#Literally trying to get luke while vader is Right There

[rainbow-demon503]

I mean, the whole reason the rule of two exists in the first place is because the sith tend to the most backstabbing lying bitches that have a back up plan from A.2. to Z.99. to ensure their own power, so of course the rule of two is never taken that seriously by any of them.

I mean look at palpatine with his little gaggle of maybe apprentices and dark side aligned lightsaber users.

And on top, isn't these differences in how they approach rules kinda the biggest way jedi and sith differ? For jedi their codex, their rules are more a moral guidance system. the whole "don't attack unarmed people" doesn't just exist because they want to be accepted by the republic, but also because going against this rule is going against the very core of what the jedi are supposed to be. Meanwhile the sith rules' are mostly about the survival of the sith as a whole and gaining as much power as possible.

so the transgression of breaking or bending rules is entirely different

I know they say Sith have the rule of two but the Sith are “evil.” Why the hell would they care about the rule of two? Qimir could be Darth Plagueis’s apprentice.

[artist-issues]

I accidentally came across this while I was scrolling through the Star Wars tag

And I just thought how the hell you miss the point of the film so badly?!

Like I really hope this is some really unfunny joke or something. I saved loads of drafts trying to find ways to argue this point but in the end I just couldn’t be bothered wasting my time and deleted them. Chances are I’d be arguing with a brick wall and I don’t have the energy for that. So here I’m giving it to you to get your teeth into if you want

Well. I can/t see who posted it so they can’t defend their position, which I generally frown upon. But just to argue with the idea, not the person:

It sounds like this is the kind of post that’s made from the perspective of somebody who believes just punishment is the highest form of Good that can undo the effects of Bad. When actually, redemption is the highest form of Good that can undo the effects of Bad. Just punishment is just the next-best thing when redemption and forgiveness is impossible.

But here’s the thing—the only way a person can be redeemed is through the forgiveness of the party that has been wronged. And the only person who has a right to demand justice for wrongdoing is the person who, innocent themselves, was wronged.

Luke was uniquely situated to refuse to execute justice on Vader—because he’s his son. If anyone left alive by the end of Episode VI has suffered because of everything Anakin’s done as Vader, it’s Luke.

Orphaned not once, not even twice, but three times if you count the death of Obi Wan.

Homeless.

Separated from his only remaining family for their entire childhood.

His only friends and family have been tormented and endangered since the moment he met them.

He has been tormented and maimed.

The entire legacy he should have inherited, with all the advantages of teachers and learning in safety, are gone.

The whole world he’s growing up in has been shaped by fear from the literal moment of his own birth onward.

…And because of his heritage, he’s got the weight of the responsibility for the fate of the already-basically-ruined galaxy on his shoulders.

So if anyone’s got the right to judge Anakin for his choices, if anyone has the authority morally and legally to “press charges,” it’s Luke. The only person with more claim to that right would be Leia.

The fact that he chooses not to “press charges,” not to avenge, is the whole point of the series, like you said. Luke had the ability and the right to take control of the situation and choose how it ended. That would’ve given him total certainty about the end result. An illusion of “safety-at-last.”

But that’s the whole point of his character. To have the farm boy who’s always rushing off to the horizon and reaching to do more Do More DO MORE—STOP? And put his faith in something other than his own abilities? Give up his control of the situation, with a line that literally references who his father was?

And who was his father? Anakin Skywalker, a young hero who could never stop trying to control outcomes and bring about “certainty” through his own power!

To have Luke Skywalker extend mercy by throwing away control…to the same father who never could make the same choice when it was his time to be the hero?

Master-stroke of storytelling. But even more than that, it’s true. The person who made this comment needs to read A Tale of Two Cities. Or Genesis.

Punishing someone who has done so much wrong that they can never make it right again is justice, and it is good. But having the authority to make that call because you���re the one injured, and choosing to extend forgiveness and open the road to a clean slate for the offender, instead? That’s better.

It’s better because to make that decision heals. Luke can move on from the limb he’ll never grow back and the mom he never met and the aunt, uncle, and masters he’ll never see again. He can do that—it doesn’t have to be a scar on the tissue of his life. Because the way the “case file” of his “wrongs” ended was “I choose not to hold onto that hurt or press charges. I choose to let it go.” And therefore it can no longer hurt him.

Unlike the ravening packs in the French Revolution who wound up killing rich women and children who’d never personally hurt them because once you start deciding that vengeance or not even vengeance but “retributive justice” is the only thing that end your pain, the more the idea of “retributive justice” gets addictive. It promises to heal the hurt but all it really does is narrow your focus onto the hurt until you can’t even see the humans you’re hurting.

Anyway.

Besides, justice was still served. The Emperor was still defeated. The Empire was toppled. And Anakin, whose wrongdoings had already been manifesting punishment in his body and mind and spirit for years, also paid the ultimate price for everything he’d ever done. The truth is, (and Star Wars supports this) Anakin created his own punishment.

Padme died because he chose power over her, and his punishment was to live without her in the knowledge that he killed her. Can you imagine worse punishment for him?

Obi-Wan was Anakin’s longest and oldest friend, who loved and stood by him for most of his life, and he lost not only that friendship, but the trust and camaraderie and even respect of that relationship. And what did it get replaced with? Nothing. Emptiness.

The Jedi Council are gone, and in their place in Anakin’s life going forward? A sadistic old crone who is actively trying to get Vader’s son to kill him despite all his years of loyalty, and flunkies Vader can choke to death. No community.

Plus, he’s in a living nightmare prison of machinery and deformity for twenty years. What exactly could Luke do to him that would’ve been a more satisfying punishment?

This person seems to be making the comment out of a misguided sense of loss of characters like Padme, and suffering to characters like Obi Wan. I don’t think they’re taking the story as a whole. I think they really liked the world of the Prequels and really felt the tragedy of losing that version of the world. That’s my take.

[amuseoffyre]

Since insomnia is kicking my arse of late, I naturally tilted into the thoughts about the nature of the 3-act structure and why S2 of OFMD may have felt off and incomplete to a lot of people.

I am fully in agreement that we lost a lot of valuable time with only 8 episodes and a lot of it did feel rushed, but for the amount of story and set-up and growth and development they needed to fit into 4 hours of television, they did astonishing things.

DJenks has said from the very start that this is a story that has been planned out to take 3 seasons. It's literally a 3-act play and we are currently right in the middle of the worst part of that timeline according to every traditional 3-act structure.

Act one/season one is self-explanatory. Like New Hope in the Star Wars Trilogy or Fellowship of the Ring, this is the set-up. We're introduced to our protagonists and antagonists, the relationships are given a foundation.

The beginning is Stede's journey to becoming a real boy. The inciting incident, the one that actually pushes his change beyond "playing pirates" is meeting Ed. The second thoughts come together in episode 8/9 after his confrontations with Jack and Chauncey and episode 10 is the climax.

Act 2/season 2 is never going to be as smooth and simple as act 1/s1. A big part of the A2/S2 job is set up for A3/S3 and this is what we're seeing and why a lot of story threads seem to have been left dangling.

Again, to call back to Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers, the structure is much the same: the original batch of people are divided and scattered, the big enemy from A1/S1 is looming, new allies make themselves known. In SW, this meant the introduction of Lando and Yoda as allies plus the hint of the Emperor lurking in the background. In LotR, we have the Rohirrim, Gondor and the Ents as allies and the expansion of Sauron's forces in Helm's Deep, Osgiliath and the winged wraiths.

There's a clear trajectory following the A2/S2 structure:

obstacle 1 - the crews separated and struggling

obstacle 2 - the end of episode 2 and the repercussions of his actions

twist - just when things start to settle, the Ned Low situation happen and Stede kills for the first time

obstacle 3 - Ed's struggle with his identity leading to him leaving

disaster - Ricky's assault on the Republic

crisis - do-or-die battle because they have no other choice

climax - the last 15 minutes of ep. 8 live here.

As with SW and LotR, there's an ending, but weighted with the knowledge of a story that is meant to continue. Each of those act 2 films end with the heroes still aware of the looming threat, some of them heading out on new missions, and some of them resting and healing. There's brief pause, brief respite, a moment to take a breath.

We have all the characters in place now and the battle-lines have been drawn. Luke still needs to confront Vader (I see you, impending Ed and Hornigold confrontation), Frodo still needs to destroy the ring, Aragorn still needs to lead the army against the Black Gate, the second Death Star is still hanging in the sky.

I'm so excited to see what S3 brings because we have so many arcs ready to go: Zheng's vengeance trip, the inevitable enforced out-of-retirement arc for Ed and Stede, Hornigold, Ricky trying to maintain his tenuous control of the republic given how many of his people were killed when the crew escaped, the pirate rebellion gathering forces.

Also how often do we get shows/films where the supporting cast are given this much storyline? We have a named/speaking-role cast of upwards of 15 central characters. That is a staggering amount of people to work with, when most shows would only focus on the leads and a couple of their friends. Six is the average for most TV shows, while comedies can inch higher because ensembles, but most ensembles don't get as much as our crew did.

I know a lot of people aren't happy about Izzy's death. I know I would have liked to see him a lot more, because he's such a grumpy old bitch and I love him and him affectionately roasting Ed and Stede would have made my entire month. But I'm also aware that narratively, as a figurehead of the old ways of piracy and "we were Blackbeard", it was a symbolic death as well - a sign of the death of the old ways of piracy and of Blackbeard as was.

(Also, they Obi-Wanned him. I'm not over that. Gave him the "if you strike me down I will become more powerful" speech. I'm just... guys, your star wars nerdery is showing XD)

So while it was flawed in places and pacing, given the scale of the story they're telling, the number of pieces and characters they had in play, and the arcs they have been setting up while also still keeping the humour, I am giving a standing ovation for a remarkable piece of work.

[jedi-enthusiast]

Debunking the "The Jedi Are Evil" Theory Made by The Film Theorists PT 2

Point 2 - That Luke was Right in the Sequels

In the Sequels, Luke says this:

"Now that they're extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified...but if you strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy of the Jedi is failure, hypocrisy, hubris."

And, after bringing this quote up, Matthew says this:

"While this kind of tea spill coming from Luke was considered pretty sacrilegious, both by other characters as well as the audience, I think that Luke has a point if you examine the movies with a little more scrutiny. His criticisms aren't exactly unfounded."

Now, first of all, what Luke is saying here cannot be trusted as "fact" or anything to go off of, mainly because of two reasons.

---

1. He's trying to convince Rey not to be a Jedi or, at the very least, to not make him train her (which is pretty much the same thing), and at this point in time he pretty clearly hates himself and blames himself for the state of the galaxy. He's been stewing in his rocky hideaway for who knows how long, with nothing but the ocean and his own self-loathing to keep him company.

He's saying this here so that Rey will give up and not make him train her, because he's scared of making the same mistakes he did with Kylo Ren and fucking up the galaxy even more (we see a similar thing with Obi-Wan in the Kenobi show, where he refuses to save Leia at first because he's scared of not being able to save her--like he wasn't able to "save" Anakin).

And the traits, the "legacy," he's assigning the Jedi...isn't actually the legacy of the Jedi. It's him assigning what he believes to be his own legacy to the Jedi as a whole, because it's easier for him to deal with his own failure that way.

and 2. Luke is framed as being wrong for saying this. None of the other characters agree with him, eventually he does end up training Rey, and eventually he lets go of his pain and fair and grief and "becomes a Jedi again" and faces his "legacy of failure"--Kylo Ren.

It's obvious that the movies are clearly making him out to be wrong when he says those things, you don't need to have a neon sign posted above his head that says "WRONG" in order to see it. So taking his words at face-value is just trying to take a bad-faith reading of the Jedi--rather than the "objective scrutiny" that Matthew is purportedly putting the Jedi up to in this theory.

---

I would also like to argue that Luke's only real knowledge of the Prequel Era Jedi and their actions/beliefs/traditions/etc. is...lacking, to say the least.

The Empire literally destroyed and desecrated every Jedi Temple that they could find, they wiped out all the information they could about the Jedi, and then spread anti-Jedi propaganda through the galaxy for years. Not to mention that, by this point, pretty much every Prequel Era Jedi is dead.

There's no one around to really tell Luke about the Jedi's actions or culture and what little information he might've been able to dig up probably wouldn't have amounted to much. So, when Luke says this, it can only really be taken as a commentary on the Post-Prequel Era Jedi, because he doesn't know enough about the Prequel Era Jedi to make any criticisms.

---

Matthew then says:

"There are certainly examples of the Jedi doing some pretty unsportsmanlike things to innocent victims throughout the old movies, like manipulating-" [plays a video cut of Obi-Wan in ANH, mind-tricking the stormtroopers into thinking that R2 and 3PO "aren't the droids they're looking for"]

This example is pretty easy to debunk, because Matthew leaves out the context.

Obi-Wan has to do this.

Because let's look at what would probably happen if he didn't:

1. He and Luke would be arrested and turned in to the Empire, probably Vader, and Vader would immediately recognize Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan would get murdered.

2. Vader would realize Luke was his son and probably try to indoctrinate him into an Imperial way of thinking, and Palpatine/Vader would probably have Luke "trained" (read: tortured) into becoming an Inquisitor.

and 3. The droids would probably either be memory wiped or destroyed, therefore destroying the plans for the Death Star that the Rebellion needed to destroy it--and the Death Star wouldn't be able to be destroyed, more planets and people would probably be killed.

Aside from the thing with the Death Star plans, Obi-Wan probably knows that that's what's gonna happen--and, if the Empire is looking for the droids, then it's pretty obvious that the droids are important to the Rebellion. So it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Obi-Wan probably understands that the Rebellion would be hurt by their loss.

Not to mention that stormtroopers aren't "innocent victims."

They actively sign up to work for the Empire and take part in the oppression of countless peoples and worlds. And It's not like Obi-Wan pulled aside a random stormtrooper just so he could mind-fuck him, they were approached by the troopers first and he reacted defensively. He didn't even make them do anything bad, he just told them "these aren't the droids you're looking for" and had them go on their way.

---

Matthew's quote, continued:

"-stealing spaceships and crashing them-" [cut to a video clip of Obi-Wan and Anakin in RotS, crashing the Separatist vessel they escaped on after rescuing the Chancellor]

Once again, this is pretty easy to debunk because, again, Matthew leaves out the context.

The Separatists literally kidnapped the Chancellor of the Republic and the Jedi had to rescue him. They had to steal the ship to escape or be captured, and likely executed, by the Separatists--therefore allowing the Separatists (who are literally enslaving and oppressing countless other systems and run by a fucking fascist dictator) to win the war and take over the rest of the galaxy.

Once again, the Jedi were acting defensively.

And I feel like, all things considered, the Jedi stealing that Separatist ship, to escape from a situation the Separatists caused, in order to keep the galaxy from falling into the hands of an oppressive dictatorship and attempt to stay alive...is a pretty damn reasonable decision, don't you think?

And, just for added context, the ship was literally falling apart when they crashed it. They didn't crash it on purpose, it was an emergency landing. If you're gonna say the Jedi are bad for "crashing" the ship, you may as well get mad at every pilot who ever initiated an emergency landing because it's literally the same thing--and if we're putting the Jedi up to "objective scrutiny" then there shouldn't be any double standards.

---

Matthew's quote, continued:

"-or just outright lying about their own powers-" [cut to a video clip of Mace and Yoda talking, where Mace says they should tell the Senate their ability to use the Force is diminished and Yoda saying they shouldn't because it will only multiply their adversaries]

Here the Jedi weren't lying, like...at all.

No one was asking them about their ability to use the Force, so they couldn't be lying. They were withholding information, information that the Senate--as non-Jedi--had no right to know about unless it would actively affect the Republic. Which, again, at this point in time it wouldn't.

But, fine, let's just pretend that the Jedi were lying...

...they were lying for good reason.

Yoda is right here. Even if we ignore the fact that Yoda is a stand-in for GL and what he says is quite literally the canon truth (since he's the creator), the Senate is already pretty at odds with the Jedi, which we see later in AotC when Palpatine and the Senate pretty much strong-arm the Jedi into accepting the role of Generals in the war, despite being told point blank by Mace Windu that they're peace keepers and not soldiers. Do you really think the Senate (read: Palpatine) wouldn't have used this information against the Jedi?

And, are you completely ignoring the fact that Mace is literally saying that they should tell the Senate and Yoda is disagreeing with him?

Obviously Yoda's take on what they should or shouldn't tell the Senate isn't something that the entire Order believes--it's just his opinion on what they should do.

You can't say that "the Jedi are liars" and then play a clip that literally debunks that by having two Jedi disagreeing with each other about whether or not to tell the truth.

[balis77]

Real Things That Happened In the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars Special

Phineas and Ferb are friends with Luke but also think Tatooine is the best planet ever and don't want to leave

The Death Star's exhaust port is canonically the result of Doof designing it

Isabella was about to do the Kessel Run but Han Solo cut her off and did it first

Candace joined the Empire because they have a 401k and free meals

Darth Vader kills someone for giving him a sandwich instead of his sock delivery

The entire events of A New Hope still happen, the cast just hangs out in the background of all of it and occasionally helps out

Ferb gets blasted with the concentrated dark force from Darth Vader's trash and turns into a Darth Maul expy for a while

Candace is still the brothers' sister, she just didn't recognize them for like most of the special despite trying to capture them multiple times

Buford graverobs Obi-Wan's robe

The Fireside Girls get literally everyone off the Death Star right before it explodes. Whether this includes people like Tarkin is left unstated

Perry is a rebel agent. He still pretended to be Phineas and Ferb's pet for a while despite them living on Tatooine their whole lives.

The Trash Compactor monster attacked Luke because Doof trained it to get him things associated with Darth Vader. He yells at it for just bringing him "a guy".

Doof makes jokes about Alderan blowing up within a few hours of it happening

Doof is directly identified as Darthenshmirtz, implying he is a full-fledged sith and thus potentially Darth Vader trying to usurp Palpatine under the Rule of Two.

One of the planets Candace mentions the empire controlling is Burbank, California

[sev-says-so]

Well, I saw the movie.

My turn for commentary!

So:

- I genuinely forgot how many named clones were in this one

- Oddball was there which was great

- pretty much all the pilots were blown up, less great.

- they did the infamous scream which was amazing

- I forgot how chaotic the whole rescue was

- Obi-Wan getting raffled like that was pretty funny.

- for some reason I thought the Dooku vs Anikin fight would be longer.

- Palpatine really did know how to manipulate, bringing up Anikins Tusken massacre like that.

- not Obi-Wan strategically retreating from the senate lol.

- Padme was wearing the Leigha Buns!

- that… was a lot of kissing. Wow.

- Anikin being mad he’s not getting to be the youngest master and on the council after Palpatine told him he’s the one to even bring up the notion of him on the council was pretty silly of Anikin. My guy they don’t even want you there.

- love the quotable scenes 10/10

- the opera/space ballet was pretty sick ngl

- Anikin hesitating before looking up like he knows how bad it sounds “the chancellor wants me to go after grevious” and then still lowkey pissed that it’s not him. And Obi-Wan looks like he knows Anikin is mad and already planning damage control

- “isn’t it a good thing the chancellor will get more emergency powers?” Careful Anikin your fascist is showing.

- Obi-Wan being like “Anikin no-”

- it’s so wonky seeing all the troopers have the same armor design

- the banter between Obi-Wan and Cody was lovely

- “when have I ever let you down?” Very soon Cody, very soon.

- Boga! The best steed this side of the galaxy!

- I think half the theatre said “hello there” with obi-wan

- and so the lightsaber dropping saga begins

- Obi-Wan really did try to kick Grevious lol

- “so uncivilized”

- ah, welp

- Palpatine really plays up the Padme dying card

- Anikin stopping himself from killing Palpatine because he has the knowledge is very telling

- Mace was very right to tell Anikin to stay put

- I don’t know why I hoped he’d stay. I’ve literally seen this exact movie before. I know what happens.

- Palpatine’s got some moves, that lunge was hella smooth. Damn.

- welp we’re fucked gang Anikin on the move

- On the big screen you can really see just how scared Anikin was. Dude was 100% controlled by his fear.

- After Anikin pledged his allegiance Palpatine openly admits to not actually having the knowledge to stop death. Sly motherfucker.

- the way he just kinda makes up Anikin’s title on the spot lol.

- “Anikin stop panikin”

- Anikin did not in fact stop panikin

- CODY HAS A BALD SPOT

- “blast him” no hesitation there damn

- honestly Obi-Wan got lucky. He didn’t die or have to kill his guys. Unlike pretty much everybody else.

- “master Skywalker there are too many of them what are we going to do?” That kid was wearing a brown T-shirt under his robes.

- the beacon to return back to the temple was an absolutely foul move

- to be honest I can’t really blame Yoda for going ham on the 501st

- “lord Vader will take care of you” Palpatine really fancied himself a comedian aye?

- “who could’ve done such a thing?” Cutting to Anikin slaughtering the separatist leaders was kinda funny.

- YODA WAS WEARING BELL BOTTOMS???

- wow he really did get his ass kicked

- Anikin was a whole new brand of creepy towards Padme. Yikes.

- those scenes? Iconic.

- that fight? Iconic.

- Anikin trying to kill Obi-Wan with his own lightsaber that he was still holding in his hand was cold.

- “from my point of view the Jedi are evil” “THEN YOU ARE LOST!” Average convo I have with a Jedi hater.

- Damn the Corries had to put up with Anikin’s bs since day 1 of him falling.

- the parallels between Padme and Anikin were really cool.

- everything got really neat tie ups.

- At least obi wan has something to do while he’s sad in the desert.

- Owen was doing the Luke pose!

- Death Star cameo yay!

- Padme funeral was very sad tho

- loved it. Disappointed in the lack of cosplay and sword fights in the theatre tho.

[lxstfathier]

OOOH HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT WRITING POSSESSIVE BUT SUPER SWEET SITH!LUKE DOTING ON AND SPOILING READER (IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN...)

I’m not really into Sith!Luke (he’s way too pure for that 😭) but here’s a little fic for you anon! this was really fun to write and i hope you enjoy it! 💗

You caught Luke’s attention since the first time he saw you. And it’s not like you meant it, really, you are just a tie-fighter pilot, trying to do your job the best you can while trying to avoid any kind of trouble with him or his father.

You aren’t feisty or rude like all the other pilots. You know better than that. You are super sweet, kind and submissive, always looking down when walking by Luke, Vader or the emperor, waiting for their next order.

You’re quite a rare sight. Almost as if you didn’t belong to the empire. And that’s what makes Luke super fixated on you.

At first, you don’t notice that Vader’s son is trying to catch your attention too, until one day all of the male pilots in your fleet have been replaced by females. Something weird, considering that the empire always preferred the masculine forces.

You try not to think much of it, but then, while you’re walking down the hall with your helmet off, you accidentally hear the conversation between three stormtroopers. And they’re talking about you, gossiping about how Luke ordered to replace all those male pilots out of pure jealousy.

Jealousy? well, he’s handsome and you never thought you could be his type, so you feel extremely flattered.

The next day, when you step out of your room, there’s a small present waiting outside your door. You leave your helmet aside and take it in your hands, untying the bow and opening the little box, just enough to reveal the expensive gift. It’s a necklace, made of beskar and kyber, the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.

You know exactly who sent such thing to your door, and you can’t believe it. Still, it’s too soon to wear it, so you leave it in your room and then go about your day as if nothing happened.

Everything goes as usual, like any other normal day at your job, waiting in the hangar for any deploy notice, watching some droids fix the damage on your ship caused from a rebel attack… until you suddenly sense someone right behind you.

“I can’t stand seeing you like this” Luke’s voice appears suddenly, and you immediately turn on your heels, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “You’re no pilot, you don’t belong to war, you should be by my side. Please join me, be my girl, and anything you want will be yours, i promise.”

Your heart beats like crazy and words get stuck on your throat, so you nod softly, throwing yourself at his arms, not even caring if the other pilots see you and start gossiping again.

After that, you’re not a pilot anymore, you’re his pretty little trophy. All your boring uniforms are replaced with the most beautiful designer clothes, you get tons of new jewelry, expensive makeup, and literally everything you ask for.

Luke absolutely loves spoiling you rotten. And the best part is that you don’t have to do anything! just look cute and be by his side whenever he needs you.

However, he only has two rules for you. 1: don’t talk to ANY males. 2: don’t get out of his sight for too long. One time you had a small conversation with one of your old fleet members, and well… the poor guy ended up stabbed by a red lightsaber.

“You can’t just kill people like that! he did nothing wrong!” you yelled at Luke, and he just shrugged, without a single trace of remorse.

“You’re my property, and they need to learn to respect that.”

And he’s right. After that incident everyone on the star destroyer is way too afraid to even look at you.

But you can’t stay mad at him for too long. He apologizes with a bouquet of some exotic flowers from Endor, and then hugs you tight, kissing your forehead while telling you that he won’t do it again (but trust me, he will, just behind your back the next time).

Once you start getting more comfortable with your relationship, you move into a shared room, and Luke lets you decorate it however you want, he doesn’t mind as long as you’re happy.

Sometimes, if he’s in a good mood and isn’t busy, he takes you out on cute little dates to any planet that you want to see, letting you wander around the big cities, or little towns, trying the local food and getting souvenirs.

And when you both finally fuck, oh god, he’s super dominant and rough, but always making sure that he doesn’t hurt you and that you cum at least twice every time.

You couldn’t ask for a more perfect boyfriend.

Vader doesn’t like to admit it, but deep down he adores you too, and is really happy that his son found someone like you, such a skilled pilot and pretty girl, to carry on with the Skywalker legacy.

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

Okay, so the first question I think you're asking is whether I believe Obi-Wan being accused of struggling a lot with attachments comes from his actions on Mustafar in ROTS or whether it comes from his choices about what he tells Luke regarding Vader during the OT.

Personally, I'd probably say it's the Mustafar scene, perhaps combined with some of the other scenes he has in ROTS with Anakin. I've had someone argue with me that Obi-Wan saying he's "on Anakin's side" when they're discussing the Council not making Anakin a Master means that Obi-Wan is saying he believes Anakin SHOULD be a Master and that the Council is being unreasonable, and I've seen people accuse Obi-Wan of being soft on Anakin specifically because of the way he acts in ROTS and the way he defends Anakin to Mace and Yoda.

I don't really agree with EITHER of these interpretations, I think Obi-Wan saying he's on Anakin's side just means that he understands what Anakin is feeling and that just because he (and the Council) are frustrated with this latest decision doesn't mean that they're actively working AGAINST Anakin for any reason. And I think that Obi-Wan is plenty hard on Anakin in both AOTC and during early TCW seasons and that his defense of Anakin and softer attitude in ROTS is an indication that Obi-Wan is choosing to have FAITH in Anakin and that Anakin will ultimately make the right choice which is an indication of growth from his more helicopter parent style in AOTC, but he still recognizes that Anakin has flaws and is making mistakes.

It also doesn't help that the Matthew Stover ROTS novelization has Obi-Wan literally admit that he'd save Anakin at any cost and condemn the Jedi for asking Anakin to spy on Palpatine, saying that he doesn't think Anakin SHOULD trust them again after that (one of those reasons I'm not super interested in reading the book, regardless of how pretty its prose is).

So yeah, I think that most of the accusations about Obi-Wan being attached to Anakin come via ROTS (film and novelization). That interpretation of them then gets APPLIED to the scene in the OT where he is telling Luke he needs to prepare for the possibility that he might have to kill Anakin. This is where you get the interpretation that Obi-Wan recognizes that he was too attached to Anakin to kill him and that Luke cannot make his same mistake. But the root of it I think comes from ROTS, not ROTJ.

The second question you are asking me is, in an AU version of ROTS where Yoda DOES manage to kill Palpatine and Obi-Wan knows it, would he actually kill Anakin. And I still think the answer is no. It's actually even MORE likely to me that he wouldn't because now he KNOWS no one's coming to save Anakin, he KNOWS Anakin is absolutely 100% going to die from his injuries here, so he really has no motivation to go for a mercy kill any more than he did before. It's still going to be insanely painful for him to do even that much, it's still going to feel basically impossible to kill someone he loves, and now that Anakin is unarmed and refusing to ASK for mercy, it is still murder to make that final blow (which is made even worse if Obi-Wan knows that he doesn't HAVE to because Palpatine's already dead). I think the only way I could see Obi-Wan going for a mercy kill is if the opposite were true and he DID know that Yoda failed and that Palpatine was on his way. Because NOW he has a motivation to try to keep Palpatine from being able to save Anakin and keep at least ONE Sith from continuing to live and wreak havoc on the galaxy. Of course then, whether you'd consider it a MERCY kill or not is kind-of questionable. He isn't really doing it for Anakin's sake, it's not truly mercy that's forcing his hand here. It's a quicker death for Anakin, which is abstractly merciful, but Obi-Wan is killing him for the sake of the galaxy at large, not for Anakin himself.

Finally, while I agree that Mace would've killed Palpatine had Anakin not shown up to stop him, I don't consider it a waste of time in the narrative. This scene IS the narrative, this is literally the whole climax of the entire trilogy, what everything we've seen so far has to been leading towards. THIS is where Anakin chooses to be Darth Vader, THIS is where he betrays the Jedi, THIS is where the Republic falls. Without this scene and Anakin's reaction, there IS NO narrative. Anakin making this choice in this scene IS THE WHOLE NARRATIVE. That's not a waste of time. And if we're speaking more from an in-universe perspective, it's not like Mace stops doing what he's doing to talk to Anakin, either, he's still blocking the lightning the entire time and reflecting it back at Palpatine and as soon as he has the opportunity, he goes for the killing blow. So he's not wasting time at all, this arguably would've taken the exact same amount of time if Anakin hadn't shown up.

[starbeltconstellation]

omg hiiiiii! i’ve been loving your fic since forever, and melanie is one of my favorite characters. i’ve always been curious about where you got the inspiration for her. every time i re-read the fic, i find something new that makes me fall in love with her even more.

i really appreciate how you don’t make her a mary sue, which is something i’ve sadly come across a lot in this fandom. her flaws feel very human, and she behaves in a way that most of us would. yet, you write her in a way that she doesn’t seem like just another fragile character. she has depth and strength that make her stand out. 💕💕💕

Hello! 😊💕❤️👋

Ahhhh, thank you so very much for the ask, dear anon! 😭❤️❤️❤️🥹 It’s soooo sweet. I always have wished more readers would hop on over to leave their thoughts. Maybe it would give me a little bit more of that sweet dopamine motivation. 😩😂 Lol.

As always when I hear this, I’m SOOOO happy that you love Melanie so much. 😭💕😁 It literally means the WORLD to me that so many people relate to a character I’ve written. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and then I think: “huh, maybe my writing isn’t half bad. 😌” 😂

It’s sooo cool to know you reread my fic often! 😭💕💕❤️❤️💕❤️ I’d love to read a comment whenever you do, just so I can go “agshsvhwbshvs!!! 😭” as a thank you for your kindness to read my little old work. Haha.

I’ll put the rest of my answer under a read more:

I’m so happy Mel doesn’t come across as a Mary Sue! ❤️ That was one of my worst fears, so it was REALLY important to me to try and flesh her out and give her an arc separate from Anakin. And the biggest part of that is The Shopkeeper, because it means Melanie has her OWN antagonist to deal with, just as Palpatine is Anakin’s antagonist. This was important because—just as I didn’t want Anakin to take away from MELANIE’S character arc—I in turn also didn’t want Melanie to take away from ANAKIN’S character arc. He IS still The Chosen One, after all.

That fact is really important, as Mel kind of brings up if you’ve read my latest chapter. 👀 Because it’s SO important to acknowledge how important Anakin is to the narrative and in the fate of the galaxy—specifically BECAUSE that gives him agency in his choices. Yes, there are factors such as his horrible past as a slave which fucks up his mind, but still: at the end of the day, Anakin wasn’t mind controlled. HE made those choices, and the galaxy all suffered for years because of it—because he was too selfish to change. Until Luke came along, that is. And while it’s a bittersweet feeling to say you can always change your mind, I WILL be exploring some in this fic how Anakin’s choice at the end of ROTJ is basically… selfless/selfish all at once. 😭🫣😬 (the Anakin stans gonna get me for this one. Lol. 😂).

Basically, his choice to save Luke is selfless, because he saves Luke knowing that he’ll die doing it, and won’t be around to spend time with his son. He has no clue Obi-Wan is gonna hop in last minute and speed run teaching Anakin how to become a Force ghost in the final seconds before eternal nothingness. And yet—at the same TIME—the action is selfish, specifically BECAUSE Anakin would ONLY do this for Luke. His SON. His BLOOD. But would he do it for anyone else? Like—idk—Han Solo? 😭🤷‍♀️ HELL no.

And honestly… I fr don’t know if he’d do it for Leia either. 😬🥶🫣 Low key, I truly think half the reason Luke got through to Anakin was through his sheer blind faith/loyalty in him that his father would turn it around at the last moment (and hey! He WAS right. 🤷‍♀️). But LEIA wasn’t sunshine incarnate like Luke. Leia HATED Anakin as Darth Vader. Anakin also TORTURED Leia canonically and also held her back while Tarkin blew up her planet and basically shrugged his shoulders like—“what can ya do, ya know? 🤷‍♀️🤪🤪”, so I’m FAIRLY certain Leia wouldn’t be begging Anakin to change/have such blind faith in him like Luke did. So—switch it around where Leia is the one being killed with lightning—and SHE doesn’t call out for her father. Because SHE truly doesn’t BELIEVE he can change like Luke could.

Can you TRULY see Anakin still making the same choice he did with Luke in ROTJ? 😬 Because, honestly? I can’t. 🥶🤷‍♀️

But anyway! 😂 This is becoming a little bit of a meta post, so I’ll try to move things back to your original ask.

But yes, it was SO important to me that Melanie had a realistic response to being in the SW universe, because with all the fics I’ve read—NONE of the OC’s actually react in a realistic manner. 😭🤦‍♀️ And so it was important for me to show her disbelief at first, INCLUDING her fear of Anakin. Because yessss, yessss, I know Anakin is fandoms little serial killer blorbo 🙄 (and I respect that! He’s mine too. 😏💓), but Anakin also isn’t REAL to the fans, and can be written any way they want. But for MELANIE, Anakin is now a flesh and blood person who can make his own decisions now… and considering his decisions end up being VERY bad… I do think her terror of him makes sense. 😭🤷‍♀️😂❤️

And it was REALLY important to me that Mel wasn’t just connected to the SW universe through Anakin. SO many OC’s are written without an arc because the whole fic is just about the romance, but when you do that—the OC becomes flat! Ya know? 🤷‍♀️😭 So it was important to me Mel gained other friends in the SW universe, like Ahsoka and the clones and even Yoda and Todo. All of this relates with Mel’s choice with The Shopkeeper 👀 (that I won’t spoil for any new readers who come across this post), because it means that Melanie has grown to care about the people in the SW universe, including what happens to them in the end. 💔😖

And I’m so glad you see the depth and strength to her! 😭❤️💕💕💕 That means a lot. It was certainly a struggle at first, because I obviously wanted her to start out weak and grow stronger and more confident as time passes on—but at the same time—I wanted to show that she has a backbone and a strong moral foundation; ie; she’s can’t turn her back on people she KNOWS she has the power to help (an interesting comparison to Anakin, isn’t it? 👀👀).

As for my inspiration for Melanie? Well, I think I’ve mentioned this before to some of my online friends, but when I first started the process of outlining this story, I just had the thought of—“If I landed in the SW universe, and met Anakin (AKA: Darth fucking Vader 🥶), how would I REALISTICALLY react?”

And ta da! 😁✨💕❤️ There you have it. That’s how Melanie Bains was born. Hehe.

I feel like that’s why so many people love her and relate to her—I first based a lot of Melanie’s reactions on myself and how I thought I’d act in the SW universe—but it honestly makes a lot of sense that everyone else relates to her so much, because Melanie IS basically a stand in for every fan in the SW universe (at least, the general audience fans 😂). When she curses in her head or grumbles at the clones’s antics or cannot shoot a blaster shot in a straight line (at least at first) to save her LIFE—the audience laughs and thinks, “Pfffft, that’s SO me. 😌✨😂”

And I think that’s what makes Melanie’s character so appealing. 😊❤️💕 And I’m VERY excited to show you all her journey on becoming tougher as time in the Clone Wars continues on. 😁❤️

Thank you so very much for the ask, dear anon! 🥺❤️ It truly makes my day. Hehe. 😊❤️✨💕

-

To any new readers that stumble across this and are curious enough to check out my fic:

Tags:

@ensomniaa

@heartfairy

@fangirlteallie

@readersunite

@shoniwake

[marvelstars]

Tolkien LOTR vs George Lucas STAR WARS

Disclaimer: talking with mutuals about Tolkien and Lucas this came up and wanted to share.

I believe both Tolkien and Lucas were anti imperialism(represented by the ring/empire respectively) and anti war but their takes is completely different because they lived different times.

Tolkien story of the lost kings who died for nothing seeking power represents pretty well the story of the first World War in which the imperial powers of Europe became excited over their new hability to put ot test weapons and made a local conflict into an all out war between countries exploiting the nationalism of the people to push them towards war, the tirednes and dissapointment over fighting a war for men who only wanted power is excelently interpreted in the Lord of the Rings in which the only solution is to destroy the ring and try to live peacefully with each other and support honest work and protect lives the best way you can, with wise kings and wise elves who care about people and it´s well being. That´s what I see Tolkien going for, he also tackles the idea that no matter how noble or peaceful like Fredo or Bilbo we could be, power still can corrupts us if we expend enough time around it. Power can corrupt everybody and the best we can do is try to not make it the most important thing in our lifes like Aragorn did when he became King.

Lucas wasn´t a soldier like Tolkien so he is much more idealist than him, he grew up and became excited over the protests for the war of Vietnam in the US and the consequences of WWII with the creation of the atomic bomb. So Star Wars battle in the OT isn´t just about greedy people trying to get power by any mean neccesary, the first trilogy is about a fair war fought agaisnt the imperial power who offered peace in exchange of freedom, which is another face imperialism can take and the death star(atomic bomb) is the one weapon they believe can “end all resistance” "end all wars" but they are wrong because just like in a New Hope, the Death Star only makes other people more nervous about it´s use and most will seek how to oppose it with similar means or with different kinds of resistence.

Star Wars presents the problematic dilema of war not being good on itself but becoming neccesary when your opponent will not engage in dialogue by any other means, so just like in LOTR the kingdoms have to join to form a military, the rebel alliance is there to fight the Empire.

The Jedi Order in the OT represents the old order, estatus quo that the Empire defeated to put their own Order, they are not evil by any means but by presenting a “ends justifices the means” philosophy by lying to Luke and forgetting about Anakin´s humanity and existence in exchange of dehumanizing him and seeing him only as a machine like Obi-Wan did, this doesn´t bring them the victory, mostly their plan gets revealed and rejected by Luke, the main hero of the OT, the fandom may have a very different take on the Jedi but Lucas definitely didn´t write the Jedi as flawless beings but as a tragic order that after the zenit of their power fell along with Anakin, literally and espiritually too. Otherwise Lucas would not talk about Anakin being a victim of the system who lost his mind trying to do the right thing, he wasn´t just part of the Republic but also part of the Jedi Order.

Luke, while dealing with his own feelings of anger, need for revenge for his murdered family and wish for freedom along with his friends, also learns humility by losing his first fight with Vader but also empathy, he has feel the darkness inside himself, he was told his father wasn´t always like that and he has felt Vader´s twisted love for him so he humanizes his enemy instead of dehumanizing him and seeks to save him from the darkside, because this has become the only way to defeat Vader and the Emperor while they are together and also because Luke wants Vader to be his father just as much as Vader wants Luke to be his Son.

So in the end family is the thing that saves the universe in Star Wars just like friendship, care, empathy and appreciation of the simple and beautiful things saved the people of LOTR. The Jedi imo in the PT and OT were not evil, they had their own wisdom and brought good things to the story like honor and duty but they were wrong to try to force Luke agaisn´t his father, they were wrong for keeping Anakin away from his family and they were wrong to forget love in exchange of duty.

This is also why I believe Luke doesn´t just brings back Anakin from the darkside, he did the same with the Jedi Order, he became the kind of Jedi Anakin always dreamed to be, with enough freedom to act with kindness, love and caring as well as honor and duty, a more balanced Jedi Order.

So it´s a complete shame disney missed the memo and makes more merchandise of the Jedi because they are more marketable forgetting the deep message of the story. Luke in the Mandalorian and ST isn´t ROTJ Luke, but a badly done PT Jedi style of Luke and that´s a complete tragedy imo because it misses the main message of the story, that you don´t have to reject love and family to support ideals and do your duty. They make you whole not less the person you are.

[themattress]

OK, I need to say something because I am sick of this garbage.

The ONLY true statement in this exchange is "while he's aping Vader visually, Kylo is not meant to be cool". And in that regard, there is no "swerve". Kylo Ren stayed the same vulnerable loser throughout the entire Sequel Trilogy. The whole point was that for as much power as he gained and as far as he advanced on the Dark Side, he could never escape being the awkward, conflicted young man he was at his core. The Ben Solo in him just wouldn't die no matter how hard he tried to kill him. This was a contrast to Vader, who had successfully killed the Anakin in him until Luke resurrected it. Kylo wishes he could become the cold, unfeeling machine-like being Vader was, but no matter what he can't ever pull it off.

Everything else here is hogwash, plain and simple.

The filmmakers NEVER intended for Kylo Ren to be an alt-right Neo Nazi allegory. That wasn't even a thing that was commonly being talked about in political discussions when The Force Awakens was being written and filmed; it being released after Donald Trump entered the Presidential race was pure happenstance and wasn't something Lucasfilm wanted to parallel in their story. But even so, the film already had a way more obvious parallel:

Being a "neo fascist" is the point of Hux's character. It's not the point of Kylo Ren's. He wasn't supposed to be a "radicalized well-off white boy" because for one thing him being white means jack shit in the Star Wars universe and for another he wasn't even all that well-off given that he was born into one of the most fucked-up families in the galaxy and mentally targeted by Palpatine from a young age. He didn't just go down some pipeline willingly in spite of his parents; an evil old space wizard was literally talking in his brain and constantly trying to drag him down that pipeline! This was stated right from the start in The Force Awakens: Snoke (read: Palpatine) corrupted Ben, he didn't do it all by himself. He's not supposed to be a "giant incel man-baby throwing a temper tantrum whenever he doesn't get his way" because for one thing where the fuck did he ever suggest not getting laid was a pressing issue for him and for another him being a man-child prone to violent tantrums wasn't about him "not getting his way", it was about how stunted his growth was thanks to Palpatine being in his head for most of his life. It's an aspect of him you're supposed to feel pity for.

The "it's incredibly obvious messaging" is the perfect encapsulation of the problem. These kinds of fans don't want a story, just a reaffirming message. They don't want a character, they want a strawman they can despise and not have to think about or feel any deeper and conflicting emotions toward. But that isn't Kylo Ren, it's not ever what he was designed to be. It's a shame they saw a "white boy" in a fascist organization and then just wrote his entire character in their heads from there rather than actually engage with the character as he actually was on screen. Because while evil, it's a pretty fascinating and layered character.

[amalthiaph]

top 10 favourite star wars characters?

TYSM for the Ask! <3

1. Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader

I love him, like the entire journey; from the small boy in Tatooine to the evil dark lord who slays on dark hallways (both literally and figuratively). The thing about him is I can't really decide whether he's good or bad, he really is in the gray area. While I don't support genocide, I understand his choices (like Tech said, understanding doesn't mean supporting) because he was just 22, faced with fatherhood on a secret marriage, if I were on his place, I would try to go with what I think is the only option.

2. Obi-Wan Kenobi

Need I say more?

3. Luke Skywalker

Because I think it's a cardinal sin to hate him. That and the fact that he will always see the good in people do things to my little heart. And Mark Hamill is handsome.

4. Alexsandr Kallus

I started off despising this man. I think he's too arrogant for someone on mutton chops. But thanks to The Honorable Ones until Zero Hour, he immediately skipped the ranks and jumped to my number 4 spot. And for so long I've wondered why I like him so much and it was until recently that I realized that we kinda had the same story.

I, too, once supported a government that was brutal, dishonest, corrupt and overall unpleasant. I was fooled with the promise of "change" which I discovered was just a false promise to carry out aforementioned atrocities. It was until I had a talk with someone who showed me the truth, and from then on, I switched sides, because once your eyes had witnessed the truth, it'd be a sin to look away.

And I became part of the opposition party; we rallied for a better future, fueled with hope, like all rebellions are.

5. Hera Syndulla

Aside from the fact that I wanna be a Twi'lek, Hera is an excellent pilot. And the fact that she accomplished all that while NOT being force sensitive is the cherry on top.

6. Leia Organa

Somebody has to save their skins. And it was this princess, whose first response is telling someone they're too short for a Stormtrooper. I love how she slayed that gold bikini and how she slayed IN THAT bikini. I understand that it was an attempt to reduce her to an eye candy, but this is THE Princess Leia, we're not having that here.

7. Ahsoka Tano

Okay, so first of all, I really love her design. There's something about those lekku, especially the ones in Rebels, that just gets to me. I kinda see her as a counterpart to Anakin, only that she is not as intense (in THAT context). Her being 'not a Jedi' for me is helpful to her character, that she can do what she thinks is right without being bound by centuries-old lessons or rules that are not really that nice.

8. The Bad Batch and Omega

So I'm gonna cheat on this one because I see them as JUST ONE UNIT. Like teams in League of Legends, they're incomplete without the other so for this list, I'm considering them as one.

I love their dynamic and design so much, and as I had mentioned, every single member is just as important as the other. They're interactive. And their individual journeys as they parted ways is what made them (and the series) interesting. I know there had been a divide in the fandom where one part hate one character and the other part hate the other character but I don't do that. The thing is I understand the writers. So, I understand that in the sense of needing to make a story interesting, there HAD TO be differences in choices. Basically, their choices, though I don't agree but understand the other, are necessary to keep the story going.

And as characters, I like them because as much as they're correlated or dependent, they're still their own person.

9. Chopper

He's got a higher body count than Darth Vader himself.

10. Chewbacca

He's such a cinnamon roll. Because if he isn't, there'd be a long line of people with their arms ripped off and Star Wars would be Rated M and not available to a general audience. So we should thank him for being so nice.

[feltpool]

Copyright cash grab

I think the thing that bothers me most about current Star Wars is that it lies so hard about what it’s really doing, like we’re not going to work it out anyway.

Fandom cannot create new canon, it can only work with what it has, open up the cracks, fill in the plot holes and put a new spin on things. But the show creators don’t have that limit, and yet have devolved to reusing the same old plot and structure we’ve seen before and hiding it under a different set of faces.

I suppose it’s meant to be clever, but fanfic has been re-spinning these stories for literal decades now so it just feels like a pallid and obvious cash grab as well as a way for Disney to lay claim to the older Lucas-made canon as now belonging to them.

Personal opinion and potential spoilers behind the cut

Mando spins its story around the core structure of the OT movies while doing its utmost to pretend that it isn’t doing that. Instead of starting with the feisty space princess whose home has been destroyed by the Empire it sneaks in via Solo and focuses on a lone gunslinger doing any dodgy job for money while throwing him about in the mud a lot, role flipping Yoda and Luke, and hiding it all under a layer of Mandalorian armour. But the constant references to other parts of SW get old fast, and they leap right in there from the very start regardless of people only majorly starting to complain about that from Season 3. It was always there, we just weren’t so overloaded by the constant stream of really obvious ones back in Season 1.

And The Bad Batch follows this exact same pattern, the only major difference is that it’s framed around the core plot of the prequel movies and overall tends to bury its true purpose under fewer Rebels references. Sure it’s tying up a bunch of loose ends from multiple seasons of TCW, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to like it.

Add to this the other shows that only got made in order to support these^ two shows.

TCW Season 7 sets up everything the other shows need to have already been established in order to work. The Bad Batch setup is established, Trace, Rafa, and their convenient little Coruscant hiding place gets laid down for later plot use, and the Mandalore arc sets up the rest.

Tales of the Jedi explicitly covers how Anakin treated Ahsoka behind closed doors and how he used others to actually carry that out so that it can be reused later. Amongst other plot relevant details it showed us the relationship between Dooku and Mace, how Dooku was pissed when Mace got a promotion he hadn’t even been trying to claim, and how Dooku was directly offered the chance to drop all of what he was doing and to walk away with the Jedi – and still chose not to.

Half of The Book of Boba Fett was just a dumping ground for anything that didn’t conveniently fit into either of the other two shows but that they didn’t want to leave out (you can’t claim copyright over something you haven’t put onscreen), and boy did it show that they didn’t waste any money covering that part if they could help it. Orphan Boba gets to re-enact Luke’s back story of getting and losing a new family out in the sands of Tatooine, while Vanth gets to lose his arm and get a robotic replacement, it covers the question of what happened once Jabba was dead, drops in a much cuter version of the scene where the Luke defeats the rancor, features a cantina complete with familiar players, and shoves not-Chewbacca in there because having a Wookiee in the main story would be way too much of an obvious nod to the OT setup they’re still trying to pretend isn’t happening. However, it was permitted to drop in a couple of future plot points such as what happens to your brain/memory once you get a deep tissue, full body, bacta treatment, and giving Boba his 3 seconds of playing both Solo getting thrown wetly around by a Wookiee, and the Emperor as he rescues Fennec from certain death by having her Vaderized.

In all fairness this has taken a certain level of effort to re-spin. Aspects of one movie or TCW have been given to the other show, roles have been split between characters to make things less obvious. Hunter gets Anakin’s wig, while Hemlock gets his hand, and Echo gets to play Vader but in reverse order (starting as a cyborg and not becoming one). Or things have been approached from a different angle (usually reversed), like how Bo rescues Din and Grogu from the dianoga pit on the boat instead of getting them into the garbage masher in the first place. Pieces have been recycled from all prior SW visual canon as well as many games, books, and comic books, in addition to many references to non-SW movies.

But some things have been lifted straight out of fanfiction. The outfit that Riyo Chuchi wears when we first see her in TBB mimics Fox’s armour as closely as it possibly can without actually being clone armour, and Foxiyo is a small ship that has zero canonical basis – so far at least. Not that this would be the first time that SW has blatantly ripped off someone else’s work for their ideas or spaceship designs, but being able to data scrape AO3 must make this a lot easier to do than back when you had to pay people to manually cruise the internet.

Whether the Ahsoka show will continue this pattern and frame it around the plot of the sequel movies while pretending it’s nothing more than Rebels Season 5 remains to be seen, but having Jacen Syndulla reframed as the new Kylo Ren is definitely nothing I will ever need to see.

.

Obviously I’m glossing over a lot of the finer detail and references here because I’d be here all day otherwise and I’m trying to limit potential spoilers.

[mysticaltora8276]

Too bad her her contributions are completely ignored and then she just becomes a “wife of an emperor.“ Yes, she joins a descendent of the empire. You know the one that her mother fought against that was started by a genocidal, Sith Lord, who was OK with fascism. See this is what I mean when I get disgusted with legends. They tried to legitimize the empire as a government when it never was justified in the first place it’s fascism. Fascism isn’t something to be justified or excused. It’s something to be dismantled and never brought about.

As for the character? I’m actually legitimately angry that she was reduced to nothing more than that not to mention the fact that they didn’t seem to know what to do with a strong female character like literally. The sequels for all their problems with storytelling did a far better job with their female main character than legends did because unlike Legends, which had a pathological inability to move past the main three and actually give new characters, unique arcs, and actually you know push them in new directions instead of same old tired directions looking at her twin brother who literally became a Darth Vader And was rather pathetic about it. The sequels actually managed to do something unique with the female character. Or the others cast of the wayside? Yeah they were and I am most disappointed for that but again at least I can legitimately say they did try something unique with them instead of shoving them into rolls or ignoring them for favor of the original trilogies trilogy of characters Mostly Luke because Han and especially Leia eventually got forgotten by the wayside. Any uniqueness that she had was kind of scrubbed away. And Han was kind of ignored. And don’t even get me started on Lando. After a while, it becomes “who? All right, let’s vaguely mention him, and just have him starting up a new scheme despite the fact that he should be a legitimate businessman somewhere and not constantly chasing after the new thing like he’s in his 20s, not pushing 60s and contributing nothing to the plot way to go

Jaina commission

[phoenixkaptain]

The scene of Anakin turning back to the Light and saving Luke is such a beautiful scene in so many ways, but especially from a character standpoint.

If you look at Darth Vader just in the movies, he doesn’t do things without a plan. He has a step two. Even if his step two is immensely dumb, he always seems to at least have some form of an idea where he wants to end up; he has a point B he’s trying to reach.

Part of what makes Vader a terrifying villain is that he always seems to anticipate what his opponent will do. He seems to know what they’ll do before they even think about what they’ll do. Very rarely is Darth Vader ever taken by surprise. Darth Vader is the character who proves how scary the Force can be. While Palpatine uses his Force lightning and can predict what his opponents will do, he never quite reaches the level Anakin is on, he never reaches that peak of knowing the next five steps his opponent is going to take, even as those next five steps change.

Palpatine doesn’t see Vader turning on him coming. Palpatine is not a Force user who can see the future, he uses the predictions Darth Plagueis made and he sticks to the outline provided by his former Master. He does everything he does and believes everything will be fine and has complete confidence in himself because Plagueis was just that good at predicting the future.

Darth Vader literally changes the future. He makes those predictions false. Him throwing Palpatine down a reactor shaft wasn’t in the books, him choosing his son wasn’t an option, the idea that a Sith lord as powerful as Darth Vader could turn back from the Dark Side is believed by the Jedi and Sith alike to be impossible. Darth Vader himself doesn’t even believe that he can turn back from the Dark Side. The only character who ever believes that Darth Vader can come back is Luke.

Darth Vader is fifteen steps ahead of his opponents. It’s very rare that he ever gets surprised. He always has a plan.

But when he saves Luke, he isn’t any of that. He leaps in without a plan, without any ideas of where he’s goung. He doesn’t know what will happen except that he’ll probably die. He doesn’t have a way out of this. This is the first time Anakin Skywalker ever does anything without already having a way out or immediately being able to come up with a way out.

Anakin was hotheaded and impulsive, yes, but Anakin from his introduction always has a plan B. And when he doesn’t have a plan B, he makes one. He is by far the most competent character in Star Wars, just from his ability to get himself and others out of trouble.

In the moment of turning back from the Dark, Anakin is listening to the Force. He’s listening to the Force as it tells him to save someone. The universal call to the Jedi, the inexplicable push that all Jedi feel and what ultimately led to the majority of Jedi dying, just because they couldn’t not listen when the Force told them to help. Anakin finally listens to it, finally answers it, he finally acts like a Jedi.

There’s no step two. There’s no way out. Doing this will end in his death. Darth Vader is already injured, and the only one who has the resources to put him back together is Sidious. To save Luke, Vader has to step into the lightning, which he knows all to well will ruin his suit. Choosing to save Luke is tantamount to choosing to die.

And he does it. He hesitates, but ultimately, he sacrifices himself for someone else. He goes in knowing that this won’t end with him being able to get out. He has no way out. There’s no plan B. His suit has gone from keeping him alive to being part of the reason he’s dying. He takes off his helmet accepting that he’ll die and being happy to die because he’s finally at peace, he finally feels the warmth of the Force, he finally sees his son with his own eyes, his son is finally looking at him with nothing but trust and worry for his wellbeing, he’s right where he wants to be.

He went from wanting to posess Luke to just being happy that Luke is there with him. That Luke is the one by his side when he dies, that he’s dying on the same side as Luke — Anakin is fine with this. He’s ready to die. He’s accepted it. He’s just happy that the last thing he’ll see is the product of his and Padme’s love for each other.

The scenes of Anakin in Return of the Jedi are beautiful. The title “Return of the Jedi” is so great for this movie, it’s perfect, okay, you don’t understand. It has so many meanings!! The Jedi returning could be referring to Luke, the main Jedi we follow, returning to the screen, or to Tatooine. It could be referring to the Jedi Order, since Luke takes on Yoda’s request to share his knowledge with others and, with Sidious dead, the Jedi Order has functionally returned, even if it is only one member strong. It could refer to Yoda returning, it could refer to Obi-Wan returning.

Or, Return of the Jedi could be referring to Anakin. Anakin Skywalker, the son of the Force. Anakin Skywalker, the only character powerful enough to change the future itself, the only Sith Lord powerful enough to stop being a Sith Lord. Anakin Skywalker, who has always done impossible things, who has always performed impossible feats, who is himself impossible. And he’s back. He’s returned. The Jedi returned.

[starbeltconstellation]

https://pin.it/1Ue6SrYmF first one is literally melanie 😭

Omgggg! 😭😭😭😂 This is SOOOO hilarious. And so true! 👀👀 As many readers of my fic will know… hehe. 😈😜💕✨

I WILL say I don’t believe Melanie is purposely trying to do this with Anakin yet, for the simple reason that she doesn’t even BELIEVE she has the sway with him to even ATTEMPT something like that. She’s kinda doing it in “nudges” (like with Barriss and Sugi? 👀) by complete accident, just by stating her opinion or snapping in the heat of the moment when the stress gets to her too much and she just can’t handle seeing one more of Anakin’s red flags in a single day. 🫠😖💔😆

But I do think it’s cool you brought this meme to my attention (thanks SO much for that, by the way. 😭❤️💕🥹 It makes my little writer heart so happy when readers interact like this. It definitely helps with writing motivation), specially because this WILL become something similar to Melanie’s arc with Anakin.

Anakin at one point was only seen as a terrifying weapon of destruction by Melanie, which is why she was so afraid of him and avoided him like the plague. 🥶😅 But now that Melanie is growing to CARE about Anakin’s safety (instead of just apathetically hoping his life will also be saved from her MAIN goal of saving the galaxy and the Jedi and clones in the long run), she is starting to see him as someone who is ALSO a shield against danger. Because Anakin IS different than Palpatine, and that’s SO important, because it shows that despite what some of his fans want to try and twist themselves into knots to believe—Anakin’s choices MATTER. And his actions will LITERALLY ruin the lives of all his friends and family to a near irreparable degree. Luke is the hope, and (while the Sequels are highly disappointing to me) the effects of Anakin’s actions are ripples that will be felt throughout the galaxy for GENERATIONS.

The Sequel Trilogy makes it canon that eventually it all came out to the Senate that Anakin and ‘Darth Vader’ are the same person, which basically erases all of his other deeds in the eyes of the citizens of the galaxy who aren’t Jedi monks who believe in forgiveness and ‘redemption’ even after thousands of atrocities. THIS is the legacy he will leave behind. Because while Anakin wasn’t the MASTERMIND behind Order 66, he was still the lead ATTACK DOG, and so many Jedi could’ve escaped without his presence at the Temple that day. Order 66 was a plan long in motion before Anakin even met Palpatine, and maybe things still would’ve gone wrong, but without Anakin’s horrific betrayal—things might’ve not been beyond REPAIR. At least for the next 20 years or so.

Anyway, I’m kinda ranting. 😂 But all of this basically is just to say that the meme is hilarious and SOOO right, because strangely enough—the more Melanie spends with Anakin, he doesn’t just represent the chilling dread of what will happen should she fail whenever she spots his red flags—but he also represents her HOPE. Because with every IMPROVEMENT he makes (to her GREAT astonishment, at least at the beginning 😂💕👀), it gives her more strength to keep marching forward with the belief that maybe she CAN change the fate of the galaxy.

Because if ANAKIN SKYWALKER (who is the literal CATALYST for everything plunging the galaxy into darkness after he chooses to betray his friends and family and join the basically ‘Devil’ of Star Wars) can slowly begin to change into someone better—then maybe… just maybe… the galaxy can be pulled back from the brink of ruin. Anakin is basically like the tipping scale for all of this. People who’ve read my fic will notice how more chipper Mel’s mood becomes when Anakin does or says something out of character that surprises her—and her mood can just as quickly descend into nauseating disgust and hopelessness if Anakin starts spouting off something bloodthirsty or dehumanizing about the Jedi Order that he will one day help genocide with seemingly zero remorse. Her hope is becoming BASED off of him, just as Anakin’s moral compass (for better or for worse) is becoming wrapped up in the idea of “What would Melanie do?”

This isn’t necessarily the BEST mindset to have regarding his thought process if he wants his change to be for HIMSELF alone—but it’s a whole lot of character development compared to Anakin originally not thinking over his slightly darkening actions at all. Change isn’t simple or even LINEAR. In one chapter (slight spoilers maybe for new readers 😂😅), Anakin eventually stops his “kill count” game with Ahsoka—not because he’s suddenly fully seen the light and is all sunshine and rainbows now and fully realizes his bloodthirsty tendencies popping up on the battlefield or the error of his ways—but instead because it “just isn’t fun anymore.” And you can argue that unconsciously Anakin’s mind IS starting to recognize that such actions are not the best, since he feels “a strange curdle in his stomach” at the thought of him and Ahsoka laughing like younglings and stepping over the bodies of clones and Geonosians alike. But it’s not CONSCIOUS yet. He’s not there yet. But it IS a change. And you’ll start to see more and more things like this pop up until he DOES have moments of true epiphany, which is exactly where the “crafting a scenario in which HE betters HIMSELF” comes in.

Just like with Barriss—Melanie cannot MAKE the choice for Anakin. He has to make it himself. And I think once she starts to recognize more of the sway she has in at least making Anakin at least CONSIDER her opinion, the more she’ll try to “nudge” him in the right direction, while standing back and biting her nails and holding her breath to see what choice he’ll make.

In conclusion—sameee, anon. ✋😭😂 This really is SOOO Mel. Right now she’s more in the “I can’t FIX him. How am I supposed to do that? 😭🥶” stage while turning tail to run the other way. But once she starts to RECOGNIZE more of the changes in him? I definitely think—ironically enough—this very thing is what will help Melanie’s deteriorating mental health the most.

So sorry for the long meta post. 😂❤️ I just can’t resist talking about SW and my fic writing process, I suppose.

And so very sorry for the late response! 😭💔😖 Life just gets in the way, and I really wanna dedicate a good and in depth answer to each ask I get so you all feel special! ✨😁💕 I still have four to catch up on…. 🫠🫠 Sorry, guysssss.

Hope to hear from you again! 😜✋💕✨

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To any readers that stumble across this and are curious enough to check out my fic:

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