not-boyfriend-but-also-not-not-boyfriend, so was the weirdest but also funniest man she had ever met, and so were the two droids.

So yeah, walking down the aisles with Han wasn’t as romantic as she had hoped it would be.

But she was with family.

What could be better than that?

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

"I have some problems with [Luke] as a character)" was mentioned in your Reylo response post. Very interested in what your thoughts are on Luke! 👀

Do you want me to get murdered?! Well, if I didn’t get lynched for calling Sirius Black a Stephen King villain I can surely do no worse here.

Let’s do this.

Caveat that, as usual, I am wearing a heretic hat and expect no one to agree with what I’m saying.

Luke Skywalker, much like Harry Potter, is not the character the authors and vast majority of the audience seem to think he is. Luke is seen as the true coming of the Jedi, the light side of the Force incarnate, and someone so innately good he was able to redeem his father, restore peace to the galaxy, and restore the Jedi Order.

I disagree with all of this.

I think this is what Luke thinks he did but the truth is far sadder and, well, in general worse.

First, let’s start off with Luke’s hero’s journey throughout the saga.

Luke starts your ordinary guy, he’s not bad by any means, but he’s not particularly good either. He lives in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, part of a relatively well off family, and set to inherit the world’s most boring business: moisture farming. He has dreams of going out, seeing the world, and becoming a great pilot.

Important to remember but what most people gloss over: Luke starts if not pro-empire then neutral towards it. Luke wants to attend flight school, given his desire for glory and adventure, he probably wants to join the empire’s military. He might not like Storm Troopers all that much but the fire of revolution doesn’t burn in his heart the way it does Leia’s.

Now, personally, I like this about Luke. It makes sense to me. Given where and how Luke grows up, given all he’s ever known, I think this makes perfect sense for his viewpoint. He might get hassled by stormtroopers now and then but the empire really doesn’t interfere with his life except in a) propaganda b) offering an escape from his dull existence. What would someone like Luke know about the Rebel Alliance?

The movie however... sort of goes out of its way not to acknowledge this, and this is where I start having problems with Luke. Luke gets Leia’s message about Obi-Wan Kenobi, sees the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in his life, and gets to embark on this amazing adventure. The story sort of takes it for granted that he then agrees with old hermit, Obi-Wan, that the empire is evil. This is helped because Luke does too.

In other words, Luke’s opinions are very shallow and lack any introspection. Finding himself in the company of Jedi, smugglers, and hot rebel princesses, Luke suddenly goes, “Ah, yeah, I hate the empire!” We never really see him change his mind by reflecting over what the Death Star means/the destruction of Alderaan, the death of his relatives, or his meeting with Darth Vader. Luke seems to be won over... Honestly, it feels like it’s because the Rebel Alliance let him fly a plane before the Empire did.

Then he blows up the Death Star, is a galactic hero/enemy number one of the empire, and he’s full on board resistance man and the next Jedi.

Which brings us to point number two, Luke legitimately thinks he’s a Jedi.

Obi-Wan gives him half a word of advice for maybe half of a day, watching Luke swing a sword around and get shot at by a robot. Yoda trains Luke in a swamp for, generously, maybe a week or so before Luke ditches him (against his advice even) to go save his friends. Luke has 0 training (beat out only by Rey, who wasn’t trained at all). More, he lives in a world where everything he knows of the Jedi is colored by Palpatine’s propaganda and old legends. The Jedi temples have been ransacked and presumably next to nothing of the Jedi culture remains, I can imagine Palpatine as being nothing but thorough in his elimination of the Jedi religion. The Jedi survived in Obi-Wan, Yoda, and in some sense Anakin Skywalker.

They do not survive in Luke. Luke puts on some quasi-Jedi robes, slashes his sword around a few times to save Leia from Jabba, and he says, “Now I am a Jedi!” Luke is that kid, LARPing, yelling “firebolt, firebolt, firebolt!” Only, that is, if the LARPing consisted of him representing a massacred culture thinking he’s it’s sole legitimate heir. So... Luke is playing Cowboy and Indians, and he’s the Indian.

In my opinion, Vader wasn’t so much redeemed as he always had a very high priority in finding his son and keeping him alive. The obvious way to do this would be to take Luke as an apprentice and, eventually, murder Palpatine. Well, that didn’t pan out, and eventually Anakin chooses murder-suicide to save his son’s life. It’s very touching, I’m not knocking the moment, but I do think a lot of that was Anakin vice the inherent goodness of Luke.

Anyways, Luke and pals save the day, they start a new republic and then they learn life is complicated. The new republic fails within decades, worse, it’s feeble and likely torn apart by civil war, strife, and constant infighting. It is utterly powerless, to the point where the First Order easily rises to replace the Empire and take over its vast resources (with Palpatine building a secret sith army on the side no less). That Leia rather than lead an army through the new republic in the sequels is leading her own private resistance army is very telling.

Fitting in with this, Luke starts a Jedi Academy. The prequels, and yes go ahead and slander them all you like but they’re better than many admit, taught us a few things but one of them is that it is hard to be a Jedi. To walk the path of a Jedi is to open yourself up to great temptation to use the dark side, and the dark side isn’t just some strange quirk or sense of duality, it is the equivalent of selling your soul. It is an unnatural action that leads to unnatural abilities. 

You get a bunch of Force Sensitive kids in a room: you better know what you’re doing.

Luke doesn’t. He collects a handful of the remaining Jedi artifacts that Palpatine somehow didn’t destroy, opens up his Jedi School (even teaching his nephew), and within maybe five years the place is burned to the ground, his students murdered by his nephew, and his nephew runs off to join a Sith Lord who appeared out of nowhere (Luke not realizing that this was just immortal cockroach Palpatine). 

Luke then becomes a grumpy old man who just can’t deal, sits on a rock drinking blue milk, and whines that for how shitty of a teach he was that Obi-Wan guy was worse for messing up with his father. Which, frankly, is very in character for Luke.

Luke has never really failed in his life, or at least, never had to recognize his own failure. So, when he does, he a) doesn’t realize what went wrong b) blames everyone but himself c) sits on a rock and waits to die.

So yeah, that’s Luke for you.

A whiney, shallow, stupid, somewhat narcissistic, hero. I... don’t dislike the concept of his character, played more straight I’d love his character, but I dislike that people talk about him like he’s the most noble creature to ever grace the planet and has this inherent understanding of a murdered people that the murdered people themselves never had. 

(All the Jedi were doing it wrong! Luke made the real Jedi Order! Is something I see a lot and... well... say what you will about their philosophies, but this kid who was not a part of that culture “doing it better”... That’s real problematic folks, real problematic.)

[i-wish-we-were-jedi]

I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

And it hurts.

So, Anakin Skywalker. There’s one thing in my mind that’s always associated with him, and it’s not what you’d think. Not the fact that he’s a Jedi or the chosen one, not even specifically Darth Vader and his betrayal. No, whenever I think of him, I think of Slavery.

Think about it. He may not have been called a slave (by that term) for most of his life, but there was never a point in his life where he was without a Master.

In the first movie, he was very explicitly a slave.

In the second, he wasn’t.

But he still had little say in anything in his life, as he was tethered to Obi-Wan. I must say, as much crap as he gets from the fandom for being a whiny teenager? I get why. I really get it. He’s so kriffing bitter. He left home thinking that he would finally be free, and be given the chance to become a Jedi knight and help people (remember the dream that he had that he came back to Tatooine and freed all the slaves?) And it turns out being a Jedi is not like he thought. He’s not helping those that truly need it like he did when he volunteered to help Qui-Gon and Padmé on Tatooine. He’s helping negotiate deals between politicians (remember all the conversations about aggressive negotiations, with him and his Master Obi-Wan “The Negotiator” Kenobi?)

In the Clone Wars series, we see Anakin temporarily re-enslaved by the Zygerrian queen (and may I just add, the older I get, re-watches of this arc become more and more disturbing), and this arc actually explores the idea that Anakin has never stopped being a slave, that the Jedi are just as much slaves to the republic as he was a slave on Tatooine.

And then we get to Revenge of the Sith. In which Anakin is denied the rank of Master.

But I think this means a lot more to him than we realize. It wasn’t just a promotion to Anakin. It was him finally escaping servitude once and for all. It was him achieving peer-ship with the people who (in his mind) had controlled his life up to this point. The word “Master” means something different to Anakin than it does to the rest of the council and the Order at large. And so they didn’t understand. I think that denying Anakin the rank of Master was a bigger turning point than a lot of people realize. Because I imagine he would feel in that moment like he would always be that little slave boy from Tatooine, and that the Jedi were keeping him that way. That wasn’t their intention. They didn’t know he was feeling this way, and I doubt they would have understood even if they did. This was a major factor in Anakin’s turn to the dark side.

But even after his turn, he wasn’t free.

He was more slave than ever, tethered to his new Master, Sidious. He has no say over what he does or where he goes. He does only what his Master says. He is confined in this suit that restricts his ability to move, to walk, to fight, to see; that made it so much easier for his master to control him. His personal mobile prison. A set of mechanical chains.

As terrifying as Vader was to outsiders, as incredible as Anakin was during the Clone Wars, he never stopped being the little slave boy from Tatooine.

Until his Son came and freed him.

And in this context, Anakin and Padmé’s relationship takes on a brand new meaning. I think the only times he felt truly free was when he was with her. When he first saw her on Tatooine, he called her an Angel, a creature he had heard about from the pilots, who were not slaves, who were not confined to the desert of Tatooine, and who he wanted to be like someday (and isn’t it ironic that these Moons of Iego, this place that Anakin associated with freedom, was found isolated and enslaved during the clone wars, during a time when Padme herself was sick and dying).

Their relationship was something the Jedi had no say in, no control over. And I think that’s a big reason why he is so protective of her, to the point of being controlling at times. How ironic, that in his zealous quest to safeguard his own freedom he began to infringe on the freedom of so many others.

But Luke, the product of his and Padme’s relationship, was different. In many ways, Luke’s life mirror’s Anakin’s. He grew up on Tatooine, he became a Jedi, he got caught up in the middle of a galactic war. But the difference is, Luke wasn’t a slave. Not at any point in his journey. When he left Tatooine, he made the choice to do so. When he became a Jedi, that was his choice. When he left to save his friends, he was willing to give up his training to do it. Luke walked Anakin’s path, but he did so freely. And in the end, it was Luke that quite literally removed Anakin’s chains.

[dalekofchaos]

Rey’s lack of motivation and stake in the Sequel Trilogy

I have a question to ask you. What are Rey’s motivations? What are her wants and goals and why is she even drawn to the conflict between The First Order and The Resistance?

Rey’s motivations in the Sequels.

Rey wants to find her parents.

Wants to bring back Luke Skywalker

Rey wants to find her place 

Wants Ben to return to the light

Has no real motivation to be on either side of the conflict, but chooses The Resistance anyway

Says she wants to kill Palpatine in cold blood, was close to giving in

Now she chose to fuck off to Tatooine and we see very little in her motivation to do....ANYTHING

Let’s compare Anakin and Luke’s motivations.

What are Anakin's motivations?

Wants to leave a life of slavery and come back and free his mother

Wants to become a Jedi and become a hero

Wants to protect Padme

Wants to save Obi-Wan

Wants to stop Dooku and end the war before it can begin

Wants to be a good master to Ahsoka

Wants to clear Ahsoka’s name

Wants to stop the war

Wants to save Padme and his children's lives at the cost of the Jedi and doing whatever it takes and becomes Darth Vader

What are Luke’s motivations?

Luke is a farm boy who dreams of leaving his mundane life.

Luke discovers that his father -unlike what his uncle told him, was a heroic Jedi Knight

Luke, is reluctant and refuses the ‘call to adventure’, but after the Empire murders his Aunt and Uncle, he decides to Join Obi-Wan on the quest.

Save the Princess

Luke is angered by Obi-Wan’s death at the hands of Darth Vader, and seeks retribution.

Destroy the Death Star and save the Rebellion

To be trained by Yoda

Save Han and Leia

Luke discovers his father, the heroic Jedi, is none other than Darth Vader. After years of training, he sets out to redeem his father and turn him back to the light.

After the redemption of his father and fall of the Empire, Luke goes on a journey to restore The Jedi Order

Compare Rey and Luke’s journeys in ANH and TFA. Rey wanders around and stuff is handed to her. Luke takes initiative and works for what he has. Let's compare ANH with TFA

Luke screws up on watching R2, then chooses to chase him down. He makes another mistake by spying on the Tusken Raiders instead of getting the hell out of dodge. This leads to him being knocked out, and rescued by Ben Kenobi.

Luke initiates the meeting with Ben Kenobi, and it happens because of his early bad decisions.

His aunt & uncle are killed, but thanks to his screw-up with R2 & the raiders, he and the droids are spared.

He chooses to follow Kenobi to Alderaan instead of staying on Tattooine.

He chooses to accept Kenobi's instruction in the ways of the Force, even though most people think it's a myth and a joke. Even though he's bad at it and doesn't seem to get any results at first.

He makes the decision that they're going to rescue Leia, potentially dooming their escape from the Death Star. This sets off a chain of events that leads to Kenobi's death.

Then he chooses to help fight the Death Star, even though he's not a member of the rebellion. He was offered a job with Han, and he could have ensured his safety by leaving with them. Instead he chose certain death.

Finally, he chooses to trust a literal voice in his head instead of the targeting computer.

Let's contrast that with Rey.

BB-8 runs into her. She tries to send him away, but relents and lets him follow her home.

She chooses not to sell him for food.

Finn wanders into camp on his own initiative.

The camp is attacked because BB-8 is there. The camp would have been attacked no matter what Rey did. The other scavenger was, I'm pretty sure, from the same camp. And if she'd sold him, BB-8 would also have still been in the camp.

She is forced to take the Millennium Falcon when the ship she wanted to use was blown up.

She chooses to go with Finn and bring BB-8 to the Rebellion Resistance.

She stumbles upon Luke's lightsaber, and runs away from it.

She accidentally runs into Kylo Ren while hiding in the forest.

He chooses to kidnap her because he senses something special about her.

After her first exposure to the Force, she learns how to use some of it, successfully, and escapes from Ren. And to her credit, escaping and trying the Force out is a choice she made, rather than something that passively happened to her.

Then she, um, is standing there when Han is killed.

She chooses to fight Kylo Ren, and beats him in her first lightsaber battle after closing her eyes and thinking about the Force.

She sort of chooses to go summon Luke back to civilization - I say sort of because it's not clear why she was picked to go over, say, Leia.

Luke makes mistakes, and he is an active participant in his story. Rey is just kind of there, most of the time. She doesn't make mistakes, but she doesn't really do much else.

Rey has no personal stake in this war or motivations and she’s supposed to be the main protagonist.

Rey has never left Jakku before TFA and she tells Han that ”she never knew so much green existed” when they go to Maz’s castle.

In other words Rey must have had very limited knowledge of the world outside of Jakku and all she has heard from it are stories.

Rey who barely knows anything about the rest of the galaxy, to the point that she didn’t even know that forests existed what exactly is her personal stake in the current galactic conflict?

In TFA we saw The New Republic’s capital systems blown up by Starkiller Base and we never saw a reaction from Rey. We do see Finn and Han’s reactions. Also worth noting about Rey is that if she was unconscious throughout her involuntary travel to the Starkiller Base she was never actually aware of the Starkiller Base until just before Han, Finn and Chewie started planting the explosions in order to sabotage it.

Luke, while he had no personal attachments to Aldeeran did actually get to see the horrible aftermaths of it’s destruction.

But Rey was barely affected by the destruction of the Capital systems. Most characters were not as affected as they should have been in my opinion but we didn’t even get to see her have an emotional reaction to it.

This was probably the greatest genocide in Star Wars history and our main heroine is unaffected by it? Finn has a reaction to it and he’s supposedly NOT the main protagonist?

Rey really has no reason to care about the state of the galaxy. She only seems to care if people she knows are in danger.

The fact that she is supposed to be our main hero of this trilogy when she has next to no personal stakes in the well-being of the rest of the galaxy feels wrong to me.

Finn actually has stakes in this conflict since the FO took his family and childhood away from him and Poe has stakes because he actually lives in the New Republic and doesn’t want it to be under FO’s rule. Yet neither Finn nor Poe are considered the main protagonist? But oh wait, I forgot we can’t have a black or Latino man be the leading protagonist in Star Wars

The more I think about it is Rey has no goals or agency as a protagonist. She’s just whatever the plot demands her to be. Rey doesn’t actively take the initiative and make decisions, and simply react to the world around her. There is never a reason given as to why she wants to be a Jedi. Sure, she’s heard the stories about them, but she doesn’t dream to be one like Anakin, and the writers are so obsessed over her parents that they never develop any other motivation besides that. She has to be strung along the story so she can take part in it, hence she is repeatedly chased and kidnapped throughout TFA to get her to the Resistance where she decides to find Luke because she has nowhere else to go. Part of the reason she doesn’t even train with Luke is because she has no reason to, as she’s just supposed to find him. Rey joins the fight simply in reaction to learning that Luke is responsible for Ben’s fall. She’s only ever a Jedi and a member of the Resistance out of necessity- she has no where left to go and has to fight in self defense- so they try hamfist in some motives that she needs to stop herself from becoming like Palpatine but there is no tension as it’s the final act. By the end of the trilogy it’s not even clear if the Jedi Order will return because Rey never seems to want to be one and we can only assume they will return for meta reasons- because the audience knows the ST is a copypasta of the OT.

What exactly was Rey’s motivation for getting involved in the Galactic conflict before TROS? Luke was told that his father was killed by Darth Vader and later his family gets murdered by the empire so he had personal stakes to get involved in the conflict.

Anakin was a Jedi and had lived in the Republic for ten years by the time of the Clone Wars begun so he had personal reasons to get involved in the conflict.

Rey meanwhile grew up so isolated of Jakku that she had no idea forests existed and she didn’t lose anything and the FO attacked her on Jakku. In fact she wanted to return to Jakku after she had dumped BB-8 with the Resistance. Her primary motivation in TFA was to reunite with her family but the movie never establish that her family’s absence was connected to the galactic conflict in any way.

That connection isn’t established until TROS so what was her motivation until than? The Death of Han? A guy she had known for two hours? Finn? A guy she also had maybe only knew for about two hours total by the time of their hug in TLJ? Also she seemed to have completely forgotten about Finn by the time she want on a quest to redeem the guy that has far as she should have known by that point was still in a coma with his spine permanently damaged because of Kylo.

Rey’s motivation seems to either be finding her family or her dealing with her existential crisis neither had much of a connection with the galactic conflict until TROS

[vagrantblvrd]

The stupidly over-complicated AU where everyone lives but things still go to hell.

Anakin and Padme have to  hide Luke and Leia to prevent Palpatine from getting his hands on them. Because you know he’d love to use them against Anakin and Padme and/or make them his apprentices.

(Something, something, something turn the to the Dark Side to throw against Anakin and the others? But when Palpatine deems them ready he has them fight to the death because there can only be two sith nonsense.

Something he makes sure they’re very much aware of during their training and so are meant to consider the other an Enemy.

But you know, they totally Scheme Together against Palpatine because oh, hey, there are two of them. How strange.)

ANYWAY.

Things go wrong early on in that whoever they send Luke with gets intercepted along the way - Rex, perhaps - and they have to do the cool evasive maneuvers and whatnot and end up crashing on Mandalore or nearby covert/group of Mandalorians.

And due to Plot Reasons it’s not safe to try and leave wherever they ended up because everyone is looking for Anakin Skywalker’s son and the rebel traiter clone commander who absconded with him, and anyway Plot Reasons.

So Rex is like, when in Mandalore or whatever and he and Luke hide out with the Mandalorians.

Perhaps Rex fulfills the Resol’nare, perhaps not, but Luke is considered his foundling and um, Plot Reasons???

MEANWHILE.

Obi-Wan is entrusted with Leia, and idk, goes to Alderaan where Bail and Breha raise her as their daughter? But also Obi-Wan training her in ~sekrit to become a Jedi.

It’s interesting times, because complicated? Definitely yes.

She knows Bail and Breha aren’t her biological parents even though they love her like she is, knows her real parents are important figures in the Rebel Alliance and such.

When she was younger she remembers this couple, sad, kind, all the things she remembers of her mother from the movies and whatnot.

And when she’s older Obi-Wan’s former padawan brings intel and whatnot from the Rebellion and she’s this close to realizing Anakin is her father for the longest time because Plot Reasons, you know?

Sometimes Padme is with Anakin, sometimes it’s Cody and everyone is like “We have...Things to do. Over there,” and leave the two of them alone because love in wartime and Drama and Angst I cannot not do, and anyway.

Something happens with Mandalore - Imperial shenanigans is the best way to put it and they send Cody undercover to investigate?

(Because clone and even now there are others like him fleeing to Mandalore or whatever because there’s a new Mand’alor, and anyway.)

He gets there and discovers the Mand’alor’s husband and son are missing and Imperials are suspected to be behind it, and also? Rex is there and the Mand’alor’s husband and son are Force-sensitives and perhaps someone who’s an actual Jedi would like to look into things as well????

So off Obi-Wan and Leia go to find Din who is >:((((((((((( because his idiot husband and tiny green gremlin kid and of course they’d get caught up in this nonsense.

Anyway.

Adventures and shenanigans in which Leia realizes the Mand’alor’s husband is her damn brother - her twin - and her biological parentage and also there’s this scruffy smuggler in there somehow?

But also.

Rex telling them that Luke learned to use his powers through old journals that belonged to a certain Jedi master and also little quests about in which Din met Ahsoka and was like, pls help my idiot husband, and she keeps meaning to tell Anakin and such?

But intergalactic war and people trying to kill her and she’s been real busy, okay?

Also Luke teaching Grogu and Din is like So Tired.

Also, also?

Imperials trying to being Luke who is mostly feral these days and also raised as a Mandalorian with Jedi sorcery and rad Mandalorian armor, so, you know.

It doesn’t go well for the Imperials who caught him and Grogu.

Everyone catches up to them on some Imperial base where Luke and Grogu meet them halfway, right?

Luke and Leia running into one another first and she’s like, “Hey, so, we’re here to rescue you?” because clearly her brother, her twin, didn’t need the save, but hey, whatever.

And then, like. Idk, shenanigans in which Satine is one of Din’s advisors Bo-Katan is another and there’s a reason he hates council meetings so much?

But also the Armorer and to his everlasting regret/gratitude Paz, and anyway.

Yes

Shenanigans and such, and Luke losing his hand - against Palpatine or to save his father or something suitably dramatic and then beskar hand because I love it so much and just.

Eventual ousting of Palpatine and the Empire and happily ever afters.

But also, also, emotional everything with all that Anakin and Padme did to protect their kids that went so horribly wrong (but also not) and anger and issue and whatnot and Leia being a Jedi?

But like.

Angry about it.

Because the Jedi Order and their doctrines and whatnot and look at her idiot brother over there with all his attachments and yes he turned out to be an idiot? But didn’t fall to the Dark Side and what she’s saying is maybe the Jedi Order needs to take a long hard look itself, you know?

Obi-Wan and Cody get to be in one place for longer than a week and it’s glorious, okay? Glorious.

Anakin accompanies Padme to when she heads to Mandalore once the war’s over to discuss them joining the New Republic in which there is much doting on a tiny green gremlin kid.

Also awkward family bonding moments with Anakin, Padme, and Luke, and also Leia is there because Jedi reasons?

Cannot decide if Leia remaining a Jedi or Leia going into politics is most satisfying? Because Jedi!Leia would have so much to say about the way the Jedi Order approaches everything and with Obi-Wan’s training in both Jedi ways and negotiations and everything she learned from the Organas as well as what Padme shares with her? Few can match her, y’know?

(Also, though. Think of Din and Luke sparring with the armor and Jedi sorcery and whatnot and idiot husbands and Grogu is always scandalized when a pin ends with a smooch or keldabe kiss depending on whether or not helmets are involved because he is a child, sirs!!1!)

Idk, it’s late and my thoughts are all over the place, but yes???

[padawanlost]

Are you familar with an idea that is going around fandom that Obi Wan and Yoda didn't actually want Luke to kill his father, just to face him and be prepared to kill him (in self defense) if he had to. It doesn't add up to me, considering the way Obi Wan responded when Luke said he could not do it. He didn't say "I hope you don't have to unless its absolutely necessary". Also, it implies that Obi Wan and Yoda believed Vader could be reasoned with, and just talked out of the Dark Side, or even knew Luke would redeem him. Allegedly there is an interview with Lucas in which he suggested the above (just for Luke to be prepared to kill) but I thought it seemed like he was being asked leading questions anyway. What are your thoughts on this?

Yeah, i’ve heard that ‘theory’ a few times but it’s hard to take it seriously when we have 6 movies and countless comics, books and books that point in the exact opposite direction. I mean, what does it mean when a fan says a character didn’t want Luke to kill Vader when said character actually says - out loud – ‘hey Luke, go kill Vader’?

Obi-Wan: You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again. Luke: I can't kill my own father. Obi-Wan: Then the Emperor has already won. You were our only hope.

If they don’t want Vader (and the Emperor) dead then why train Luke because he was the only one powerful enough to face him? It doesn’t add up.

As for the alleged evidence, my approach is hard, tangible evidence or death! LOL I’m kidding :P But I’ve been around long enough to learn to ask for the receipts when someone says you’re wrong because I’ve seen a book/comic/interview that proves I’m right but I don’t remember when I saw it, the original source, the context or know how to find it again -___-

And even if George had actually said that, it would have no influence over the actual events put on screen. The truth is, people are very *very* selective about what George quotes they want to use. People only agree with what he says when it’s convenient for their own views. There’s a legion of fans out there who work very hard to ignore everything George has said about Anakin, the Jedi Order and the politics of the prequels. But the same fans go on a frenzy when he says they accept.

George is an interesting source of context. Understanding where he was coming from helps understand why things work the way they do and what lessons he was trying to insert into his story. But to use George’s word as the ultimate judge of a character’s actions, even when it contradicts the movies is a bit too convenient for my taste.

George Lucas as a source of ‘canon’ is very unreliable. Personally, I find him a very useful source of context even he’s not the best provider of facts. Here’s an example: ROTS makes it canon that Padmé died of a broken heart in Polis Massa. But if you look hard enough you’ll find an interview of him explain Padmé’s journey to Alderaan and her subsequent death on the planet. It’s the whole who shot first issue. George, as a source of *facts*, is unreliable because he famously contradicts himself all the time.

The movies and the entire lore make very clear that Anakin and Padmé’s marriage was forbidden, but once a kid wrote a letter to George so he said marriage was no longer forbidden. Does that mean we should change everything about how we perceive Anakin and Padmé’s characters arc? Or does it mean we should just, you know, use some critical thinking and maybe a dose of common sense when interpreting these issues?

Besides, like so many new fans love to point out, George Lucas is no longer canon. So it’s kind of interesting how the same fans who dismiss countless source of information simply because they existed prior to Disney cling so desperately over something George *might* have said over 20 years ago.

[bpdanakins]

i just infodumped to my friends about bpd anakin and i have No Regrets snakjdkajfsk

anyway, doth thee have any more bpd anakin (or just anakin in general) headcanons becuase i am living for this

I am So Sorry this took so long, but hopefully the length makes up for it. Thank you so much for sending this to me bc BPD!Anakin is my entire life. I could talk about it all day, every day.

I’d like to thank @apple-grass-and-smiles for helping me organize my Thoughts on all of this, prompting me to focus on certain things and giving me feedback in general too. 

Okay, here goes:

Anakin fidgets!! I’m not even sure if this is a headcanon but if it is I will die on this hill. He can’t stay still for the life of him and doubly so when he’s anxious, nervous or Ready To Do Something Already. 

We know Anakin can’t hold eye contact to save his life when he’s upset or insecure, but I can also see him having issues with touch when he’s upset, unless it’s from certain people only (Padmé always gets a pass, for example).

Anakin’s quick to let some small stuff go, but larger things people do that hurt him (whether intentionally or not) aren’t really ever forgotten, and he just kind of takes that in and suppresses it, until random moments when it pops up, he remembers, and it just hurts like it’s happening all over again. The people around him often have no idea what fully sets him off, bc to them, his reaction now seems out of nowhere while his mind’s still stuck on this other thing.     - His reactions also seem sometimes like they’re Over The Top, but even just remembering past hurts can feel almost disabling at times. It’s worse when he ends up ruminating on it, because the hurt and feelings of betrayal just keep building up over and over until it almost blots everything else out.

When he’s happy or surrounded by those he loves, everyone kind of can feel it too, bc he’s just fuckoff powerful in the Force and esp other Force sensitives kind of gather around his space and just… his affection and excitement are literally infectious. 

This probably runs closer to ADHD than BPD for sure, but get him talking about anything mechanical (robotics, engineering, racing, etc) and he will go from 0 to 100 so fast you’d get whiplash. No one minds though bc, as I said, his excitement is infectious and honestly those around him just adore listening to him go off even though half of it goes over their head.     - Ahsoka may not ever get Gotta Go Fast, but she definitely loves it when he really talks her ear off about all this stuff, bc it makes her excited to learn and she picks up on all of it easily. (There’s a part of her that wants to emulate him and she does def look up to him obviously.)     - We see it with Obi-Wan, but people love to use his love of all things mechanical as a way to distract him from things that upset him. It doesn’t always work but they try.

With Obi-Wan, he ends up on the side of Anakin’s splitting like, all the time. And unfortunately sometimes Obi-Wan can’t tell that Anakin’s lashing out not because of something Obi-Wan’s actually done, but bc Anakin’s young and Obi-Wan’s the figure he can project a lot of his frustrations on.     - It can lead Obi-Wan to being confused and hurt sometimes, bc he doesn’t always understand Anakin’s thought processes when this happens, and it definitely sometimes cuts him to the core. On the reverse side, though Anakin might not always say it to his face, Obi-Wan definitely can overhear him at times when Anakin’s ready to 1v1 anyone who even so much as makes a frowny face about Obi-Wan, which helps Obi-Wan remember that Anakin does love him too, actually.     - It ends up being one of the points of frisson between Anakin and Mace, bc Anakin can’t read body language perfectly, especially when it comes to feelings of abandonment or someone seemingly not loving who Anakin loves to the same degree. Mace has a drier sense of humor at times and defs has a more resting frowny face, and this rankles Anakin at times bc he can’t always tell when Mace is just chilling vs being disappointed, and while Anakin will take it all personally, he ALSO takes any perceived criticism to those he loves personally too.     - Both Mace and Obi-Wan don’t get this bc they have a perfectly fine relationship. Anakin’s just Like That.     - (And super overprotective of people’s perceptions of Obi-Wan. Anakin will go off about Obi-Wan being mean and all that, but fuck you and your entire family tree if you ever even think Obi-Wan’s anything short as the most amazing Jedi to ever Jedi.)

Everybody and their mother can see the pedestal Anakin puts Padmé on, and surprisingly she rarely is on the end of his splitting. When he does, he just internalizes it bc he can’t stand the idea that he’s somehow seen her in a wrong light, or he feels guilty for getting angry with her.     - He also defines a huge chunk of his life around loving her, making her his center for a lot of his decisions and reactions, so when they’re off, his whole world seems backwards. It makes him Really uncomfortable and unsure. He gets panicky and upset and often people have no idea what the cause is so they just end up a lil panicky in return.     - He tends to take it out on others, by doing an exercise or by disappearing to fiddle with something.     - Pads has an easier time recognizing Anakin’s emotional needs, bc in some ways they’re the same as hers. She’s good at reaching out to him, comforting him and reassuring him of her love. And in turn, he like, never fucking shuts up about how much he loves her, and those moments are what make her feel so special around him. Being loved by Anakin makes someone feel important and even get tingly, bubbly happy feelings, because it’s hard to doubt it sometimes.     - There’s a part of her that sometimes worries about how Intense he is, but, like I said, when his positive intense emotions are focused on you, it feels wonderful. And he’s genuinely super sweet and gentle, and she appreciates that, when she tells him to back off about something, he’ll listen to her wishes. (I’m using movie Anakin as my base here bc TCW!Anakin in this regard is just…. bad y’all lmao)

Anakin’s anxious about Ahsoka All The Time. He’s afraid he’s a bad teacher, he’s afraid he’ll mess her up somehow, he’s afraid he’ll hurt her or she’ll get hurt, and that’s why he can’t stand the idea sometimes of her being on her own. It’s not a lack of trust in her abilities, but because he feels responsible for her, and that’s why he’s always ready to put himself between her and literally anything that could potentially hurt her. (Even if it’s not a physical threat.)     - There are times she finds this amusing and times this makes her angry, but mostly she is long suffering. There are times she appreciates it though, bc she’s still a kid and isn’t always sure which way is up, especially when in a war. Anakin is often a cornerstone for her, and though she’d literally NEVER admit it, his overprotectiveness can sometimes be a reassurance. She knows she can handle herself just fine, but when she has an inkling of doubt, she’ll remind herself that Anakin will be there, and then go and take care of the problem herself.     - She doesn’t always get his moments where he’s not always falling over himself to talk Obi-Wan up or go out of his way to sass at him. To her, they have a wonderful relationship and she rarely notices when Obi-Wan might say something that pokes at Anakin wrong, so she often just winds up ???? when Anakin is huffy or annoyed with her grandmaster.     - She sees Anakin’s anger issues a little more easily than others, and she worries about it but always brushes it off or downplays it, bc she always sees why he’s angry, and also always just assumes (like everyone else) that he can Handle It.     - Anakin’s recklessness and impulsivity are some of her favourite things about being his padawan. He’s literally never boring to be around, and Ahsoka needs that sort of excitement to sometimes push aside the knowledge that she’s literally in a warzone. Anakin’s also really good at doing this intentionally; he’s literally always worrying after her, and all he wants to do is take care of those he loves and make them happy, so sometimes he’ll be Extra just to get under her skin or distract her and honestly this is the basis of where their playful competitions always come from.

If Ahsoka is long suffering, Rex is doubly so. Sometimes it’s all he can do to keep up with Anakin and Ahsoka, but he appreciates Anakin “thinking outside the box”. He also appreciates knowing that Anakin is just as loyal to him and his men as he himself is (well… Anakin is until he isn’t lmao)     - Rex, like Pads, is really good at picking up Anakin’s moods and even trains of thought, so he’s always able to work around that, or even see where Anakin’s mind is going when coming up with a plan. They make a really good team bc while Anakin can jump from one idea to another without them seemingly correlated, Rex immediately follows Anakin’s leaps and they just end up in sync.     - That being said, Anakin can be really confusing at times. His moods are often so all over the place, that Rex generally has no idea what tf is going on. He deals with it by learning to be calm when Anakin’s unable to, and just ride out Anakin’s worst moods until they pass by, learning not to let it all phase him. Anakin lowkey hates it when he’s upset, but once the worst of it passes, he really appreciates that Rex will just… not press like Obi-Wan, or balances out the moments Anakin’s mind is so cluttered by instead just keeping a good focus on things.

Probably everyone’s most baffling symptom of Anakin’s is his paranoia. Obi-Wan kind of sees it the most, because Anakin is always testy with the Council and often feels put on the spot, dismissed and looked down upon. To everyone else, they don’t get where Anakin’s ideas come from, bc everything seems chill on their end. His fretting about others’ well-being is straightforward enough, but his instant panic-turned-anger shift when he receives any criticism (especially the perceived type) always gives people whiplash. It’s hard to keep up with, hard to see what it was that got to him so much, and hard to know how to help (particularly when they’re worried that trying to help him will feel like “taking sides”).     - Ahsoka takes Anakin’s POV of the Council pretty easily, at least when it comes to him. This is mostly bc she’s not there when there’s a meeting or tension around them, nor was she there when Anakin first arrived, so she just assumes they must genuinely often have issues with him too. She doesn’t see it to the extent Anakin does though, but she recognizes that sometimes he seems to blow things out of proportion when he’s upset, and figures it’ll just blow over once he’s calmed down.     - Pads, on the other hand, is always kind of aware of Anakin’s fears of losing her. He often not-so-subtly looks for reassurances that she loves him and won’t leave him, that she’s feeling alright or not angry/annoyed with him. She chalks it up to his trauma with his mother (and she’s partially right), so even when sometimes it gets on her nerves that he seems to doubt her so much, she tries to remind herself of that and let it go. 

Those closest to him can pick up that Anakin tends to see the negative in things, and is generally really hard on himself. They try to help out by giving praise where it’s due and just overall Being There, but it’s Rough to know they often don’t get through. (Palps, on the other hand, knows how to weaponize this.) 

The saddest part is that I don’t think anyone once thought Anakin was Seriously Ill, partly out of ignorance, partly bc they assumed it had to do with his age/upbringing, and partly bc, eventually, everyone was dealing with trauma and even if someone wanted to send Anakin back to the Temple to have a nap or something, they legit couldn’t bc there was a war going on and he also would never have tolerated it at that point in time.     - Obi-Wan’s the one who worries about all of this the most, because he’s always felt such a huge responsibility for Anakin and loves him a lot, he’s just never fully been able to understand how to get on the same wavelength as Anakin.     - Anakin, too, actually never fully figures out that there is something Going On. Everything’s always overwhelming him and even though he prefers doing things at 100mph, sometimes it seems like there is Too Much going on, and even during peace times it just felt like he couldn’t keep up with everything. He hates internal reflection but also can’t stop overthinking about everything, and so he just ruminates and goes in circles and often just ends up going nowhere when it comes to dealing with things. He tries his hardest all the time, he is ALWAYS trying, but doing stupid stunts, fighting droids, making robots and speeding everywhere all the time is truthfully only a bandaid.     - Being surrounded by those he adores and receiving affection from them/seeing them happy boosts his mood a lot but he doesn’t have enough self-awareness to guess at why his happier moods just won’t last.     - Sometimes he can figure out when he’s being irrational and then just takes it out on himself, which only exacerbates his bad episodes. 

Palpatine doesn’t help. He’s abusive, manipulates Anakin all the time and is the Worst and definitely makes everything Anakin is struggling with harder and I think we should all just punt him into a sun thank you this isn’t a headcanon I just want everyone to know how much I hate him