#jedi vectors

[milkmanviii]

Wooden Jedi vector, made with cedar, panga panga, redheart, and lacewood, with a cherry stand.

This was quite awkward to figure out because there isn’t one specific way a vector should look. All the official art is very slightly different so I had to figure out the right shapes and proportions for everything so it still looked enough like a vector. It’s not massively symmetrical but the Art of the High Republic book mentions that ship models for Star Wars actually have built in asymmetry to make it look more lifelike, so yeah that’s all definitely intentional I did that on purpose, definitely…

The joints on this could definitely be stronger, it’s literally just held together with glue, but as long as you don’t swoosh it too hard it does hold itself together.

[hurricanek8art]

I had to start trying to explain to my mom (strictly a movie/tv fan) why the Jedi are like this at this point in time, and it finally clicked in my head. The perfect way to explain how they're so rigid and strict and have such huge sticks up their butts at this point in time.

The Jedi of this generation are the result of generational trauma.

(Spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of The Acolyte, Phase One of the High Republic books, and some barebones setting spoilers of Phase Three under the cut. Also a big wall of text because I never know when to shut up 🙃)

So I'm behind on Phase III of the High Republic books (got a few chapters into The Eye of Darkness when it came out, brain farted out on me on reading ability, haven't gotten back to it yet 🙃😖) but I know enough to know that things are really going bad. The Nihil are rampaging, the Nameless are turning people to stone, the Stormwall has cut off like a third of the galaxy from the rest of it. It's a lot! It's really bad! And we see how it's affecting our heroes. Avar and Elzar are reeling without Stellan. Vern's questioning about how the Jedi are responding to this threat throughout Phase I has led her to become a Wayseeker. Padawans like Bell, Burry and Reath have been elevated to Knighthood a lot sooner than any of them expected to be. All of them are incredibly traumatized.

But that's just the Jedi we've seen. The heroes, the big names. Imagine being a nobody at this time. An extra. A child.

Imagine being a youngling in this era. There are literal nightmares hunting you. People are dying right and left, they're being husked and turned to stone or just plain shot/stabbed/whatever. The outposts are being closed down and everyone's being recalled to Coruscant, and that's the ones who've survived so far. They knocked the Starlight Beacon out of the sky, something that was supposed to be impossible. And less than five years ago, this was a golden age of peace, of light and life and great works that were bringing the galaxy together, a united front. That's horrible, that is terrifying.

We as the readers know it's going to work out, because it has to, because this is a prequel. They don't know that. They're just kids, and the world has suddenly turned upside-down, and the galaxy is big and scary and dark.

So everything works out, the day is saved. But these kids, they have to live with this trauma for the rest of their lives.

And when they grow up, and they train Padawans, those Padawans are going to carry the lessons they learned onwards. There is no lesson a Master can teach in this era that isn't going to carry the grief of the Nihil or the Nameless. There is no lesson any Master will ever teach again, from the moment Loden Greatstorm was captured by Marchion Ro all the way to Luke's temple burning to the ground, that won't somehow, in some way, be touched by this. It haunts everyone, everything. Those lessons are passed on, and on, and on.

Yord Fandar is intense about protocal and following the rules and making sure he's the perfect Jedi, because a hundred years ago maverick Elzar Mann played fast and loose with the rules while he was stationed on Valo, and then the Nihil turned the Republic Fair into a bloodbath. Sol is worried about Osha's (so far) inability to put her grief to the side and remain objective in chasing Mae because Imri Cantaros lost control and nearly murdered the Nihil who caused the death of his master during the Great Disaster. Vernestra Rwoh is refusing to charge into this without talking it over with the Council because she remembers what happened when she kept information from them a hundred years ago.

These aren't isolated incidents because they happened to the heroes, every Jedi of that era has some story like this, where the lines blurred in the fog of war and they made or nearly made horrible mistakes out of fear. And now, every Jedi is going to want to rise above that. To not make those mistakes, because that past is past. It's peaceful again. They're better now. But that trauma's lurking under the surface, just like the Sith. The Nihil won't win, but the Order isn't going to, either. Because what the Nihil did changed them, permanently.

The plot of the High Republic books is supposedly unrelated to the show, because it's a hundred years later. But the plot of the High Republic books explains everything about the Jedi in this era of the galaxy. They're carrying the trauma and grief of an entire generation that was brutalized unlike anything the Order had ever seen before.

And the Sith have watched, and waited, as that trauma has become so internalized, so central to what the Jedi are. The Jedi might not even realize that's what's happened to them. But the Sith see it.

And now it's finally time to begin the grand plan.

[i-looove-dillydallying]

I’d love to hear your reasoning as well :)

[personalswtorheadcanons]

So, tell me something about ocs.. who did they romance?

I've been waiting for a question like this!

Oro'a romanced Andronikos and took him back when he returned at the end KOTET.

Zaedesh romanced Quinn, but I'm planning on having her romance Arcann after redeeming him.

Nivirhy romanced Doc but is now romancing Lana.

Sorla didn't have a base romance since I intended her to always romance Theron.

Dedalera romanced Torian and I'm looking forward to their reunion on Darvannis. Mando Power Couple FTW!

Leyka romanced Vector and I'm excited to get him back.

Teeubo romanced Corso, but now I'm having her romance Koth. *gag*

And finally, Zenahi romanced Jorgan and was reunited with him at last!

[karthonicart]

It's Cal!

This sketch has been sitting around since 2020 (I sketched him around the time I made the Sabine one...). It's been in my To-Do list so long a whole other game was developed and made that I needed to go and also make his Jedi Survivor design!

[zhakyria]

I've been reading through @kemendin stories and just had to make some art for them. Here are the lightsabers for Caspian Serapis (their oc) and Lord Scourge.

If you haven't read any of Kemedin's fanfics, then what are you doing? Get on that! It's good stuff.

[b-else-writes]

The Jedi Are the Elite, Not the Underdogs in the Prequels

I cannot believe i had to read with my own two eyes a take that the Jedi in the Star Wars Prequels occupy some of the lowest rungs in society because something something "they're meant to be Buddhist monks!!" and "it's based off the Hidden Fortress and the Jedi are the two peasants!!!" - what an utterly brain-dead take that fundamentally misunderstands how the Jedi are actually portrayed in the story, fundamentally misunderstands which characters from Hidden Fortress Lucas was grafting onto which character, and fundamentally misunderstands what story the Prequels were (badly) trying to tell.

So first, at the absolute most basic level, the two peasant characters in Hidden Fortress (which Lucas pulled most from for A New Hope and Phantom Menace) correspond, in Lucas' own words, to C3PO and R2D2 in the A New Hope, and Anakin and Jar Jar in Phantom Menace, NOT any of the Jedi characters. Obi-Wan, the only explicit Jedi in ANH, was inspired by Toshiro Mifune's character, who is, guess what, nobility (as men/samurai of a general status usually were in that time period). Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in TPM occupy that same role as well. It is Anakin (and Jar-Jar, who was expelled from his own society and an outcast) who occupies the lowest rung in society, because he's a literal slave and it's that very fact that drives the entire plot. Yes, Anakin is Force-Sensitive, but he isn't a Jedi in TPM, and he is always narratively positioned as being "not one of them" throughout the story (more on this in a minute).

Which brings us to point two - how are the Jedi actually portrayed in the Prequels? It's an old hat to be like "they're the Space cops" but, well, they are the Space Cops. The Jedi are part of the bureaucratic systems of the Galactic Republic. They can speak directly to the Chancellor and offer advice, they are dispatched to quell unrest in the Republic's name. Visually, they are designed to convey power and prestige based on Western cultural cues (large buildings with European facades, marble, white/beige clothes that are sweeping and regal, rare genetic magical powers, and of course, swords).

The defense I've seen is that the Jedi do not have power because they aren't in charge and have to answer to the Chancellor/Republic, but this is like saying, "the military doesn't have power because it has to answer to the President/Prime Minister", it's nonsensical. While the Jedi are referred to as monks and practice a veneer of vague Hollywood Buddhist beliefs, in practice, they operate like Samurai (because again, that was what Lucas was drawing from), who again, held high prestige and power in society. They are not the scrappy underdogs or the downtrodden poor. And they are certainly not slaves.

And that's where the fundamental thing comes in of what story were the Prequels trying to tell? Fundamentally, Anakin's fall is a story about the elites in society taking a child who is at the very bottom (a slave) and raising him up onto their level, while simultaneously having nothing but contempt for him, and then systematically failing him at every turn until he decides that the only solution is that the system is completely broken and we should do Fascism (for the record i'm not saying the Prequels tell this story well, and handle it with the subtlety of a brick to the face like Anakin quite literally paraphrases George Bush). Because the Prequels were written in the late 90s-early 2000s by an American man and are a blunt commentary on the elites in the USA failing and sliding into unnecessary war and growing fascism. It's a story about the fall of a society. And for this entire morality tale of Lucas' to work, it would mean that the Jedi are the Elite as well.

And they are - they're shown to be ineffectual and not very smart and their powers have grown weak and they can't see what's directly in front of them! They have become entrenched into the corrupt system. It matters that it is Anakin who occupies the lowest rung in society and not the Jedi, and that is why he is never one of them and what drives the entire story of his fall (for the record (2), this isn't saying Anakin was RIGHT to become fascist).

I think a lot of people try to twist this because they desperately want to love the Jedi (which you can) but can't reconcile that narratively they're portrayed as having messed-up very very badly and that the entire system that they were part of didn't work and shouldn't have been done that way (#maybe Jacen was onto something before he did Space Fascism 2.0), so they try to say that no, no, no, it's the Jedi who are the scrappy underdogs. But to do that is to just completely misunderstand and misrepresent what is actually being presented.

[persephoneggsy]

sometimes you’re just anxious so you fill otp memes to calm your soul

anyway here’s my SWTOR couples. my bounty hunter and smuggler aren’t pictured bc their relationship statuses are.... weird. my BH is super into Acina and my smug is eternally hung up on Darmas lol

[milkmanviii]

I finally committed to painting my phase 1 box set.

I had to put Starlight Beacon on there and the Vessel is similarly iconic. I tried to match the background to the cover art as much as possible. My airbrush is officially dead so I used a sponge instead but I think it came out pretty good. I think there’s still something to this I haven’t quite worked out because I still had issues with some of the paint cracking off and I had to go back and fix it but I think it looks okay, just a little faded. The paint’s probably on too thick but I forget how much is already on there.

Honestly, these are some of my favourite books (not that I read much else). I am perhaps a little obsessed.

[alphacomicsvol2]

Star Wars: Dark Times #12 Cover Art by Douglas Wheatley

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Star Wars Insider #47 - Chewbacca Dies on Sernpidal by Matt Busch

[avari-legacy]

[sgthunter001]

Here’s a quick little digital art piece of my favorite SW droid BD-1 (aside for Chopper that is) in celebration of May the 4th.

There’s not much else to say except…May the Fourth be with you!

[darth-lemoncupid]

barbie swtor memes hahaha

[onespacedown]

I don't think we give Vector Prime enough flack for how ridiculous the ending is. The whole Chewbacca controversy really did a great job of covering for that. Like, I'm pretty sure I know what real life physics it was drawing from, but that doesn't change how goofy and out-of-left-field the whole scene is.

[the-overanalyzer]

While I’m on the subject of the EU i wasn’t but just pretend i was talking about it it is such a headache remembering how Jacen Solo went from “goofy jokester animal-lover” right into “indecisive navel-gazer” when the publisher switch happened with absolutely no transitional stage. Young Jedi Knights wasn’t the best thing the EU ever produced, but it was, y’know, the established and reasonably prolific source of most of his characterization, and to go from pulpy middle-grade adventure to the half-baked philosophizing with occasional detours into outright torture porn of New Jedi Order is one of the most jarring tonal shifts I’ve ever experienced in real time.