#sw owk

[kanansdume]

I can't help thinking about the Kenobi show and how it emphasized all these other important relationships in Obi-Wan's life BEYOND Anakin. Even when Anakin was in the show and played by Hayden, the show very carefully and intentionally made sure to look BEYOND Obi-Wan's relationship with Anakin to really flesh him out and make him interesting.

He's constantly thinking about Padme when he spends time with Leia and missing Padme and remembering her.

It's his friendship with Bail Organa that gives him the kick in the pants he needs to start getting his life in order.

He connects to Reva over their shared grief at the loss of the Jedi Order and the horror of Order 66.

It's his meeting Tala and Haja and Roken and seeing how they're involved in their own little rebellions that helps him start to have hope in the galaxy again.

And even in the middle of his big emotional climax where he's fighting against Anakin, it's remembering Luke and Leia that actually saves him.

So yes, he has to let go of Anakin and his grief and guilt over Anakin's fate, and Anakin IS important to Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan's story, but he is not the SOLE important relationship in Obi-Wan's life. Obi-Wan has other things in his life worth discussing and remembering when telling a story about him and the Kenobi show was SO SO CAREFUL to ensure that that didn't get forgotten or overshadowed by bringing in Anakin himself. And I really appreciate that about the show.

[antianakin]

The best part about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show as opposed to certain other Star Wars shows is that it actively and continuously recognizes the truth that the Original Trilogy set up from day one and that is that Obi-Wan Kenobi is just better than Anakin Skywalker in every way.

[thenegoteator]

just realised I forgot to post this - it's my piece for the @forcefatalezine!!! such an excellent project, I really recommend keeping an eye out for the leftover sales coming up!!!

[dr3ack]

can qui-gon please answer obi-wan’s calls, this man needs some comfort and guidance desperately

[that-gay-jedi]

Ever think sometimes about how different Star Wars would be if it had all been written in chronological order? SO MANY of the key narrative decisions we love/hate/fight over/etc were made solely because changes were made partway through a trilogy, or it had to comply with future canon, or had to reconcile a discrepancy between earlier and later canon events.

[darthskys]

We can see that Vader's voice is a result of the suit and that, when it is breached, we hear Anakin. Palpatine gave him the suit to simultaneously inhibit and sustain Vader on the edge of life. It's meant to help feed into his hatred and his pain. Soooooo it's plausible that the Vader voice is one Palpatine put into that suit because it irritates the fuck out of Anakin, and will cause him to get hella mad whenever he hears himself

[jazzycasino]

Leia as a child imagining what her real father was like to only find out later on in life going on that journey of hating him with every fiber of her being, the anger for what he did to her and her home, to learning forgive him oh my goodness.

[coffebits]

You drive, I shoot! 😌✊

[galactic-rhea]

My partner and I came across that one dialog from the Obi-Wan Kenobi series (Obi-Wan answering Leia's question by 'I wish I were your father') and we ended rolling on the floor laughing at it because Nkjnsdfjknkjs what did you mean by that Obi-Wan LOL

Star Wars's has always had very silly dialogue but that bit feel so awkward nkJNKJSDF

(We still haven't watched the series btw I keep saying i'll and end distracted)

[twilightofthe]

cannot emphasize enough just how much i ADORE that the obi wan-leia dynamic consists of only about ten minutes passing before obi wan is speaking to her in his “anakin for the love of fucking god PLEASE” voice and only about ten minutes more before leia gives him a goddamn heart attack

[kanansdume]

Here's the thing. We've seen two shows now that have chosen to take a character that was pre-established and switch them up a little bit so that they have an arc they can go on throughout the show.

In the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, they take a character who's generally been established as pretty solid, has a lot of confidence himself, is full of faith, etc. and just threw him down into a depression pit that he had to climb out of.

In Andor, they took a character who had been established as extremely passionate about the Rebellion, ruthless when necessary, but still entirely capable of making connections with people and then made him someone still clinging to his past and running from the fight.

The difference here is that both Ewan McGregor and Diego Luna clearly UNDERSTOOD those characters well enough and on a deep enough level that they could take these characters in the opposite direction of how they'd been previously shown and have it still MAKE SENSE for the characters. And we have to assume that the showrunners for their two respective shows also respected both the characters and these actors enough to take all of that into consideration.

Dave Filoni clearly does not understand who Sabine is as a character and so this spiral he has sent her on in order to give her a place to grow from in the Ahsoka show just... doesn't make any sense. There's no understanding of why Sabine worked as a character and what people LIKED about her, there's no understanding of where she was at emotionally at the end of Rebels in order to smoothly transition her into the mental place she's in for the Ahsoka show, and these two things together are making her actions on the show feel completely out of character.

Sabine would never train to be a Jedi, she's got no fucking interest in it and no motivation to try. Sabine would never blow off a ceremony that Lothal is having to honor Ezra. Sabine would never disrespect Huyang repeating reasonable protocols because she understands what protocols are and why they work. Sabine would NEVER disrespect Ezra's sacrifice to get Thrawn off the board by helping the villains trying to bring Thrawn back just because she wants Ezra back. Sabine was literally the person who made sure to distract all of their friends so that Ezra could go make that sacrifice IN THE FIRST PLACE. Sabine would NEVER disrespect this because they've already established that Sabine UNDERSTANDS why Ezra did it and respects that choice that he made.

And Natasha Liu Bordizzo, for all that I'm sure she's doing the best she can with Sabine, is new to this character. She does not have the experience of having been in this character's head for a while already in order to bring that knowledge to the show, even if we pretend Filoni would have listened to her if she'd fought back about it. Natasha cannot stand up for better writing for Sabine in the way that Ewan and Diego were presumably able to stand up for their characters and help bring their experiences as these characters to the stories being written about them.

So it's not that you can't take pre-established characters and undo them and make them act out of character in order to give them a place to grow to so they can get back IN character. I'm not against doing that. But there's a right and wrong way to do it so that undoing the character a little for the sake of the narrative doesn't feel like it's BUTCHERING the poor character and making them unrecognizable to the audience.

[antianakin]

Am I the only one who just lost any and all love for newer Star Wars material due to Jedi hate ? Like- the only merch or show or even FANDOM topic I get involved in is clone wars stuff and MAYBE TBB. Like- why would I want the watch shows who attempt to rewritte canon and portray the very heroes of Star Wars as the bad guys ?

Why would I want to watch shows that assassinate characters left and right (looking at you, Ahsoka and Sabine) ? Why would I want to buy merch of characters who I not only NOT care about, but who also are used as meta mouthpieces for stupid Jedi hate ?

I think there's TONS of good newer Star Wars material, to be honest.

I loved the Kenobi show and it is arguably one of the most pro Jedi pieces of media to have existed since the Prequels films. Aside from one itty bitty somewhat awkward word choice in one line of one episode, there is absolutely NOTHING in that show that can be used to indict the Jedi or blame them for anything and it is arguably one of the only shows to really spend time MOURNING the Jedi and recognizing the horror of what was done to them. Rebels comes closest after this, but its structure makes it a little less visceral than the Kenobi show was to me.

I really adore Visions and I recognize that this is sort-of Star Wars adjacent more than anything else, but SO LITTLE truly understands what makes Star Wars compelling as a story and really hits on those primary themes the way that Visions does. There's SO MUCH Jedi content in Visions and I remember people complaining about how much Jedi content was in Visions and other people responding that if you were given free reign to just play in the Star Wars sandbox with near zero restrictions on what you could make with it, you would probably ALSO immediately go for the psychic space wizards with laser swords. Who WOULDN'T? Visions also just genuinely has some of the most engaging and heart-wrenching stories to come out of Star Wars in a LONG while and it does it in these beautifully animated 15 minute packages. It's such a gem and I am so glad to be alive at the same time as Visions.

Rogue One is older now, but both Rogue One and Andor, despite having zero actual Jedi in them, really hinge on the themes from the Prequel trilogy about the tragedy in the Star Wars universe, stepping up when no one else will, choosing to be selfless and compassionate for the greater good, etc. Faith and hope are MASSIVE themes within these two works and even though there aren't any space wizards, good or evil, in either story, they feel like some of the most pro Jedi things Star Wars has come out with in a while based on thematic messages ALONE.

The Mandalorian's first two seasons actually have this absolutely BEAUTIFUL story about the selfless sacrifice of one man as he gives up everything in order to help this child find his way back to the culture he'd been ripped from. Everything AFTER that regarding Grogu and Din's storyline is a piece of shit (it's not explicitly anti-Jedi or anything, but it undoes a lot of the things that made their story so compelling and beautiful), but the first two seasons are genuinely GOOD and very pro Jedi in a lot of ways despite the lack of many actual Jedi characters.

The Book of Boba Fett is a terrible show for a LOT of reasons, but shockingly none of them have anything to do with its treatment of the Jedi. If it ever ends up with a season two, I desperately hope they leave Mace Windu's name the fuck out of it, but at this point it is a pretty Jedi neutral show if you're willing to deal with the rest of its bullshit.

Rebels is also somewhat older now, and it has a few lines here and there that are a tad more Jedi critical, but it is by and large VERY Jedi positive and does also follow a lot of the themes of selflessness and sacrifice that go along with being a Jedi. It also has themes of mercy and patience and facing your fears in Sabine's storyline that got entirely thrown away in her later storyline. Just thought that was worth pointing out. For reasons.

TBB is also fairly Jedi neutral, but its treatment of the clones is basically the clone version of being anti Jedi, so I'm not sure it's actually any better. It just traded hating on the Jedi to hating on the clones, and I find that just as distasteful.

I can't really speak to things like comics and novels much since I don't tend to consume them really. I've read a few of the adult novels in the High Republic Phase I and the first one was genuinely very good, but there were some relatively heavy-handed Jedi critical themes within the third book of Phase I (The Fallen Star) that put me off of it a little. I haven't continued into Phase II or III at all, so I have no idea if those themes got continued in later books. I've heard generally good things about the Padawan book, I think.

The Cal Kestis video games, Fallen Order and Survivor, also have their small Jedi critical moments, but much like Rebels, it has these massive overarching themes and messages about compassion and selflessness and sacrifice and facing your fears and mercy. They are immensely Jedi positive in a lot of ways and I really enjoyed both of them.

So out of everything I have seen (and know about) the only stuff that's truly heinously and insultingly anti-Jedi is the Ahsoka show, the Acolyte, and Tales of the Jedi. Three shows and like 30% of one book. Out of a list of like ten different shows and one film and some books and video games. It's not even really HALF of the content we've been getting recently.

A lot of people talk about the Disney era like it's ruined Star Wars, or like nothing it releases has ever been good. But it just straight up isn't true. It's a little insulting to all of the genuinely wonderful work that is being done by all of these other creators to just brush aside everything that's been coming out recently as awful and bad because some of the MOST recent things have been pretty explicitly hateful towards the Jedi. It's not fun that we had the Ahsoka show immediately followed by the Bad Batch followed by the Acolyte. I hate that, too, it feels like we're on this neverending shitshow of stories explicitly aimed at hating a group of characters for no obvious good reason. But I don't think that the last 6 months or so of bullshit should overshadow some of the really beautiful stories we HAVE gotten within the last several years.

If you feel like things are getting difficult, maybe do a "good Star Wars" marathon of sorts. Watch the Prequels, followed by the Kenobi show, then Andor, then Rebels, then Rogue One, then the Original trilogy. This one long beautiful story of people stepping up to fight against selfishness and greed and darkness no matter what.

Or go rewatch Visions or read some of your favorite fanfics and remember all the things about Star Wars that are just universally cool and compelling across the world. Hell, you can try writing something of your own! Anything! A lot of my AU concepts stemmed from spite and really helped me feel a little bit better about Star Wars when it sometimes felt like I was just surrounded by the parts of it I liked the least. Go buy yourself a cool t-shirt or some fun jewelry. Find some pretty stickers and put it on a water bottle or an enamel pin to put on a canvas tote bag or a corkboard.

Curating your fandom experience goes beyond just the internet. There's a reason I am boycotting the Acolyte and it isn't because I think Disney or its creators are going to care at all. I'm doing it for ME, because I had such a shitty time watching the Ahsoka show and it made me so miserable each week that I seriously think I will be better off just leaving it the hell alone and just absorbing whatever ends up crossing my dash from a distance. I only participate in Star Wars fandom servers that I feel safe in and only really get into discussions with personal friends who I know well. If participating in Star Wars fandom is making you sad, maybe take a step back or find a way to create your own corner of fandom that feels better. Ignore the damn Ahsoka show, pretend it never existed. Ignore the Acolyte. Ignore Tales of the Jedi. Ignore Filoni-related bullshit. Focus on the parts you DO like, or give yourself the space to remember why you liked it in the first place.

[thekenobee]

[dr3ack]

loving obi-wan’s funky leather fingerless bisexual gloves

[0ynes]

they were just joking, y’all. they are still besties

[darthskys]

All music is now illegal while I recover from the Obi-Wan Kenobi finale which, yes, I am still recovering from.