#anti aleksander kallus

[antianakin]

It's probably been around a while and I just haven't encountered it before now, but the "yes everyone would have murdered a village down to the last child in that situation" take is a new one for me! Like would I have been justifiably upset in that situation? Yes. But what would I have done in that moment myself? Probably run. Granted I am not a person with a ton of unfathomable powers and a weapon I have spent a decade training to use that can cut through literally everything, but still. The argument that "well yeah EVERYONE would've done exactly what Anakin did" kinda falls apart when you think about it for two seconds because wow is that not what I would do when faced with being alone in the middle of an entire community of people who just captured and tortured my innocent mother for several weeks.

But it's also VERY hard to argue that this is even how everyone would react to this situation in Star Wars.

They literally have an entire arc where they explicitly have Obi-Wan's old nemesis who killed Obi-Wan's Master come to attack the home planet of someone he loves, captures her, and then murders her right in front of Obi-Wan with Obi-Wan helpless to save her. He then goads Obi-Wan into reacting in anger and Obi-Wan's reaction is to refuse to engage. He very explicitly refuses to even attack Maul because he knows he'd be reacting in anger and he's literally seen exactly where that leads before and overcome it. So when Obi-Wan IS put in an extremely similar situation, he chooses not to just go out and attack everybody as a result. He doesn't give in to his anger and fly to Dathomir to go kill every single Nightbrother on the planet as a form of justice for Satine, which is what this person is arguing is how literally anybody would react when placed in that situation.

Reva Sevander has every reason to despise Anakin, more reason than Anakin had to despise the Tuskens. And yet when she goes after Luke to try to kill him after she fails to kill Anakin, that becomes a line she can't cross. More accurately, it's a line Reva CHOOSES not to cross. So when put in that situation with all the same anger and grief as Anakin had with the opportunity to get her vengeance by killing an innocent child, Reva makes the active choice not to do what Anakin did. So while the impulse obviously was still there with Reva, she was fully capable of choosing not to go through with it. And Reva's been soaking in Darkness since she was about 8-10 years old, getting tortured and broken as an Inquisitor, surrounded by the corpses of her people, with zero support of any kind that she can turn to for comfort or guidance. Anakin had spent the last 10 years in a warm loving environment with people who cared for him and still had most of those people available to him to support him in this time of grief. And yet when faced with the same choice, Reva chose to pull back and let Luke live, but Anakin just kept going and massacred an entire village. It's a CHOICE, not an uncontrollable urge.

You know the only other person I can think up off the top of my head who DOES canonically have a similar reaction to Anakin's?

Aleksander Kallus.

Kallus explicitly states that he leads a genocide against the Lasat as vengeance for ONE Lasat killing a unit of Imperial soldiers in self defense. An entire species is nearly wiped out of existence because Kallus decided to let his anger control him.

But there are NUMEROUS other characters in Star Wars who we see lose people they love and proceed to not go on a murder spree against innocent people and children as a result. And the ones that do are pretty explicitly villains whose actions when in those situations are used to showcase just how villainous they are. Which indicates that it's NOT a normal reaction because otherwise it wouldn't really mean anything as a villain identifier. If it's something just about anyone would've done, it's probably not that villainous. The point of it NEEDS to be that most people WOULDN'T do that, even in justified anger.

[kanansdume]

One of the most delightful things about Andor is it continues to show why Kallus should not have been a Fulcrum, and why he is the worst Fulcrum out of our three known Fulcrums.

Ahsoka, for all her problems with attachment and hypocrisy she inherited from you know who, is a genocide survivor who chooses to continue to use the abilities she was born with to help those who cannot protect themselves from the Empire.

Cassian is ALSO a genocide survivor who ultimately recognizes that the Empire will continue to hunt him down no matter what he does or where he goes so if he has to die, then he'd rather die on his terms trying to bring them down than die the way they want him to. He spends the rest of his life giving everything of himself to this cause.

Kallus is someone who LED a genocide and only turns against the Empire because he figures out nobody in the Empire cares if he lives or dies and manages to be somewhat incompetent at the job of spy to begin with and causes the destruction of an entire Rebel base because he's stupid enough not to RUN when the Rebels risk their lives to rescue his ass because they know more than he does about Imperial knowledge of a spy within their ranks.

One of these is not like the others, and getting to watch Cassian's struggle against the Empire, the way they're so clinical about causing suffering and oppression to others, really just reminds you of what Kallus truly is and how unequal he is as a Fulcrum and a Rebel.

[obsessed-and-depressed69]

I am so fucking scared for the rest of rebels (I'm at the start of season 2) because I've read so much about kallus' redemption and how they do it and it's just so weird??? how??? I know as much as I can about it without watching the episode where he gets redeemed??? like dude??? they have zeb forgive him??? for the genocide of his species??? (yes I know they didn't go extinct but STILL) he was set up to be a dick of a human??? and they redeem him??

[antianakin]

I am proposing two alternate ships for poor Zeb whose only popular fanon love interest is apparently the dude who committed a genocide against his entire species and honestly Zeb deserves SO MUCH better.

The first is Chewie because, obviously. They've got a lot in common they can bond over!

The second is Rex because if I'm going to give Zeb a human love interest who was a soldier that has trauma in his past, it's not going to be the fucking fascist dickhole. Rex is RIGHT THERE, he's beautiful, he's strong, he's a sarcastic bastard with the best of them, he's loyal and honorable. Why WOULDN'T Zeb be interested in Rex? Plus, they could probably both use some stress relief and they often work together on the same team, so the proximity is helping my case here, too.

[antianakin]

Obikin and Kalluzeb are basically the same ship in terms of dynamics, even though the backstory for both is very different. But they're both, effectively, a genocidal fascist and one of the few survivors of said genocide.

No wonder I hate them both so much.

[antianakin]

I will admit, with the Poll between, the whiny Fascist (I GUESS he's technically a former one but I don't count that part) and his Genocide Victim and Finn and Rey.... it reminds me that I actually DO Like FinnRey. I also Like FinnPoe. It's like... I like both of those Finn Ships and would have been happy to have either of them.

Yeah I'm not like... a HUGE Sequels fan or anything, but I did genuinely like Finnrey back in TFA and I remember that I, like almost everyone in the world who saw that film, assumed that Finnrey was the obvious endgame couple for this trilogy and was excited to see that develop.

And then TLJ happened. And we really never got Finnrey content again after that, and this is why I will pretty firmly still believe that TLJ was a worse film than TROS, I don't care what anybody says, TLJ killed Finnrey stone cold and it should bear the burden for that.

I didn't mind Finnpoe as a ship, still don't, but I wasn't naive enough to believe it was ever going to happen on a Disney Star Wars movie. It's a cute fanon ship and they had a fun dynamic in TFA that I was happy to see continue to develop into a good friendship throughout the trilogy.

And then TLJ happened.

So yeah, I still remember when I had high hopes for the sequels and a lot of it hinged on liking Finn, Rey, and Finnrey as well as the dynamic with Finn and Poe's friendship. They had SO MUCH potential and they're genuinely very sweet together!

Whereas Kallus has one of the worst "redemption arcs" I've ever fucking seen and the only reason he gets away with it is because he's a conventionally attractive white dude with a British accent and "enemies to lovers" is extremely popular as a trope.

[antianakin]

I find it really interesting that you don’t like kallus at all bc say what you will about fulcrum or kalluzeb but he’s the first ex-/imperial character that we saw on screen who wasn’t already defected when we met him. Like obvs you’ve got Han and Sabine who started off in the academy and then left bc they realised in wasn’t what they wanted and tala who’s already a mole for the path by the time she’s on screen but most other characters we interact with regularly and significantly either stay imperial or have never been one as far as we know. And I think that watching kallus’ arc play out as he realises that no the empire isn’t worth it actually and it is worse and the rebels he’s fighting and trying to capture are better and are the good guys is just so fascinating to watch. If anakin’s arc in tcw and the prequels is about him getting worse and worse and making all the wrong choices again and again then kallus’s overarching storyline is about learning that actually his choices were wrong and he is the villain and he needs to accept that and try to do better as best he can. Ymmv on how well it was executed (and I do think there are parts that could have been done so much better) but the bare bones are there (and also I do love the interactions he has with kanan and Ezra post defection pre extraction where they’re like “this guy 😤” and are doing things like throwing him through glass screens to cover for him bc hey! They’re helping and they get to be a bit petty about it bc they still don’t like him and he just. Has to put up with it bc he’s on their side now and they are technically helping him)

I don’t know I just think it’s a pretty interesting arc to follow and I do think that however clumsily handled (again ymmv on how clumsily), the idea in his character of “it’s not too late to change and to choose to do better, you can unlearn your prejudice and biases and you can always start trying to do good no matter who you are” is a really important message that feels like Star Wars yk

(Side note: I just wanted to add that I love the anakin salt and the pro Jedi posts. I always pop around your blog when I’ve seen a few too many “he’s misunderstood” takes for my own good and it’s really cathartic to see someone else point out he sucks in new ways I hadn’t yet considered. I also find your Ahsoka takes super interesting bc most other things I see either just straight up do not like her or think she’s perfect where I always fell in the middle of “she’s interesting and narratively seems to be there to point out how anakin could have been if he’d made different choices since their flaws are so similar” ❤️❤️❤️)

This probably should have been split into two asks but I’ve written it all out now and my break is over so I guess it’s going to be one

Hi! I'm glad my blog helps provide you an area to just feel a little bitter sometimes when fandom gets hard, that's exactly why I made it for myself, just an escape when I'm starting to forget why I like this stuff sometimes and I just need to get rid of some of the bitterness.

I'm not against the IDEA of an Imperial character who turns against the Empire, of watching an Imperial character start to learn better and change sides. I promise I'm not!

I just think it shouldn't have been Kallus. I don't personally believe that they had a redemption arc in mind for Kallus when they were writing him in the first season at all. I don't know when the idea first got brought up for the writers, but it doesn't really seem to be one they had in mind in early season 2, either, so it just comes out of NOWHERE in that episode with Zeb where they get stuck in the ice. And the side effect of this lack of set up means that they really were writing Kallus as an irredeemable villain. He led a genocide against Zeb's people, he laughs at Zeb about being a survivor, he uses one of the Lasat's weapons as a trophy he took from that genocide. He turns against one of his own fellow officers at the end of season 1/beginning of season 2 when Tarkin and Vader show up and want someone to answer for their failure on Lothal. He helps lead Tua to her death and SMILES about the whole thing. Tua's death could've been a way to begin that journey, give him a crack in the wall where he feels doubt about what they're doing, but it DOESN'T, it just makes him MORE of a fanatic.

So when you get to that episode with Zeb in the ice, all of the sudden you have to take Kallus at his word that he DIDN'T lead the genocide he's already been saying he led, that he DIDN'T steal the Lasat weapon he already said he stole, that he totally had a sorta sympathetic reason for wanting an entire group of people eliminated from the galaxy, and that he apparently cares about having friends in the Empire. This isn't just a retcon of his backstory, it's a retcon of his CHARACTER. And they have to "all lives matter" the entire situation to do it by having him point out that Zeb judges all Imperials the same (and sees them all as enemies) which is somehow equivalent to Kallus judging an entire SPECIES for the actions of ONE PERSON and choosing to go genocide the entire species as a result. That's not just clumsy, that's OFFENSIVE. This is one of the WORST written episodes of Star Wars I have ever seen, which is saying something since I've seen the Ahsoka show and the Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian Season 3.

I think my major issue with Kallus's "arc", beyond the offensiveness of the retcon of his entire character, is that it isn't really an arc at all. It's ONE episode. The next time we even SEE Kallus, he's already willing to help Sabine escape from the Empire and then season 3 goes on to basically tell us he's been acting as a spy most of the season now. We DON'T actually get to see that arc for Kallus, he spends a few hours in the ice with Zeb and that's all it takes to turn him against the Empire really. The few times he shows up in-between don't do a lot to really emphasize a JOURNEY he's going on, he's just already on the side of the rebels and trying to push back against the Empire. And he fucking SUCKS at it, too. They have to come rescue his ass TWICE because he wasn't good enough at being a spy to not get caught and then he has the fucking GALL to think he's thrown off Thrawn and refuses to run when Kanan and Ezra risk their necks to save him which is what directly leads to Chopper Base being discovered. So not only is his redemption "arc" barely there anyway, he's an awful rebel and an awful spy.

This is why I keep arguing that it should've been PRYCE to be the Imperial defector. She isn't introduced to the story until season 3, and so her character is basically a big blank slate. They'd MENTIONED her, but all we knew is that she was the governor of the planet or something and she was gone on Coruscant dealing with stuff. This and the fact that she has an ACTUAL connection to Lothal by being FROM THE PLANET gives her a really really excellent pathway towards turning on the Empire. Maybe she sided with the Empire because she genuinely believed it would help save them from what everyone else suffered by fighting back. Maybe she was promised certain advantages if she sided with the Empire that they could show haven't been kept. Let her CARE about Lothal and its people just enough for her to have a REASON to turn against the Empire and see its truth.

It's one of the other reasons I don't like using Kallus, he's not really emotionally connected to any character but Zeb. Turning Kallus does very little for the main characters Ezra and Kanan. If they were going to turn an Imperial character, which IS a fairly big thing to put into a narrative, I feel like it should've impacted the MAIN characters far more than it actually does. Let Ezra, the person whose story is being told here, be a part of the reason that Imperial character turns. Let that journey away from the Empire be something they're actively WORKING on rather than something that primarily happens off screen in Kallus's head.

I think the only reason they chose Kallus for this was because fans already liked him and they couldn't figure out what else to do with him at this point. He's a basically ineffective villain because he keeps having to lose and the only times he "wins" against the crew is when they LET him win by sacrificing themselves or something. And they were already starting to write him out as an antagonist by including Vader, Tarkin, the Inquisitors, and they might've known they were bringing in Thrawn in season 3 (and maybe that Pryce would finally show up) by the time that ice episode was being written. Kallus was becoming irrelevant, but fans enjoyed him so they had to figure out a way to make him relevant moving forward, and so, quick and dirty redemption "arc" so he can move to the rebel side. You'll notice he barely does anything in season 4, though, once he's moved to the rebellion he's just kinda... there. Irrelevant again because he's not actually good enough at anything to be worth having him DO anything important or interesting to the plot.

A LOT of people seem to think Kallus's "redemption" was really well done and I just can't agree. I think it would've been better to take Kallus a different direction, to really have him just succumb to being evil, to become even MORE of a fanatic for the Empire moving forward, and then just pick someone else to be the defected Imperial character. Or they should've had a redemption arc in mind for Kallus from the beginning. Using Tua's death to start the process of doubt in his mind, or having him be the one the Empire turns on would've both worked. They didn't give themselves enough time to really write him a good redemption arc where the reasons for why he turns on the Empire actually feel in character to what we've been told and shown of him so far.

I think if you just... start in season 3 and act like Kallus has HAD a true redemption arc already by season 3, then those scenes work. The humor of the Rebels crew starting to discover Kallus is on their side now and not entirely trusting that and wanting to punt him through a window IS funny! I, too, would like to throw Kallus through a window several times, even perhaps over a cliff or out an airlock. But those scenes come with the context of having seen the first two seasons and feeling the VERY abrupt 180 his character took without the show doing any of the actual work to make his defection seem realistic or reasonable. Season 3 is fine for Kallus, the scenes are funny, etc. But he wasn't actually redeemed yet and neither season 2 nor season 3 do the work to showcase that journey.

And I think that this is likely one of the reasons we DON'T see very many Imperial redemption stories and most of the Imperial defectors we see are already defected when we meet them. You can count Gorn and Taramyn from Andor in this category, as well. It's HARD to take a character who's been set up as violent, selfish, and cruel, and REALLY do the work necessary to turn them around into someone who would genuinely turn on the Empire and join the Rebellion. It's by no means impossible, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of focus on said character. Most of these shows and stories aren't willing to put in that kind of work because they're focusing on someone else who needs their story told instead, so it's easier to just... have someone who's already changed sides.

All of that being said, there IS a character who we've seen go through this arc that I think was done MILES better than Kallus.

Reva Sevander. An Inquisitor (possibly BY CHOICE unlike all of the others who were presumably captured and broken into it) working for the Empire, who DOES do violent and selfish stuff, but who ultimately leaves that behind by the end of the season. Reva, who obviously was written with that turn in mind, and so her tragedy is BAKED into her character from the moment the show begins (we literally start the ENTIRE SHOW with a flashback of Reva at the Temple when Order 66 starts, and the terror of that night). The twist in her character, that she's doing all of this as a way to get closer to Anakin so she can kill him as vengeance for the Jedi, doesn't feel like it comes out of nowhere. It's just always been there FROM THE BEGINNING. Making her an Inquisitor, something Jedi: Fallen Order and some comic books have fleshed out into people who weren't given much choice in becoming monsters, was an expert choice. Using her to parallel and foil Anakin, someone whose primary storyline is that he was a GOOD person who turned bad and still had good in him, also helps her out.

I'd argue Reva hasn't gone on a full "redemption arc" as yet, she's sort-of barely scratched the surface of it, but she does obviously make the choice to STOP going down the path she's on, to turn away from her anger and vengeance, and leaves behind being an Inquisitor and the darkness she'd succumbed to. The reasons for why she does the things she does MAKE SENSE, they're narratively relevant, they're important to the main character of the story she's in, and the writers didn't wait too long to tell us more about her and her motivations. It's expertly done in my opinion.

So while Kallus might have been the first Imperial defector to show up in mainstream Star Wars, he is not the ONLY Imperial character we have seen to turn against the Empire. And yet Kallus gets praise and accolades for being such a great character with such a great character arc, while Reva got panned and critiqued for being unlikable. I wonder what could be the reason behind that.

So I think you and I have fairly similar feelings on this in that the IDEA of a redeemed Imperial character whose journey towards turning on the Empire is actually shown is a GOOD story to tell (with a very Star Wars style message, as you say), but that the way it was done with Kallus was REALLY badly written. You seem to be leaning towards liking the concept enough that the clumsiness of it is outweighed, whereas I hate the clumsy way it was written so much that my positive feelings towards the concept are outweighed.

And I deserve a good Reva show where we get to follow more of her character post-OWK where she still has to work on herself and figure out who she is now that she's left the darkness behind. Finish the arc she's only just started on.

[antianakin]

I am SO TIRED of people including Kallus as a Fulcrum. He's not. He is NOT a real Fulcrum. Just because he stole Ahsoka's frequencies and used them does not actually make him a Fulcrum. Nobody in the Rebellion chose to give him that title or that job. He didn't acquire it because he earned it, he legitimately stole it. And then once he epically FAILS at the job and has to get bailed out by the Rebellion TWICE, he never does any kind of Fulcrum work again. This stupid little fascist bitch ass is not a real Fulcrum and shouldn't be included alongside the likes of people like Cassian Andor. Cassian deserves so so much better than to constantly be included with shitheels like Kallus.

[antianakin]

@nonius-the-ninth My thing with Kallus is that the concept of a redeemed Imperial officer isn't a terrible idea, but it was impossible to make it be Kallus and the only reason it was Kallus was probably because he'd gotten popular with fans by the time season two rolled around. He's so so clearly not WRITTEN with a redemption arc in mind at all when he's introduced, he's written as an irredeemable villain.

And the writers KNOW THAT, they KNOW they made him irredeemable which is why they have to COMPLETELY undo his backstory in order to do what they do with him. "No he didn't LEAD the genocide on Lasan, he was just SAYING THAT to hurt Zeb, he was just a random person who happened to be there during the genocide!" "No he didn't STEAL that weapon, it was gifted to him by one of the warriors he murdered because in their culture you have to gift your weapon to the person who kills you even if that person is helping genocide your culture at the time apparently." The writers probably knew how to write a redemption arc, the problem is that they'd written themselves into a corner with Kallus by making him unequivocally evil and so the only way to "redeem" him is just to retcon him real fast in one episode so they don't have to do as much work afterwards. Redeeming a racist genocidal maniac could've been an entire show of its own.

But there WAS a character that they had teased at this point (but not shown yet) who would've been a perfect candidate for an Imperial officer redemption arc.

Arihnda Pryce is literally an actual Lothal citizen, she was born there, she knows the "good" Governor, Ryder Azadi, from pre-Empire days and that history doesn't seem to be unequivocally bad. She gets brought in with Thrawn in season 3 and has had exactly zero real backstory given to us before then. Which makes it REALLY REALLY EASY to let her be someone who's perhaps not entirely on the Empire's side. She could be introduced as someone who's either already an inside man (even if we don't know it until later) or she's at least someone who seems more reasonable in situations where Ghost crew is in a bad spot so it's not hard to grow her INTO an inside man who joins the Rebellion by the end of season 3.

There is no good reason for why Kallus got the redemption arc and Pryce didn't aside from that Kallus had been around for two seasons and fans already liked him but didn't know Pryce at all. I will go to my GRAVE arguing that Kallus should've taken Pryce's spot as Thrawn's attack dog (he's already played that part for both Tarkin and Vader before anyway) and then died at the end for all of his failures, while Pryce got Kallus's "Imperial officer redemption arc" and sides with the Rebels to help save her home planet.

[antianakin]

I hate seeing Kallus included as a Fulcrum all the time, because he's NOT A REAL FULCRUM. Nobody legitimately assigned him that position or the codes he was using, he just STOLE THEM from presumably Ahsoka and then started using them and the dude SUCKED at being a spy! Ahsoka and Cassian were both incredibly successful Fulcrums for YEARS, Kallus has to be bailed out of his job within MONTHS and he doesn't even believe he needs to be bailed out and that dumbass decision causes the Rebellion to lose Chopper Base. Fuck Kallus, he's not a true Fulcrum, he doesn't even REMAIN a Fulcrum after he has to have his ass rescued by the same people whose base he compromised with his idiocy and incompetence.

[kanansdume]

You know, somehow, I did not expect to come out of this rewatch actually having an appreciation for Vizago and realizing that Vizago actually fulfills the same narrative positions as both Hondo AND Kallus and manages it BETTER than both of them.

Vizago has a whole redemption arc of his own. He starts off selfish and unkind and only helps Ezra and the crew find Kanan when Ezra reveals that they’re both Jedi and Vizago recognizes the value of having a Jedi (in training) owe him a favor. But when Ezra later COMES THROUGH, it seems to change Vizago’s outlook a little and his very bloated attitude towards the Ghost crew that we see earlier on season one where he’s constantly screwing them over goes away a little. Ezra came through for Vizago, and yes, he’d owed Vizago a favor, but Vizago clearly didn’t entirely expect Ezra to do so. So it’s a pleasant surprise and causes Vizago to actually start looking at Ezra as something of a friend. To the point that when the Ghost crew needs someone to smuggle them back onto Lothal, Vizago agrees to stick his neck out to do so and it gets him big trouble and actually gets abandoned on Lothal by the crew. When they find him again, he thinks they’re there to rescue him and is understandably disappointed when he realizes they’re not, but the Ghost team has started to realize they can count on Vizago and do so once more and it pays off. Vizago never turned them in to the Empire despite being forced to do hard manual labor and even when discovering they had forgotten about him and abandoned him, still agrees to help them out and ultimately helps join their Rebellion until the end. He never leaves to do his own thing, he never just saves himself.

Vizago is a smuggler, a no-good thief, who is willing to help out a good cause for a price. Much like Ezra was when we first meet him. In this way, he parallels Ezra in the same way Hondo does, he’s selfish and out for his own gains all the time, unwilling to help anyone unless there’s something in it for him. Unlike Hondo, Vizago actually also has a connection to Lothal and becomes less annoying over time which makes his connection to Ezra more meaningful.

But through his connection to Ezra specifically, Vizago learns to be less self-serving and actually put himself out there to help other people because Ezra gives him reason to trust in the value of friendship. Like Kallus, Vizago starts off as a minor antagonist that’s pretty thoroughly unlikable and even dangerous to the Ghost crew, who has a single episode where he’s relying on one of the Ghost crew to save him and this experience changes his entire outlook. Unlike Kallus, I actually buy it with Vizago because Vizago’s crimes as presented in earlier seasons are fairly minor, he has less to redeem himself FOR generally, so he needs less time to believably turn around.

What an unexpected treat to get out of this rewatch!

[antianakin]

I cannot BELIEVE I had to deal with Aleksander "I find genocide funny" Kallus becoming a Fulcrum when the option for making SABE a Fulcrum exists in the universe.

[kanansdume]

You know what would’ve been easier than trying to 180 Agent Kallus into someone he isn’t just to try to force him into a redemption arc that doesn’t work for him?

Using Governor Pryce.

And I don’t mean the version of her we get once she’s introduced in season 3, since by that point they’d already settled on Kallus getting the redemption arc and Pryce is painted as pretty irredeemable.

But they MENTION Pryce as someone who exists out there and could become an antagonist if they ever wanted to bring them in. We don’t know a single thing about Pryce except that they are technically Governor of Lothal and always on Coruscant playing politics with Palpatine.

Which means that Pryce as a character was WIDE OPEN to be whatever they wanted it to be.

Instead of having to lampshade the fact that they’d already said Kallus was the one in charge of the genocide on Lasan by having him say he’d been lying about it this whole time and it was actually the EMPIRE’S choice and he had very little to do with that choice, they could’ve just... started with a blank character. Instead of pretending like Kallus doesn’t REALIZE how brutal the Empire is because he simply doesn’t ask questions even though we’ve seen him not only bear witness to Tarkin’s willingness to execute their own people and then actively go along with Anakin’s plan to kill Minister Tua before she even reaches the ship she thinks is taking her to her execution anyway, they could’ve let Pryce be that person.

I know that the reason they chose Kallus was likely fan reaction to him, I don’t know how it could be anything else, but they had to REALLY change over Kallus’s character and actively ignore a lot of ways they’d chosen to write and animate him over the last season and a half in order to try to make him seem redeemable.

Kallus spends a season and a half smiling and smirking gleefully every time he gets to enact violence against other people, whether it’s the rebels, civilians, or other Imperial officers. At least with Anakin, they understood the necessity of not showing him smiling gleefully as he kills people and even went so far as to have him CRY after all of the murder to really hit home that even though he doesn’t regret what he’s done and would 1000% do it again if he thought he had to in order to save Padme, it doesn’t necessarily bring him joy or amusement. Kallus, by contrast, seems to gain a LOT of joy and amusement from his actions and the violence he commits and the only other emotion we tend to see him show is frustration at being foiled again or anger at someone else’s failure. There’s no real build-up to Kallus saying he doesn’t truly know the atrocities the Empire commits because he just doesn’t ask, implying that if he truly understands just how violent they are, he’d decide they were the bad guys. But Kallus watched Tarkin stare him DEAD IN THE EYES as he has the Grand Inquisitor behead the Commandant and Taskmaster behind him and doesn’t even flinch or blink an eye as it happens. And afterwards, he still goes on to happily lead Minister Tua to her grisly doom, actively participating in the violence and atrocities they commit even against their own.

Kallus is not and never was someone who just didn’t understand how bad the Empire truly was. He’s not presented as someone who just needs to ask a few questions and find out the truth about the Empire to be convinced to turn on them. And he’s certainly not presented as someone who would be upset to come back to his ship and see that no one really gave a damn if he lived or died given how callously he treated Minister Tua. He’s not anybody’s friend, he never tries to build bonds with the other Imperials, and he certainly doesn’t mind betraying any of them and is never shown happy that one of them has survived. They are tools for his own ambition, tools to achieve their goals, and he gets that and seems to THRIVE on it.

But they had Pryce. They had Governor Pryce out there somewhere, clearly ripe to bring in and do whatever they wanted with because we knew exactly nothing about them except their rank and their absence.

Which means if they wanted a high-ranking Imperial officer to redeem and turn into an inside man for the Rebellion, Pryce was right there, completely blank and able to be molded into whatever they wanted the character to be. They clearly knew they had a third season since they set up a bunch of stuff for season three in season two, including Kallus’s redemption arc. So they knew they had an entire season to work with, which is PLENTY of time to take a character introduced as someone reasonable and maybe not entirely into the Empire’s ideas and redeem them, turn them over to the Rebels’ cause. Without having to pretend their own claims about Kallus having committed genocide were actually just lies and rewrite Kallus’s entire character in order to make this arc work.

Even if you pretend the first time we’ve ever met Kallus is when he gets stuck in an ice cave with Zeb and ignore all of the ways he’s been written that make this redemption arc unworkable, they still decide to make him sympathetic by giving him the worst sob story ever and compare judging Imperials for their CHOICE to join the Empire and do its dirty work with judging Lasat for just BEING LASAT, as if that’s in any way comparable. So it still doesn’t work because they’ve connected Kallus with literal genocide, which is pretty hard to make forgivable.

It should’ve been Pryce, and I’m forever going to remain salty that it wasn’t.

[antianakin]

MY STANCES ON CONTROVERSIAL CHARACTERS ARE AS FOLLOWS

Anakin Skywalker: This one's fairly obvious, but I'm one of the people who doesn't see Anakin as redeemed by the end of ROTJ just because he saved one person he personally gives a damn about. My definition of redemption is about atoning and making amends, and Anakin has no possible way of actually DOING THAT for most of the things he's done, so there's no real way of acquiring redemption. He can be a better person, he can be forgiven by individual people for things he's done to them, he can keep choosing to be selfless instead of selfish, but none of that necessarily means he has to be considered redeemed. If you think he's redeemed at the end of ROTJ and that's what brings you joy in your interpretation of the story, great, I honestly don't care. But if you choose to come into my notes and get mad at me because I don't think the space fascist is redeemed just because he decides to save his own son, you will now be blocked on sight, I'm done having that conversation with people.

The Jedi As A Whole: Wonderful people with a beautiful culture that never did a single thing to deserve what was done to them. They were not corrupt, they didn't need to reform their culture in a single way. There was nothing more they could've done for Anakin or the Republic that would've stopped what happened. They don't steal children, they adopt them from parents who choose to let their children lead a better life, and become part of the large extended Jedi family. They are intergalactic therapists whose literal way of life IS therapy for those who choose to follow it. They were outplayed, but they did everything they could've possibly done. Sometimes, it is possible to commit no mistakes, and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life. (Side note here: This is an incredibly pro Jedi blog, if you come on my blog and criticize the Jedi in any way, you will be immediately blocked, I am so done with this fandom's anti-Jedi sentiments, consider this your warning.)

Padme Amidala: Deserved better from the Prequels, has such potential and promise and I want so dearly to save her from her toxic ass marriage to a fascist MAGA manchild, but damn am I glad Luke and Leia didn't have to grow up with her as a mother some days.

Bo-Katan Kryze: I wish I could like her, but the writers are making it SO HARD. They don't seem to ever remember that she gleefully set an entire village on fire because they dared ask for their enslaved people back and to not be occupied anymore, but I do.

Satine Kryze: I wish I could like her, but I don't have enough nostalgia for her to overlook how bad the writing is for her. She treats Obi-Wan like garbage, brings out the worst in him, acts very arrogantly about just about everything and never has to take responsibility for her own mistakes so she gets to die a martyr.

Aleksander Kallus: Literally has to have his ENTIRE BACKSTORY retconned so he can be "redeemed" within the span of one episode. Also manages to "All Lives Matter" Zeb into thinking that judging Imperials for their fascist choices is the same as judging an ENTIRE SPECIES on the actions of one individual who was acting in self-defense anyway. Stop saying he's got the best redemption arc in Star Wars, it sucks fucking ass and he's not a fucking Fulcrum, he just stole the title from Ahsoka and didn't earn it and he was a shit spy anyway.

Crosshair: Bigoted dickhead who treats everyone like complete crap and then goes full fascist as a punishment for the world when no one wants to risk their lives to save him. Let him die already, he's not worth saving.

Bode Akuna: Basically just Anakin lite and we all know how I feel about Anakin. No sob story justifies anything he's done and I didn't find him all that interesting or sympathetic, personally.

Rafa and Trace Martez: I actually loved them, I thought they had an interesting relationship with each other and with Ahsoka, I appreciated how different they felt and the arc Ahsoka goes on with them. I don't mind that they used them to showcase the rising anti-Jedi sentiment among the citizens of Coruscant, I just wish their opinions hadn't been presented as though they were right. I love that we see they've joined a rebellion of sorts post-Order 66 and I wish we'd gotten to see more of Trace, Rafa, and Rex working together rather than the absolute trashfire that we're actually getting on TBB.

Ahsoka Tano: Relationship status: It's complicated. I DO like her, generally, but I REALLY dislike the way she's constantly written in later stuff to be better than everyone else and to have basically zero flaws so that she can end up like a messiah or a goddess of light reborn or something. It's boring, it's annoying, and it just isn't any good. I particularly don't care for how she consistently gets utilized to bash the Jedi Order and absolve Anakin for all of his sins. Ahsoka deserves better, but I'm also immensely frustrated with where her story's taken her and the way fandom tends to treat her. We also just straight-up need more main female Jedi characters and as long as Ahsoka's around it feels like it'll never happen.

Sabine Wren: I love the Rebels version of her, but the Ahsoka show version sucks. I have decided it simply does not exist for Sabine. That isn't the real Sabine and it never will be. That's not Sabine's story, the real Sabine would never try to be a Jedi because quite simply she doesn't NEED to be. And the real Sabine would NEVER disrespect Ezra's sacrifice by undoing it and then leaving him to deal with the fallout. It's stupid, it's ugly, and Sabine deserved better.

Hera Syndulla: Much like Sabine, I love the Rebels version of her, but the Ahsoka version sucks. The Ahsoka version deserves to be kicked out of the army or whatever, she's a terrible mother and an even worse General and quite honestly not that great of a friend. The real Hera would NEVER act like orders didn't matter just because she doesn't like them or refuse to see the logic in letting go of Ezra after he's been missing for 10 years so that those resources can go to people who they can confirm are still alive.

Shin Hati: She's so so so boring. She has the personality of cardboard, it basically consists of "crazy eyes" and that's about it. She is pretty literally just Darth Maul but a girl. Like every single part of her character so far is indistinguishable from Maul aside from the cosmetic stuff. I hope she dies in season 2 and never gets a redemption arc. I'd say Sabine deserves better, but honestly Ahsoka!Sabine deserves her.

Grey Jedi: Stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen. Let Grey Jedi stay in fanon where it belongs, none of your faves are Grey Jedi in canon and they never will be.

[antianakin]

So to start with, if you don't like this blog and the things I post on it, nobody's putting a gun to your head asking you to look at it. Feel free to block me, blacklist my username, block the anti and critical tags I try to use VERY frequently, etc. Nobody's asking you to look at the things I post and, quite honestly, the fact that you felt the need to leave me this message tells me that between the two of us, you're the one being unhealthy because you felt the need to tell someone innocently staying in their own lane that they're participating in fandom wrong rather than just... moving on and doing fandom in a way you enjoy more. If you want to see something else, go look at a different blog or make your own posts. Nobody's stopping you, least of all me.

But to actually answer the question you didn't ask, I made this blog because I wanted a place to make the kind of posts I wanted to see. Yes, it's a venting blog. That means sometimes I vent about the same thing more than once. Breaking news: people in fandom talk about the same hyperfixation more than once sometimes!

My best friend in the Star Wars fandom happens to be someone who really likes Anakin. So whenever I disliked something about Anakin, she was not the person I could go to in order to discuss it. Well, not always anyway. Not when I got particularly bitter about it. And at the time that I made this blog over a year ago, I didn't have anywhere else to go to vent those feelings, so I made one for myself. I made myself a tiny safe haven where I could simply write those feelings out that I never really saw anybody else making or discussing. This wasn't intended to be a popular blog. I expected it to get about two followers total maybe and a LOT of haters.

Instead, I've actually heard from a number of people that this blog let them feel seen. That the things I've written have felt really relatable to people who just can't connect to all of the Anakin love that tends to exist in the fandom. Because yes, Anakin's been the villain since the 1970s, but you must not have spent a lot of time in this fandom because that is NOT a thing that a lot of his fans tend to remember or even believe anymore. According to a good number of Anakin fans, the Jedi are the real villains and Anakin is just a tragic victim who didn't really do anything wrong. And even a lot of the people who DO recognize that Anakin is the villain of the story often still tend to like Anakin as this tragic character and will primarily post positive things about him. So for those of us who just... don't LIKE Anakin very much, there isn't as much content out there for us. You either accept all of the Anakin love along with the content for the other characters you like or you just... don't consume very much content within the fandom. Or you find a very specific niche to try to stay in that you like better, I guess. But Anakin's the main character of the main saga, he's hard to avoid entirely.

So this blog helps provide one little safe haven for others who just... don't like this character much.

And that's not even the entirety of this blog anyway. If you had scrolled through it much, you might've noticed the fic rec lists that have nothing to do with Anakin at all and are actually a lot more aimed at being Pro Jedi. Because this blog is just as much about loving the Jedi as it is about disliking Anakin. You might've also noticed the extensive AU concepts I've written a few times, one of the most recent of which actually ended up leading to Anakin surviving ROTJ and figuring out how to stop being a Sith and getting mentally healthy. And Anakin's not even the only character who's GOTTEN criticism on this blog, the pinned post on this blog lists a good 10 characters I've had to add to it because there IS going to be criticism for them here, too, from Satine and Bo-Katan Kryze, to Aleksander Kallus, to Crosshair and TBB as a show in general, to Padme Amidala herself. Not to mention some criticism of Ahsoka, as well, sometimes. I'm an all access kind of hater I guess, I like to have a varied diet of characters I complain about.

So yes, it's a blog named antianakin because the url wasn't taken, I thought it was funny, and it works as a WARNING for anybody who sees my posts or decides to come onto my blog. Obviously it doesn't keep EVERYBODY out who shouldn't be looking at them, look at yourself for a good example of that. But I like to think it's helpful. Yes, this is a venting blog where I allow myself to be negative and complain about characters I don't like in a space I have created for me to do that in. This does not mean that I am not EVER positive about Star Wars, it doesn't even mean that I'm never positive about Star Wars ON THIS BLOG. It just means that this is a place that I am allowed to be salty in, it is a place where I put my most bitter thoughts and feelings and throw them into the void that is Tumblr just to get them out of me.

This is MY safe space, MY little fandom haven. Nobody asked you to be here, so if it doesn't feel safe or even just entertaining for you, you're more than welcome to leave and go find somewhere else you like better or create your own little fandom space where you can create the kind of things YOU want to see. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.