#anakin's fall

[vergencescatter]

Remember the time Obi-Wan faked his death, almost driving Anakin to the dark side there and then out of pure anguish and despair?

As time continued to pass thinking Obi-Wan was dead, Anakin became increasingly withdrawn and almost forlorn or dejected; meanwhile, the Jedi Council continued keeping the plan from him. Why? They didn't trust him. But in not trusting him and by withholding the truth about something so astonishingly sorrowing, they pushed him further away.

The scene of Obi-Wan's funeral is very telling. Everyone appears sad, even the stoic Plo Kloon stands respectively in a mournful manner. Anakin is the only one who doesn't look sad; he cuts an isolated figure, completely enraged and on the edge of uncontrolled anger out of his pain and sadness.

From Anakin's perspective, this must have been one of the many incidents that increased his distrust in the Jedi Council, and probably the Jedi Order as a whole.

[Clone wars, s4 e15]

[that-gay-jedi]

Anakin's fall + "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman

All screenshots from cap-that.com

[firefly-fez]

i keep seeing that ‘obi wan broke the left half, ahsoka broke the right, but only luke could remove the whole mask’ take everywhere and just no. no no no. i hate it. It is not a virtue of luke’s that he was able to remove the mask and it is not a failing of obi wan and ahsoka that they could not. You cannot help someone who doesn’t want to be helped and you cannot save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. That is a fact of life and it is is unchangeable. Neither Obi Wan nor Ahsoka could save Anakin, separately or together and that is not their fault.

First of all, Obi Wan and Ahsoka do not have equivalent experiences in their fight with Vader.

Obi Wan fights Vader, shatters the mask begins with the torment that Anakin is Vader, but leaves with the belief that Anakin is dead, that there is nothing of Anakin left within Vader.

Ahsoka fights Vader, initially denying that Vader and Anakin are one and the same, but comes to the realisation that Anakin is still within Vader. She goes from “My Master could never be as vile as you” to “I won’t leave you. / Not this time.” Obi Wan goes from “Anakin. I have failed you” to “Then my friend truly is dead.”

They do not go through the same journey when they fight Vader

But more to my original point; IT’S NOT A FAILING ON OBI WAN AND AHSOKA’S PART THAT THEY COULDN’T BRING ANAKIN BACK TO THE LIGHT, EITHER SEPERATELY OR TOGETHER

Anakin, after years of suffering, after years of wallowing in self-hatred, after years of being this monster and hating himself for it, sees

1: There is still someone he loves.

2: For once, it’s not too late

3: It’s about to be too late

And something in him snaps. He just goes No. No more. And he destroys Palpatine, once and for all. (Screw the sequel trilogy)

I love Obi Wan and I love Ahsoka and they both have their faults but you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. If someone insists on pushing you away and surrendering to their worst instincts, there is nothing you can do about it.

It is a credit to Luke that he recognised this goodness was still there, and that he was willing to put himself in the right circumstances to draw it out, but it was Anakin’s own choice that redeemed him in that moment.

He doesn’t have the same sense of failure and shame attached to Luke as he does to Obi Wan and Ahsoka. He loved them both, dearly, but he let them down. He betrayed them and they know it. He failed as Obi Wan’s apprentice and he failed as Ahsoka’s master. That’s why he hates them, hates the sight of them, can’t stand to be around them. He hasn’t got the same sense of internal shame surrounding Luke. It’s because he’s young, because he’s innocent in all of this, because he was uninvolved in the fall of the order and all the failings of the jedi that he is able to represent what Oni Wan and Ahsoka can never be to Vader: A second chance.

I think that, following their encounters with Vader, Ahsoka could accept this and Obi Wan couldn’t. He could not bear to believe that Anakin could be saved, but not by him. Anakin never learned to let go, but I don’t think Obi Wan ever did either. He couldn’t let Anakin go. Accepting that he couldn’t stop Anakin’s fall means also accepting that he can’t bring about Anakin’s salvation. I don’t think Obi Wan could ever do that, but I do believe that Ahsoka reached this point of clarity. She tells Ezra “You can’t save your master. / And I can’t save mine.” She has to let go. And he does find salvation; through his own choices.

Anakin chose to save Luke and in doing so, saved himself.

[the-far-bright-center]

“…and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god”

—Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

One fateful night when I was little, I snuck downstairs while my dad was watching Return of the Jedi. It just so happened to be the moment right near the end when Luke removes Vader’s mask. My reaction was part horror, part sadness, and part awe...but I was not afraid. Rather, I wondered, 'who is this poor guy and what happened to him?’ I had instant empathy for the pitiful creature before me. This was my very first introduction to Star Wars, and is what forms the heart of my interest in⁠, and understanding of, the story to this day. The sorrow, the tenderness, the unconditional love. The redemption. The monster, a monster no more. It is why I have never seen Vader as the 'scary villain' of pop culture, but rather as Anakin.…the tragic hero and figure of immense pathos that he is.

[intermundia]

so apparently in the earliest drafts of phantom menace, lucas had anakin at 12 years old, but eventually knocked it down to 9, because anakin leaving his mom at 12 "is not nearly as traumatic" as it would be at 9. this separation really is a foundational trauma for the tragic character, and he needed to make it hit as hard as possible, so he found the sweet spot of bad timing for qui-gon to find anakin. it makes me think of AUs where he is both older and younger and able to handle separation and transition better, both help avoid the problem of his psychological misfit with the jedi. his age of discovery is a vital part of all the things that had to right (for sidious) and wrong (for the jedi) for darth vader to happen, like the deck was intentionally stacked against anakin's happiness from the beginning on purpose for dramatic reasons. lucas's design of the backstory for such an established villain was really an archaeology of trauma that led to such a disaster, scraping away layers of the adult psyche to see the damaged child inside. many didn't like that the movie was about a whiny kid, but it's fascinating to me that lucas wanted vader to be understood as having that child weeping inside.

[teamhangaround]

Changing power dynamics

[david-talks-sw]

Dooku didn't leave because of the Jedi.

At least, if you're going by George Lucas' word.

In deleted scenes of Attack of the Clones, when we learn about Dooku's departure and his values, there's no mention of the Jedi or "the Jedi Order as an institution".

And every time Lucas refers to Dooku's disenchantment and reason for falling, he doesn't mention the Jedi.

"When you realize that Dooku is Darth Tyranus, it explains what Darth Sidious did after Darth Maul was killed: he seduced a Jedi who had become disenchanted with the Republic. He preyed on that disenchantment and converted him to the dark side, which is also a setup for what happens with Anakin." - Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002

"[Dooku is] one of the few Jedi who became disenchanted with the Republic and left the order and he is leading a separatist movement." - Vanity Fair, 2002

"I wanted a more sophisticated kind of villain. Dooku’s disenchantment with the corruption in the Empire is actually valid. It’s all valid.  So, Chris plays it as, 'Is he really a villain or is he just someone who is disenchanted and trying to make things right?'" - Starlog Magazine #300, 2002

He probably meant the Republic/Senate in that last one, but you get the point. And you're seeing the pattern, right?

Dooku's problem isn't the Jedi, it's the Republic.

He's become disenchanted with a system that - according to Lucas' prologue in the 2004 book Shatterpoint - worked for 1,000 years...

"For a thousand years, the Old Republic prospered and grew under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the venerable Jedi Knights."

... but has been rendered ineffective because of 1) senators becoming corrupt and 2) corporations gaining political power.

"But as often happens when wealth and power grow beyond all reasonable proportion, an evil fueled by greed arose. The massive organs of commerce mushroomed in power, the Senate became corrupt, and an ambitious named Palpatine was voted Supreme Chancellor."

That's the message Dooku runs on, when he rallies the systems to form the Separatist Alliance.

"By promising an alternative to the corruption and greed that was rotting the Republic from within, Dooku was able to persuade thousands of star systems to secede from the Republic."

The Jedi aren't really a factor in his decision to leave.

Why would they be? Their political status isn't very high, they're virtually powerless, as illustrated by the film's narrative and stated repeatedly by Lucas.

On the contrary, as we already established in this post, Lucas full-on confirmed that Dooku actually carries the sympathies of most of the Jedi. Again:

Most Jedi agree with Dooku, ideologically.

As far as the Jedi are concerned, the politicians are effing up the Republic, and it sucks because the Jedi see this but aren't allowed to interfere in the political process. They have to resort to looking for loopholes in their mandates to actually get stuff done.

That's what that whole "she's a politician" scene is meant to hint at. In the commentary of Attack of the Clones, Lucas uses a similar turn of phrase as he does with Dooku.

"[This scene gives us] a chance to talk a little bit about politics and the Jedi’s disenchantment with the political process, due to the corruption and the ineffectiveness of the Senate." - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

Considering all this, it becomes clear that the intended narrative surrounding Dooku's decision to leave the Order is not:

"The Jedi are dogmatic and asleep at the wheel except for Dooku, who is ahead of the curb and sees the system is flawed, so he left."

It's actually:

"ALL Jedi see the system is flawed, Dooku's the only Jedi who decided to take it a step further and leave the Order so he can try to get into politics himself and change things."

That's why they hesitate to accuse him of murder.

That's why in an earlier draft of the Attack of the Clones script, by the end of the second act, Mace STILL has his doubts that Dooku would sign a treaty with the Trade Federation to attack the Republic.

As far as the Jedi are concerned, Dooku is out there fighting the good fight, making noise because whenever they try to protest it falls on deaf ears... until his betrayal on Geonosis.

After all, let's not get it twisted: the Dooku we're introduced to in the films and The Clone Wars, isn't really just Dooku anymore.

He's Darth Tyranus.

A point Lucas makes sure to highlight in his Shatterpoint prologue:

"Unbeknownst to most of his followers, Dooku was himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, acting in collusion with his master, Darth Sidious, who, over the years, had struck an unholy alliance with the greater forces of commerce and their private droid armies."

It's not about doing the selfless thing for Dooku, anymore. He's knowingly part of the problem.

He's all about ambition, now. His personal goals are things like overthrowing Sidious and becoming the most powerful Jedi.

"[Anakin's] ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku’s. He says “I will become more powerful than every Jedi.” And you’ll hear later on Dooku will say “I have become more powerful than any Jedi.” [...] It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful, and control things." - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

"If you put two Sith together, they try to get others to join them to get rid of the other Sith. [When revealing the truth to Obi-Wan], Dooku's ambition is really to get rid of Darth Sidious. He's trying to get Obi-Wan's assistance in that and help in that, so that he and Obi-Wan could overthrow Sidious and take over." - Attack of the Clones, Commentary Track 2, 2002

Y'know? Selfish things.

Dooku - like all other Sith, and like the very corporations and Senators he had sworn to destroy - is consumed by his own greed.

[ominouspuff]

Downtime with the disaster lineage

[papanowo]

Through out your posts you indicate that you head-canon Rex as gay, but who’s he got a crush on and or how’d he figure it out?

he likes anakin. hes not happy about it either lmao

[mayhemspreadingguy]

"If you stare into the abyss,

the abyss stares back at you."

[bbygirl-obi]

shmi skywalker adhered to the jedi code more than anakin ever did

okay that's a very clickbaity title but i was rewatching the phantom menace and i found it so interesting that shmi actually demonstrated non-attachment and adhered to the jedi code with regards to anakin two different times during her brief screentime! i think it's important to emphasize this because shmi was anakin's only parent and primary influence during the early stages of his life. anakin's tendency towards attachment is not a result of shmi's parenting- it's despite it. so let's go through it!

the first instance of shmi's non-attachment occurs when she is presented with the notion of anakin racing on boonta eve in order to help qui-gon and padme. she explicitly says she thinks the racing is "awful" and tells anakin, "i don't want you to race." but she sets her own feelings aside- she lets go of her fear about anakin and prioritizes the greater good. the greater good, in this case, is padme and qui-gon's mission, and its implications for naboo.

shmi recognizes that her fear is not more important than an entire planet: "i may not like it, but he can help you... he was meant to help you," she says. there are also implications that she is listening to the will of the force here, and that she understands this is what anakin was meant to do.

the second instance of her non-attachment occurs when anakin is freed and she is not. she is the one who requests that qui-gon take anakin with him to coruscant to become a jedi. though she is clearly sad to part ways with him, lamenting to qui-gon that "he was in my life for such a short time," she still encourages anakin to go.

here, shmi recognizes that her desire to keep anakin near her is not more important than what is best for anakin. i've written a post here about the fact that shmi struggles to understand anakin's unique status with regards to the force, and that she turns to qui-gon and the jedi for help. shmi knows the jedi can help anakin grow this special part of him that she "can't explain" herself. she also knows that doing this will make anakin happy: she tells anakin that going with qui-gon is a chance to "make your dreams come true."

and she even drops a little nugget of wisdom, straight out of the jedi code, onto anakin. wisdom that anakin will later reject from the mouths of people like obi-wan and yoda, even though it is the exact same thing shmi believes, the exact same thing shmi is shown to have taught him. "you can't stop change, any more than you can stop the suns from setting," she tells anakin. "it is time for you to let go... to let go of me."

it's not a coincidence that shmi's screen time in the phantom menace is exclusively spent adhering to the jedi tenets of love without attachment. shmi is human, and she feels love just as anyone else. she feels scared when anakin is in danger, and she feels sad at the idea of not having him near. but she does not allow this to take precedent over the greater good, whether that is for the planet of naboo or for anakin himself.

that is non-attachment. it is letting go of someone- not because you don't love them, but because you do. and shmi skywalker is the very embodiment of it. when anakin rejects obi-wan's advice about letting go, when he refuses yoda's advice that death is inevitable, he is not just rejecting the jedi's philosophies. he is rejecting shmi's values as well. the further he sinks into attachment, the further he is forsaking his own mother's memory. that's the tragedy.

[isagrimorie]

Star Wars Ahsoka, 1E07 - Dreams and Madness

It's like, for the first time in many years, Ahsoka can breathe again.

Bonus:

The box of Anakin's memories.

[that-gay-jedi]

Disability often comes with a massive rearranging of identity, even when there's little or no change to one's physical appearance. For Anakin this coincided with the absolute shattering of his identity that was 1. Operation Knightfall and 2. Mustafar, and with the reforging of one's identity traditional of Sith apprentices. To further disrupt his prior identity, he now essentially has two bodies- the metal monster seen by the outside world, and the injured remnants of his organic body spending so much time in bacta.

So, like with any radical alteration of identity, there's going to be an inevitable transition phase, which may be long or short, and I'm willing to bet his definitely lasted longer than initially recovering from surgery and physically adapting to the suit.

It's no wonder he no longer sees himself as human, especially since Palpatine had total control over his entire transition phase. That's... well, so there are certain psychological effects of abuse that almost exclusively happen to children because adults who endure the same mistreatment already have a formed identity. But the identity of an adult can still be disrupted or even dissolved in various ways.  And one common model of the process of indoctrination into a cult is that a person's previous identity and worldview are systemically "unfrozen", molded to fit the cult, and then "refrozen." The Sith are generally thought of as a cult.

The fact that he can even remember Anakin Skywalker at all, let alone still be him, and eventually shoulder the guilt well enough to come back to the light- just, Jesus fucking Christ. Pals, I could not.

[131-vr]

You should have listened to Cody, he is the voice of reason..

[queenie-official]

Photos of Hayden that give off of Modern!Anakin in the Fall

just gives off warm autumn vibes in my opinion (looking at these photos makes me wanna go on a coffee shop date with him), Enjoy huns Xx <3 🍂✨

[ccorthal]

fallin in love ??? in the school pickup line ???? incredibly likely