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This comment reminded me of the above lines–which are literally like two minutes apart.  One of the things that’s really well done about Anakin’s story that I think often gets passed off as “bad writing” is that Anakin is all over the place. He doesn’t have a strong stance about how he wants to be loyal to the Republic, he wants to blame the Jedi, he wants to do this for Padme, he loves her, he chokes her, he wants to create an Empire, he wants to follow Palpatine, he wants to overthrow Palpatine, he wants to follow Palpatine again, etc. And I think THAT’S THE POINT.  This is like how Hayden’s voice is not strong and clear and projecting well in his portrayal of Anakin because that, too, IS THE POINT.  This is someone brittle and fragile and unstable, who is coming unhinged and you’re supposed to feel awkward and uncomfortable around him. When you listen to him, it’s not a FUCK YEAH villain moment, but the tragedy of someone crumbling into this horrible, awful tragedy. This is someone who does not really believe what he’s saying, but he’s literally quoting Palpatine’s lies (“He’ll betray you just as he’s betrayed me.” / “You were right.  The Jedi betrayed both of us.” - “The Sith are not afraid of the Dark Side of the Force.” / “I do not fear the Dark Side as you do.” - “Good is a point of view, Anakin. […] yet they are considered by the Jedi to be –” “Evil.” / “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil.”).  This is someone who does not really believe in doing this for the Republic, but in a justification for the horrible things he’s done. That’s why he goes from “I have brought peace to the Republic” to “I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire” in the span of like two minutes, because it doesn’t really matter what he’s grasping for, just that he’s reaching for something, anything to justify the horrors he’s done, the children he’s murdered, the innocents he’s attacked, the loved ones he’s betrayed. I think that lack of core central beliefs often gets written off as Anakin not being a clearly written character, when I think the truth is that he’s not supposed to have a clear, solid point of view.  That, instead, we’re watching someone who is falling apart, who is scrambling to justify his horrible actions, who is coming unhinged in a really ugly, awful way and that is the point.  Having him be coherent about his motivations would have taken away the heart of what was so awful and painful about his fall, what was so heartbreaking and tragic about his fall.

The first thing about Obi-Wan Kenobi is that he’s not about sticking to the rules for their own sake, but because he believes in the benefits of overall structure and guidance. This is why he’s willing, at more than one point, to entirely leave the Jedi Order, because it’s not about the letter of the law for him, but about the spirit of it. He’s perfectly willing to step away from the “rules” if he believes there is a greater good.  Most of the time he does believe in the structure of the Order and their rules, he upholds them because they work. The second thing about Obi-Wan Kenobi is that he has a massive blind spot by the name of Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan is a smart guy, we see this over and over in the various canon installments, yet he entirely misses the things that are going wrong with Anakin–why?  How in the GALAXY can someone even reasonably intelligent miss that Anakin has all these problems?  Because Obi-Wan sort of does and sort of doesn’t.  He knows that Anakin has feelings for Padme, is probably having an affair with her, he’d have to be entirely dim not to notice! But he doesn’t say anything because he believes that the Jedi Order is still the best place for Anakin, the best structure for someone who desperately needs that in his life. He doesn’t say anything because it makes Anakin happy and Obi-Wan loves Anakin and wants him to be happy. He doesn’t say anything because Obi-Wan is not beholden to the letter of the law, when the spirit of the law is more important. He doesn’t say anything because the entire reason that Obi-Wan misses Anakin’s flaws is because he loves Anakin and is entirely biased about him, he cannot see that Anakin is falling further than Obi-Wan thinks he is because Obi-Wan believes in him, because Obi-Wan cares so much about him that he can’t be objective about him. So much of what’s obvious to the audience about Anakin’s fall entirely passes Obi-Wan by (despite that he is a smart character) because Anakin is Obi-Wan’s weakness, he’s the one person that Obi-Wan lets his feelings (his hopes, his wants, his love) get the better of him over.  Anakin is the one that Obi-Wan always made allowances for because Anakin was special. And that’s the tragedy of it, that Obi-Wan loved Anakin too much to be objective about him.

One thing that caught my attention while watching The Phantom Menace in the theater, a movie I didn't expect to find anything new with after how many times I've seen it and analyzed it, was that Sidious mentions multiple times that he has to change his plans to fit the new circumstances. It got me to thinking about how Palpatine gets credit for his carefully crafted plans, but often times not for how flexible he is in changing them on the fly, especially in time travel fics where someone destroys one of his plans and that's the end of it. Which, I'm not advocating against, I love a good Take That Wrinkled Walnut The Fuck Down However You Gotta Do It fic and I don't want them to change! But in canon Palpatine makes note of things he's not expecting, like:

When Valorum sends the Jedi as ambassadors, it's not part of Sidious' plan: DAULTAY DOFINE: This scheme of yours has failed, Lord Sidious. The blockade is finished. We dare not go against the Jedi. DARTH SIDIOUS: Viceroy, I don't want this stunted slime in my sight again! This turn of events is unfortunate. We must accelerate our plans. Begin landing your troops. NUTE GUNRAY: My lord, is that… legal? DARTH SIDIOUS: I will make it legal. NUTE GUNRAY: And the Jedi? DARTH SIDIOUS: The Chancellor should never have brought them into this. Kill them immediately!

On the Trade Federation ship, after Queen Amidala has disappeared from Naboo, Palpatine originally planned that she would be forced to sign the treaty, and then brings in Maul to deal with this. DARTH SIDIOUS: And Queen Amidala, has she signed the treaty? NUTE GUNRAY: She has disappeared, My Lord. One Naboo cruiser got pat the blockade. DARTH SIDIOUS: I want that treaty signed. NUTE GUNRAY: My Lord, it's impossible to locate the ship. It's out of our range. DARTH SIDIOUS: Not for a Sith. This is my apprentice. Darth Maul. He will find your lost ship.

On Naboo, after Padme allies with the Gungans: NUTE GUNRAY: We've sent out patrols. We've already located their starship in the swamp....It won't be long, My Lord. DARTH SIDIOUS: This is an unexpected move for her. It's too aggressive. Lord Maul, be mindful. MAUL: Yes, my Master. DARTH SIDIOUS: Be patient... Let them make the first move.

Palpatine's plans aren't static, they adapt and change with the events that happen, just as the other characters react to new information and head in new directions for it, so too does Palpatine and I think it's interesting to note that part of what makes him such a good villain is that he has an outline for what he wants to do, he sets up the dominoes of what he needs, but even when they don't fall precisely into place, he generally gets what he wants. He originally intended that Padme would sign the treaty, the Jedi wouldn't be involved, and that would lead to a vote of No Confidence to oust Valorum, using the sympathy for Naboo as a way to boost himself into the position. But he didn't really need her to sign it and still managed to use the sympathy for Naboo to get elected, it ultimately didn't matter what happened to the planet, so long as it was in danger while he needed it to be, he could use it either way. Nor, honestly, do I think he ever planned for Anakin Skywalker's existence, he had no idea they would find such a boy on Tatooine or how useful he was going to be, that was another way he changed his plans once the opportunity arose. Or a lot of his plots in TCW--he has Cad Bane steal the list of Force-sensitive children and kidnap them, bringing them to Mustafar for some sort of program to use them probably not too unlike how he uses the Inquisitors later. That plan is foiled by the Jedi, the babies are returned to their families, and Sidious' plans fall through, but that doesn't really change the outcome. tl:dr: I don't think Palpatine gets enough credit as a villain whose plans shift and change along with the new events that happen, just as much as the heroes' plans shift and change when new things happen. Yeah, he's a great villain because he creates an impossible trap for people, but also because the thing about him is that he's incredibly charming and charismatic and he knows an opportunity when he sees one, that any one given plan might fall through, but it's not necessary to his overall plot.

This.

Anakin’s choices in RotS were entirely his own—he had the physical capability and the agency to choose the Light, and every single won of his actions was a conscious choice.

But he never would’ve made the choices he did without the 13 years of Palpatine grooming him specifically to be his evil minion.

It’s possible to recognize that Anakin’s character flaws led to his Fall and that the atrocities he committed as Vader were entirely by his own will, while also recognizing that Palpatine is the one who exploited those flaws into actual homicide.

And everyone in Anakin’s life, from the Jedi Order to Obi-Wan to Padme to Ahsoka, who gets blamed for somehow failing to stop Anakin’s Fall, had absolutely no idea that they were up against The Literal Manifestation Of Evil. They saw Anakin’s flaws and reacted to them with the information they knew—that Anakin was a good man at heart with a deeply traumatizing childhood who didn’t always make the best decisions. They did not know that Anakin’s flaws had been fed and nurtured and encouraged by The Evilest Guy To Ever Evil for as long as they had known him, so of course they didn’t freak out when Anakin fucked up! They all thought Anakin was just an imperfect guy, not the victim and end game of the cunning machinations of Literal Satan!

These people didn’t always get it right, and every single character at some point misunderstood the root of Anakin’s issues and how to actually help (this is not to say that Anakin was communicating perfectly and everyone was just ignoring him, because nuance exists) and yes, sometimes those attempts to help did more harm than good, and yes, those mistakes fostered Anakin’s distrust that led to his Fall—but without Palpatine actively using every single misstep to his advantage, those mistakes would not have made Anakin turn into a homicidal maniac. It was Palpatine turning good-intentioned, well-meaning fuckups from the people in Anakin’s life, who are imperfect and have character flaws in their own right, into Sith Propaganda and repeating this constantly for 13 years.

Sorry to hijack your post, OP, but this fandom playing the blame-game while ignoring the obvious archetypal villain drives me fucking bonkers lol

“bla bla it’s the jedi’s fault” “bla bla it’s anakin’s fault” “bla bla it’s obi wans fault”

WHY ARE WE NOT BLAMING MR. EVIL MC EVIL OVER THERE. THE GUY WHO HAS MULTIPLE NOVELS DETAILING THE IMMENSE JOY HE GETS OUT OF MAKING CHILDREN VIOLENT. GUYS????

I love the love between padme and anakin (dysfunctional as it is, im a sucker for this all-consuming brand of obsession and love and devotion). But i can NOT for the life of me understand narratively, in terms of her character, what it was that makes padme feel that way.

Maybe it's my lack of star wars Lore Knowledge. it's so clearcut why anakin would be so attached to padme. idrk why she's the same way? i trust your understanding of the characters n also u actually seem to like padme as a character and care about her characterization,, so i am hopeful you'll have some insight pretty please

i don't think you're alone, i get some variation of this ask about once a month or so. george lucas doesn't really favor subtle storytelling; if the characters don't blatantly vomit their feelings at some point, or if we're not hit with the symbolic anvil, those feelings really don't make it into the narrative, and this kind of leaves padme's story, her internal feelings and life, kind of grounds for speculation. lucas never really bothers with one of the primary aspects of his story - padme's feelings about anakin - in any in-depth way, because, let's just be honest here, icky when women have feelings, you know? i'll explain what i see.

first, the thing that i think gets underplayed or left out weirdly often is that anakin and padme a) meet in the context of him being enslaved, and b) by the end of their time together in the first episode, anakin is directly responsible for helping her end the blockade of naboo. this is often overlooked as context for their relationship because everything prior to AOTC is discounted due to the fact that anakin is a child, however i think it's important to remember that this history would change padme's perspective on anakin enormously. padme's position in TPM is agonizing; she's a queen forced to abandon her people and beg a slow, corrupt system for any help she can get, and it doesn't work. the galactic structures in place to help her are glacially slow and don't care about the suffering of the people she's directly responsible for. in a situation where padme must feel almost entirely alone, this random kid who has nothing is kind to her.

anakin doesn't race in the boonta eve classic to free himself; he does it to help padme, qui-gon, and jar jar get off of tatooine. she watches people die horribly in violent explosions during the course of that race, knowing that this is a kid younger than she is (and she's incredibly young herself) with nothing to his name, not even his body. in a galaxy where the duly appointed leaders refuse to help her and alleviate the suffering of her people, this random nine year old does. in a galaxy where the senate as institution sits on its hands, anakin - with no training, experience, or skills - is critical to the end of the blockade. i can't emphasize enough that padme has been groomed into a political position, and her entire life has been about serving her people, and the suffering the blockade induced - i mean, there's mention of people being dragged into camps - would have affected her personally. we see glimpses of that in her anger, her determination, and in one of my literal favorite padme scenes ever, that time she's a really sulky fourteen year old and goes WELL THE QUEEN WOULDN'T LIKE THAT >:( at qui-gon while she's posing as a handmaiden. she's so cute, help.

the context they see each other again in AOTC isn't two near-strangers seeing each other again, it's padme seeing someone who, in a galaxy that seemed almost entirely against her, was in her corner. and not only in her corner, but was insanely vital to that effort. he helped her save a couple million people. it was a blockade of an entire planet. that would change how you think of someone; in the same way that anakin remembers padme for that quiet moment where she asked him if he missed his mother, padme remembers anakin as someone so willing to lay down his life to help her, he is actually casual about it. and as skeptical as she was (the queen wouldn't like that! god i love her!) he didn't fail her when seemingly everyone else did.

that's why i don't find it that unbelievable that padme would have a connection with him despite how unabashedly weird he is throughout AOTC. she has the best of assumptions. in such a context, anakin's unabashed weirdness - the fact that he argues with obi-wan, stammers about how pretty she is, babbles about how life is so unfair - becomes a kind of earnestness. padme lives a life where she's frequently lied to and is lying, and we see, at the very beginning of AOTC, the effect this deception has on her - corde dies in her arms, sobbing apologies for failing her. this is gutting, emotionally, and a critical piece of padme's mental landscape going into the rest of the film. critically, corde dies because she's posing as padme. it's a form of deception, although necessary. star wars also codes politics as being inherently shady; padme has, in fact, already been lied to and manipulated by palpatine. padme's life, as a person with power, is filled with people who will do anything to either crush it, take it, or exist close to it. in a life where these deceptions have such brutal consequences, anakin is genuine to the point of constantly embarrassing himself in front of her.

this is where i would argue that anakin's complete inability to be normal was the thing that actually mattered the most to padme, rather than being this roadblock she has to mentally overcome in order to take the plunge. everyone's been theorizing incorrectly about this the entire time. anakin, critically, does not get less weird; i think it's important that he demonstrably listens to her boundaries, like when she tells him to stop looking at her like that, he does. she initiates their kisses, not him. but he does very much go YOU'RE ASKING ME TO BE RATIONAL, AND THAT IS SOMETHING I KNOW I CANNOT DO!!!! he never loses that earnestness, to the point where i am convinced he actually has no idea how many social faux pas he's added to his social faux pas counter throughout the film. he has no idea he's being odd. he's just being anakin. but, again, earnestness is the point. anakin not lying to her is the point. this is what, to padme, would be new, and refreshing - her career is filled with profoundly good orators, people who have mastered manipulative speech, and this guy goes, "i don't like sand," and just leaves that on the table! no follow up. he just doesn't like sand, simple as.

there's another aspect of this; unfortunately for us all, anakin's doofus behavior is deeply funny. padme visibly enjoys it. he does stupid shit, like trying to surf on a space cow, and then fakes unconsciousness to mess with her. they have a goofy picnic where anakin's like i'm not teasing you but i'm also so teasing you. he uses the force to float a pear to show off. these are childish behaviors, but, critically, padme laughs at all of these. in every scene outside of anakin, padme is a deeply, deeply serious person - her voice is strict, her manner is strict, her manner isn't unkind but she isn't given to wanton joy. but in these scenes with anakin, at points she almost seems overwhelmed with humor - they literally frolic in a field of flowers. for padme, who just lost someone dear to her, whose life has become so stressful that it necessitates a wizard bodyguard, interacting with anakin must be a relief; he listens to her, says every thought in his damn head like a complete fool, and is fun to laugh with. with the background that he has with her - a tragic story she's deeply sympathetic towards, that he somehow overcame just when she needed it - and clear physical attraction (sorry, guys, "my, you've grown," is just as profoundly awkward as the beautiful for a senator bit, we just need to accept that) we're ready to light the theoretical match.

AOTC happens in the context of padme losing someone close to her because of their devotion to her, and bawling apologies to her with their literal last breath. AOTC is a movie where padme's guilt about that is the unspoken undercurrent; i truly think guilt burns her alive in this film, and when shmi, a woman who had opened her meager quarters to padme in the past, who explicitly suffered more because anakin went to specifically padme's aid, dies, i think padme's response is guilt. she is constantly in the position of being the person others are suffering for. (needless to say, anakin's actions in ROTS are the ultimate betrayal of padme in many ways.) the reason padme responds with empathy to anakin's confession is because she is currently living with the guilt of someone she loves dying because of her actions. i don't think she ever thinks anakin's actions were good or moral; i think padme believes it could never happen again, because there is simply no one else in the universe anakin loves more than his mother, and frankly, at that time, this was true. padme doesn't have foresight, and personally i think she's quick to discount her emotional importance to other people because her life simply doesn't allow for a lot of those personal connections - she doesn't know anakin will be similarly motivated to do some murders in her name, someday. we, the audience, project that onto her, assume that she should know that, but she doesn't and shouldn't.

this is why i also think padme's enthusiasm to go rescue obi-wan is as forceful as it is - anakin is all but confessing that he can't go save obi-wan because it would deviate from his current mission, but padme must be completely exhausted of people suffering in her name. she must be completely exhausted of simply being the witness. i think her emotions in AOTC build quietly into this tangled mess, and then geonosis, the fear of potentially losing anakin, too, really closes the deal on padme's end - she's officially willing to hold on no matter what, because anakin has proven to be special enough in her life that she wants to keep him in it. long story short padme is literally moronsexual.

to me this is one of the most important passages of the revenge of the sith novelization, as it contains a fundamental thesis of the prequels. the clone wars were designed to kill jedi. sidious put the order in checkmate before they'd even begun fighting. he used their compassion and trust against them by leveraging their sense of duty to push them into fighting a morally dubious war to protect innocent lives, tarnishing their galactic reputation. he gave them friends in the clones that were crafted to become their assassins. he spread the jedi out, thinned their numbers in years of brutal combat, and then when they were sufficiently weak, wiped them out.

the revenge of the sith required so much planning and moving from the shadows over decades to arrange the galaxy into a trap. the prequel jedi did not have the knowledge that we the audience have, they were operating out of a place of partial understanding and with the best of intentions. to hold them to a standard of omniscience and omnipotence instead of appreciating the genius and patience of the sith is unfair and missing the point. they're not perfect, but they are good. it is tragic that being good is not always enough, it is tragic to know that our best of intentions can come up short. it is tragic that evil can gain power and harm the innocent without repercussions.

this book is heartbreaking on a personal level, but also on a political and ideological one. it reflects the very real world when greed and fear hold sway over a population, where exploitation and oppression win. the jedi are slain and it is brutal to read, and a generation afterward struggling in the dark without them. however, star wars ultimately carries a message of hope: you can kill jedi, but you cannot kill compassion and community. wherever people love each other, there is light. the empire fell and the jedi returned because you cannot kill their ideas. so there is hope, but that doesn't change that it is an egregious crime in the prequels that they were slaughtered.

One day, I’m gonna snap and write the essay about how Anakin was a good person right up until he made the choice to Fall in RotS and how that’s the whole reason why the tragedy of the PT is so effective, because us viewers are truly rooting for him, hoping against hope that he’ll do the good deeds that we know he’s capable of, right until the very end. Reading him as a shitty person from the very start, constantly abusing the people in his life, is both contradictory to the great pains that canon takes to display his genuine accomplishments AND imo a really boring way to view the trilogy. I’m less interested in the story of an asshole becoming a bigger asshole than I am in the story of a good person with flaws that were deliberately exploited by the Manifestation Of Evil until his willpower broke.

(Tempted to insert into the essay the fact that both Anakin’s selfishness/possessiveness and his anger are symptoms of his actual fatal character flaw, not the flaws itself, which is a direct product of his childhood, but idk if this fandom is ready for that.)

I feel like people miss the point of the "war is bad" message

What it's supposed to mean is that war is terrible, it's destructive, it ruins lives, it leaves scars, and you should only partake in it when there are no other options, because even if you win, even if you survive, you will not be the same, which is why the phrase used to be more commonly known as "war is hell"

But "war is bad" seems to have been construed by people in fandom into "any fighting is bad, if you fight you're morally terrible and impure, you should not fight at all, no matter what", this is annoying in fandom, as it often misses the point fiction is trying to make, but what's worrisome is when people apply this to real life, as I have seen people do regarding russia's invasion of Ukraine

And that's almost never the point of "War is Bad" works

Works like Lord of the Rings, Avatar The Last Airbender, Transformers, The Clone Wars, Halo (especially Reach), etc all have themes on how horrible war is, but they categorically do not say it is wrong to fight, what they say is usually along the lines of "war is terrible, and what makes it so terrible is that we have no choice but to fight, it would be ideal if we didn't have to fight at all, but we must fight, because not fighting is not an option, because not fighting, not opposing tyranny, conquest, and evil only allows those things to exist unimpeded"

Thinking a lot about how by the time TCW comes about Anakin has already committed a grievous sin, already committed a massacre, already chosen his side in some ways. The man Ahsoka knows, the only version of him she ever gets to know, is built on an assumption of purity he has already lost.

He has already begun to fall, and this slip contributes in so many ways to his inability to pull himself back. Because the only person other than Padmé he tells his crime to is Palpatine, because he's the only person who won't judge him (and that in and of itself is a measure of his immaturity–– because he deserved to be judged).

And this contributes so much to Palpatine's control because he has this piece of the puzzle, this ability to go "Oh, but what about this?" any time Anakin tries to pull back from Palpatine's confidence. Because they both know if he ever admitted it to the Order he'd forever lose their approval, and that's what matters most. So Palpatine has this advantage, because he knows more about Anakin than anyone else and Anakin doesn't feel he can confide in anyone else.

But the thing is: for so long, Anakin wants to be better, wants to amend himself for this sin and more than once wants to confess to Obi-Wan, but every single time Palpatine is able to go "Oh but he thinks he's so much better than you, he would never understand you, he would judge you and tell the Order and they'd cast you out" but... Obi-Wan would have forgiven him anything.

I think a lot about Obi-Wan being such a Perfect Jedi (in the eyes of everyone else if nothing else) and how much that hurts Anakin. Because every time he tries to pull himself back from the ledge this epitome of what it means to be a Jedi is just there in his face reminding him of his own failure

Just watched the first episode of The Acolyte and it looks promising to me! It’s REALLY cool to see the Jedi Order in its prime, and the amount of Jedi Order Lore (TM) warms my geeky heart! I also think the mystery they’re setting up is compelling.

I pretty much completely agree with how the show portrays attachment in the Jedi Order thus far, but regardless of my agreement (which I’ll probably do an essay expounding upon at some point), I’m glad The Concept Of Attachment doesn’t seem to be central to the show, since that’s such a loaded conversation in certain fandom circles and I don’t wanna think about The Discourse when watching the show lmao

I will admit that the biggest reason I enjoy the show is the tragic sibling relationship with Osha and Mae because I very much have a niche.

(But like come on - two siblings, and one of them turned evil and was believed to have died in a fire by the remaining sibling. It’s like the showrunners know how insane I am over Anakin and Obi-Wan lmfao)

I don’t think it’s gonna be anything revolutionary, but that could be just because it doesn’t center Anakin and/or Obi-Wan, which is really where my hyperfixation lies. But I’m enjoying it so far!

love how jedi in the acolyte all think about attachment differently…when jecki says that sol shouldn’t keep holos of his former padawans and sol counters that memories help you grow. they feel like a real religion with their differing interpretations! and that’s what it’s all about, truly.

Sometimes I think about how little Obi-Wan knew about what happened with Anakin and what this must have looked like from the few things he knew and why he tried so hard to give Anakin every possible chance.  (I THINK ABOUT IT A LOT.)  Not just because he loved Anakin–though, that was very much a part of this, too–but because he believed in Anakin. Their last interaction is one where Anakin admits that he was acting arrogant and unappreciative of everything people have done for him.  Yeah, he can be a brat sometimes, he gets way too caught up in his own shit instead of realizing how it comes across to others (the whole thing with being put on the Council is part of this, that Anakin was late for meetings because he was off doing other stuff, that he refuses to stop and see how it looks from the Council’s side of things that Palpatine is forcing them to accept Anakin, that it looks really bad, because everyone knows Anakin wanted to be a Master, etc.), and Obi-Wan sees the good in him still.  He believes in Anakin, because he always comes back around. This is why Obi-Wan tells Mace, “He will not let me down.  He never has.”  Not because he doesn’t recognize that Anakin makes mistakes, but instead because Anakin always comes back around, he has never truly disappointed Obi-Wan before, it’s only ever that (as Ewan McGregor has said) Obi-Wan was disappointed for him, not at him.  Whatever minor disappointments are between them, it hasn’t touched the bigger picture Obi-Wan believes in for him, that he still believes Anakin can overcome. The last time they see each other, Obi-Wan tells Anakin how proud he is, all the more so because he sees Anakin come back to himself again right there.  He believes that Anakin, no matter what temptations he faces, no matter what troubles he faces, will always overcome. Then he comes back from Utapau, Anakin is pledging himself to Sidious, he’s choking Padme, he’s declaring that he’s brought peace and justice and security to his new Empire, he’s killing younglings, he’s quoting Palpatine’s words rather than his own.  And this is too far, they can’t truly go back, not to the way things were, but Obi-Wan still has to believe there’s a chance for something of Anakin to come back, that’s why the entire fight (as Nick Gillard, the fight choreographer says) is designed to show Obi-Wan giving ground at every turn, to try to give Anakin the time to come back.  The last time Obi-Wan saw him, he came back.  He admitted his arrogance, he smiled at the praise, this is how Anakin has always been! But this time Anakin refuses to come back, he just keeps doubling down on it, unable to admit to what he’s done, even to himself.  Until even the last moment, Obi-Wan is still asking him not to try it, to give him one last chance, because maybe maybe maybe Anakin might find it in himself to admit his arrogance, admit his mistake, and at least try to fix something of this. And this is why their ending means so much.

Because Anakin finally did come back.  It took him a very long time to be able to do it, to finally let go of all the hate and rage and pain he’d held onto all his life, but he did it.  That’s the person who admitted his arrogance and mistakes, the one Obi-Wan was so proud of, the wise and strong Jedi he loved. This is why, as Pablo Hidalgo once said, “I’ve heard it said that George thinks he had help from the other side after self sacrificing.“  This is why Obi-Wan helped him over, because he’s always believed that Anakin could do it, could come back, if he chose to do so.  This is why Obi-Wan kept giving him chances, as many as he possibly could, even on the Death Star, he lets it be Vader’s choice about how this ends, he warns him about the path ahead of them. And, when it’s all said and done, when Anakin finally rises above again, Obi-Wan is there, smiling to see him, helping him over to the other side, probably with a, “Hello again, old friend.”

palpatine, a known liar: the jedi ain’t shit

sw fans: oh worm??? 👀👀👀

really tho i dont think it would matter if a new star war DID take a seriously harsh or critical look at the jedi, because they are not real, and any arguments about "george lucas' original intent" w/jedi will always be muddy bc he's not very smart

Going absolutely insane bc Obi Wan literally gave up the rest of his life for Anakin. He spent over a decade wasting away in a desert to protect Anakin’s children from Anakin. He saved Anakin’s daughter and watched over Anakin’s son, all while having raised Anakin himself when he wasn’t ready. He stayed with Anakin’s wife when she was alone in one of the darkest moments of her life and stayed with her as she died. Everything he did can he tied back to Anakin. He gave everything for Anakin and loved him so much, even when anyone else would’ve given up, and in the end, Anakin was the one who killed him.

I recently encountered someone defending the Jedi not freeing Shmi with the argument that “well the type of slavery in Star Wars wasn’t actually that bad” and I think my brain exploded a little bit

this is kind of a fascinating pattern, but in my experience, these arguments almost always end here. the person in the defensive position pulls up weirder and weirder reality-defying pieces of logic. i remember responding to someone's post once because they had made the argument that qui-gon would have started a space international incident if he had just killed watto and taken shmi, and no one, anywhere, had seemingly pointed out the obvious; why? on what basis, exactly, can you assume that would happen? who cares about watto and who is going to start a war with the republic because the jedi happened to off him?

it's a bad argument, with little to support it. most arguments about this subject default to something like that, and i kind of stopped talking about them because there's not really anywhere to go. if they define for themselves that slavery is magically fine in star wars, then we're not really participating in the same reality, are we? we aren't using the same touchstones for how to define the reality we live in, and therefore we really don't gain much by debating. two parallel lines don't intersect. if anyone seriously finds themselves saying, "well, slavery isn't that bad," for any reason they've obviously made a bad argument, because it highlights a misunderstanding of what slavery is fundamentally. the condition of slavery just is evil. it doesn't matter how nicely you think those slaves were treated, owning people as if they were property is just evil, like if they have to call it, "slavery," it is evil and will be evil no matter what you say.

at least, that's how it is for me; how i feel about these concepts may become (justifiably) more abstract because i'm discussing something fictional and therefore it didn't happen to a real person, but i don't change my innate understanding of these concepts from reality to fiction. i'm sure other people do, and that's fine, i guess, it just means we're really not going to agree on much of what's going on in the saga, because we don't even agree on the fundamentals of its reality. "slavery isn't that bad in star wars because it's star wars," is fine, i guess, more power to you, but not everyone sees much value in thinking that way. i really personally don't, but i don't speak for everyone. i have to confess to these arguments making me feel kind of hopeless in a way.

it's just all i think in my brain is - okay, so we as a human race can't get behind the idea that slavery is evil even when it's not real, and we don't have to change anything about our lives to deal with the ramifications of slavery, because it's actually sci-fi slavery for the space wizards, we can't even agree slavery is fundamentally evil then? it's too hard even then, when there is nothing you have to change about your life, your mind, your habits to accommodate that being true? even here we can't let slavery be actually evil? it's still too scary to think that our beloved institutions, our governments, our leaders, might passively watch slavery fester because it benefits them, we can't handle thinking about that even when it doesn't affect our lives in any way whatsoever? when you can escape by turning off the star wars marathon? what will we do when we go outside?

which i recognize on some level is me being unfair, i actually don't know what other people are thinking and where they're coming from, and, "why people say the things that they do," is a fascinating question but it's not something any one person can be definitively right about. it's me projecting the hopelessness i feel about the world outwards. but that's why i don't do this so much anymore. i overthink it and then it just leads to a strange despair, which is a really overinvolved reaction to someone's opinions on a george lucas production

The thing about Anakin (in prequel trilogy movies) is that he actually is a really good person by default. He is a war hero for a reason; he cares so deeply and unconditionally. Sure, he's a little careless sometimes and a little impulsive. He makes mistakes and bad calls and sometimes he needs to get his hormones under fucking control. But overall, he's very much trying to do a good job. He listens to feedback, he asks for advice, and he apologizes and tries to improve when he realizes he's wrong. 

Really, he only ever crosses unforgivable lines when two very specific criteria are met: (1) when the most sensitive points of his trauma are being put under an immense amount of pressure; (2) when his support system, for whatever reason, is absent. 

And even when those two criteria are met, he still struggles not to cross those lines as hard as he can for as long he can--until he eventually just snaps under the pressure.

Example #1, the Sand People massacre. Long before going to Tatooine, Anakin’s trauma points were already under an extreme amount of pressure. He was having nightmares about his mom--reminding him of his childhood as a slave and of the slavery in which he’d left her behind. When Anakin does go to Tatooine, his support system consists solely of a girl whom he does like and does trust but whom he doesn’t know very well. Old wounds continue to reopen as he takes his first steps into Mos Epsa and speaks with Watto, a being who owned and abused him. Anakin has no reason whatsoever to think Watto isn’t the orchestrator of his mother’s torment. But does he kill, dismember, or otherwise attack Watto? No. He remains polite. So polite, in fact, that it’s unsettling.

When he hears about his mother's capture and torture from the Lars family, Anakin is, suffice to say, upset. To rescue her, he goes alone (no support system). Even with his mother actively being brutalized (trauma), Anakin does not arrive with the intention of violence. He does not massacre the entire village in an attempt to rescue her. His plan is clearly to sneak in unnoticed, grab her, and sneak out. Even after seeing her strung up, at no point does his plan seem to change… Until she dies. In that moment, his mom, the epitome of his failure to free all the slaves, has just taken her last breath. He is completely alone. His mom has practically been slaughtered. His mom. Thus, his trauma hits a breaking point, and his usual support system is out of sight. 

He snaps. 

It is his choice, yes, but it is the result of a decade of abuse and generational trauma. It is also very much a mistake/accident… In other words, it is not an example of his true values and beliefs; it is an example of their temporary absence.*

*Evidence supporting this is in the scene with the line “to be angry is to be human,” but that’s a subject that needs its own whole ass post. I’ll link it later if I ever write it.

Example #2, the Jedi massacre. There are so many posts on the subject already that I'm not going to spend time detailing every single instance in which Palpatine isolates Anakin or manipulates Anakin into isolating himself. But a brief overview: sowing distrust in the Jedi Council, creating a narrative of deceit around the Jedi Order, orchestrating events to get Obi-Wan dead/offworld, and associating the dark side of the Force with Padme’s presence (via suggestions that only a Sith Lord can save her). With that, Anakin's entire support system is crippled. Unlike in AOTC, he is surrounded by loved ones, yes, but they can’t help him. By Palpatine's design, Anakin eventually bars each of them from entry.

Meanwhile, Palpatine is putting his trauma under extreme pressure and manipulating the shit out of him. Starting on the Invisible Hand itself, when Palpatine encourages Anakin to kill Dooku.* The movie explicitly connects this scene to the sand people massacre, which immediately establishes an awakening of old trauma. Wounds reopen, and Palpatine presses on them and he presses on them and he presses on them. Padme’s looming death becomes the symbol of his past trauma (of what he failed to protect and what he did as a result). And through Palpatine’s misinformation campaign, the Jedi become the perpetrators of this trauma, rather than the support system.

*For reasons beyond the scope of this post, I do not consider Count Dooku's murder to be an example of Anakin crossing an unforgivable line. I consider it to be an example of Anakin making a bad call. Even so, one could easily argue that his support system was absent and that his pressure points were being targeted in this scene, too. But I find that argument uninteresting because it doesn't apply imo.

Still, Anakin resists. Still, he tries again and again to retain his ideals. He seeks advice from Yoda. He listens to Obi-Wan's feedback and apologizes. He opens up to Padme. He initially rejects Sith Lord Palpatine. He tries to do the right thing by telling Mace Windu and letting the Council handle things. Because that's who he is--that's his true nature. Anakin is alone in the Council chambers (no support system) when Palpatine taunts him with Padme's inevitable death (trauma). And still, he resists. He races to Palpatine's office, but does he immediately kill, dismember, or otherwise attack Mace Windu? No. Even as Palpatine continues to press on his trauma (“I have the power to save the one you love!”), Anakin tries to reason with Mace. However much he is rationalizing the truth to his benefit, he is still trying to get out of this trap. He even admits the core of it in the end: “I need him!” Even then, even when Mace rightly goes for the killing blow, Anakin is still resisting! He attacks, he dismembers, but he doesn't kill. He makes an impulsive, ill-thought-out, almost reflexive decision (supported by the horror in the line “What have I done?!”). It’s as if Palpatine has shoved him right up against that unforgivable line, and Anakin is using his last inch of space to not teeter over it. 

Then Palpatine kills Mace Windu. In his mind, Anakin has nothing left after that. In his mind, he is responsible for getting Mace killed (trauma), and he doesn’t see how the Jedi can possibly forgive him (no support system). In his mind, his wife is dying (trauma), and he is alone in the presence of his abuser (no support system).

He snaps.

Unlike in AOTC, this does not happen by accident. These events were deliberately and continuously manufactured by a Sith Lord with an agenda. Palpatine directs Anakin’s explosion onto the Jedi Order, where Anakin compounds upon his trauma with more murder and more death. He becomes isolated to Palpatine's manipulations by killing (or enraging) his entire support system.

Afterward, Palpatine has all of the fuel he needs to make Anakin snap and snap and snap, over and over, for a very long time.

Who is to blame is such a boring, irrelevant question when we have such a fascinating character. The prequel trilogy gives us a complicated villain who is simultaneously the executor of such horrific violence and also the boy who wanted to free all the slaves. A villain who kills a part of himself every time he kills another. A villain who is so horrifically victimized even whilst he commits his terrible crimes. And because it's fiction (aka the victims of his actions are narrative elements, not people), I'm allowed to feel unashamedly devastated for him. I’m allowed to see the truth: that Darth Vader is only the suit he wears. The mask concealing the good person underneath. The Jedi Order was Anakin’s family, too, and you should feel sorry that he lost them. You should feel sorry for the way he is abused in ROTS. Darth Vader doesn’t represent who Anakin is or what he believes, and blame is irrelevant to this truth.

Because support systems matter. They matter to people who have gone through trauma. Yes, sometimes they are even the ONLY difference between the choice to do good and the choice to do bad. Sometimes, all that is necessary to prevent a heinous crime is to help them before they snap. I think people are uncomfortable with Anakin because that kind of helplessness is a really hard thing to admit. It's not fun to realize that you could have made similar choices if you had been in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong person. Research has shown people greatly prefer to attribute their accomplishments to their own actions and choices in life. It makes sense. The realization that external factors may have played a role in everything we take pride in is scary--but this fear leads us to the bias that we could never become Darth Vader. Even if we were raised as a slave, even if our loved ones were taken from us, even if our sense of reality was being manipulated and distorted--somehow we would not be broken. We would remain Anakin Skywalker.

It's a comforting fantasy for people who have done nothing wrong.

As someone who is human, someone who has made mistakes and bad calls and who regrets the times I might have crossed lines, I find a lot more comfort in the message George Lucas provides. The prequel trilogy is a story about the harm someone (anyone) can do if they're not careful. Anakin becomes Darth Vader not because he’s innately evil but rather because he’s under extreme pressure and no one is able to help him. In contrast, the original trilogy offers compassion and an opportunity for self-forgiveness. Darth Vader chooses to become Anakin simply because one person looked at what he'd done and said, "Stop. This isn't you." In the face of how helpless and dangerous every one of us can be, I find Anakin’s story to be really meaningful, and I wish more of us appreciated it.

obi wan and anakin were brothers and besties and father & son and many more things. it entirely depends on your interpretation of their dynamic and the situation. nevertheless, i cant understand why some people dismiss obi wans parental role completely. anakin himself calls obi wan his father right in aotc multiple times.

"okay but the problem was that anakin needed a father but obi wan saw him like a brother."

father, brother and son are all abstract, vague terms for obi wan. he has never experienced them (not in the nuclear family sense we and anakin are looking at it). it ultimately doesnt matter whether obi wan saw anakin as his brother or pet goat. anakin, who matters in the question, did see obi wan as a father. anakin, who had a functional parent, regarded whatever crack obi wan was on as similar enough to his mother.

This blog aims at reblogging Severus Snape-related meta posts. It's not here for discussion, debate, etc with the blog owner; it just seems like a convenient way to save those posts all in one place. Feel free to send post suggestions; some may or may not already be in the queue but i can't hurt! More discussion can be found in the replies and reblogs of a specific post, so check out the notes as well if yo'ure interested.

The goal is not to reblog art, though some might be reblogged if it's accompanied by meta. Ship-related meta may crop up at some point, but it's not the specific focus of this blog. No specific ships are endorsed or rejected.

JKR, however, is definitely not endorsed.

Avatar & header credit: Photo by Eleanor Brooke on Unsplash Photo by Jan Ranft on Unsplash

Foreshadowing within the character’s given names in Tokyo Ghoul :re Sasaki Haise – Ihei Hairu – Washuu Kichimura

Hello everyone,

this is my first analysis about some things I noticed while I thought about Tokyo Ghoul :re.

Note that I’m not a native speaker of the Japanese language, I only took two years of classes so far and I still have so, so much to learn. English isn’t my native language either. I hope I express myself in an understandable way.

Nethertheless I noticed some small details about the names of some characters (namely Haise, Hairu and Kichimura) and I wanted to share them in case somebody finds them interesting or useful in any way.

I hope this hasn’t be done yet. If there are any mistakes, please feel free to correct me.  

 Sasaki Haise

Sasaki’s first name Haise (琲世) is composed of the Kanji for “string of many pearls” (琲) and “world” or “genereation” (世). Interestingly, the last Kanji is the same one that is used to construct Rize’s name showing the connection between both of them. I don’t want to ramble about the whole dimensions of meaning behind his name.  Rather I would like to focus myself on the first Kanji of the name Haise. As the wiki states, the choice of the Kanji  琲 is based on the fact that it is also used to construct the word coffee. This could be interpreted as a sign that his still holds the Anteiku very dear. Also “hai” is homophone to the Japanese word for ash, giving Haise’s name the implied meaning of “ash world”.

But there may be yet another dimension of that Kanji. Looking closely, it can be seen that the Kanji is constructed of two different characters: 王 and 非. Kanji are constructed of radicals (components) put together to gain a new character with a new meaning. Even though the “official” radical for 琲 is 玉 (tama – jewel), in this case, it more resemble the Kanji 王 (ou). Interestingly 王 means King. This may foreshadow Kaneki’s later role of the One Eyed King. The second character 非 may mean “wrong”, “incorrect” or “mistake”. This could be a hint how Kaneki performed the role of the One-Eyed-King, which eventually lead to disaster and death of thousands of people.

All in all Kaneki’s position as the OEK and the miserable outcome was yet foreshadowed by the first Kanji of the given name of his Persona of Sasaki Haise.

Ihei Hairu

There’s more foreshadowing when it comes to the Kanji of a character’s name. One example is Hairu’s first name. The name “Hairu” is constructed by a single character, which looks the following: 入. It takes diverse meaning, for example “to enter”, “to go into”, “to admit” but also “to invade”. Especially the latter is quite fitting since she was an outstanding investigator and also one of the CCG’s driving forces during the Tsukiyama Operation.

The Kanji for “Hairu”( 入) looks very similar to the Kanji for “human”(人). Actually, when seen written on paper, the two Kanji seem to be mirrored versions of each other and are not easy to be told apart at the first glance. This may be a hint towards the fact that at first glance, Hairu seemed to be a human, but was in fact a half-human. Like the Kanji of her first name, Hairu was extremely similar to a human, but there’s still a slight difference.

Interestingly, an alternative reading of the Kanji serving as Hairu’s given name is “shio”. This lets her relative Ihei Shio come to mind. Even though Shio’s Name is written with different characters, the connection may be still there (or it may be just a coincidence).  

 Washuu Kichimura 

I always wondered why the name “Kichimura” was so different from the usual namesake of high-ranked Washuu, who are using “Yoshi” as part of their names (Yoshitoki, Tsuneyoshi etc.). But then I noticed that the name may be not so different: Kichimura is written as 吉福, while Yoshitoki is written as 吉時 and Tsuneyoshi is written as 常吉. The character for yoshi 吉 (meaning “good luck) is present in all the names, even in Furuta’s. The reason it is read different is, that there are serval readings for the same Kanji-character. The readings are divided into “onyomi” (sino-japanese reading) and “kunyomi”(japanese reading) (there are some more classifications of reading, but that’s not important here). In short, there is more than one way to read a Kanji and the way a Kanji is read depends on the context and the Kanji it is combined with. The Kanji looks the same, regardless how it is read. Especially in names may the way of reading not always be distinct. But this is important when it comes to the name of Kichimura.

Let’s take a look at Kanji 吉. One possible reading is “yoshi” as in Tsuneyoshi and Yoshitoki. Another possible reading for the same Kanji is “kichi” – as in Kichimura. Furuta’s name still uses the same Kanji as his father and half-brother did – but with a different way of reading. This tells us a lot about Furuta.

It seems to be a tradition among the Washuu-family that the name is changed the moment a member enters a major position. For example, Yoshitoki was formerly named Chika (時) before he became Bureau Director. Presumably after that, he added the Washuu-Clan’s signature Kanji 吉 in front of his given name, creating the name Yoshitoki (吉時). The new name seems to be created the following: The Kanji 吉 read “yoshi” is added in front the given name, while the Kanji of given name is modified to have a different reading than before. “Chika” and “toki”, as in Yoshitoki, are alternative readings of the same Kanji. The Kanji stayed the same – the reading altered.

At the surface, Furuta added in line of the Washuu’s traditions. Furuta as well put the Kanji 吉 in front of his given name Nimura( 二福, meaning “two happiness/good fortune”, which is a very ironic and bitter name to have considering his fade. Maybe it can be interpretet as “to be twice as happy/lucky” or  simply “very happy/lucky”. Maybe the “two” could also represent him and Rize? In the end none of them found happiness. Either way, the name has a tragic irony in it. But I digress.), which led to the Kanji combination 吉福. So far, so traditional.

But Furuta wouldn’t be Furuta if there wasn’t a twist.

Instead of altering the reading of his given name-Kanji, Furuta changed the reading of the Clansman-Kanji. He changes the traditional “Yoshi” into the alternative reading “kichi” while he keeps “mura” of his given name “Nimura”. This may be a subtle sign of his rebellion against the Washuu-Clan. It may be a traditional Washuu-name by the look of it, but it is read differently. This shows Furuta is not giving in to the clan. It is expected to change the “mura” of his name to another reading “in favor” of the clan’s Kanji. This may be a symbol of the clan undermining the identity of its members. But Furuta doesn’t change the Kanji’s reading of his given name. Instead he modifies the “yoshi” into “kichi”. Doing this stays true to himself. At the same time he breaks with the tradition of the Washuu-Clan, showing everyone in the CCG that he is the key of a new era. It may also be his way of exercise power over the Washuu-Clan once again. While the Washuu-clan had the power to altering the names of its members, Furuta has now the power to alter the character that symbols the Washuu-Clan. Also it may be a sign of alienation towards the Washuu-Clan he hated so much. That he simply didn’t want to carry a similar name as Tsuneyoshi and Yoshitoki did.

Intriguingly, if you read the name Kichimura differently (using the reading “yoshi” instead of “kichi”, as usual for the Washuu-Clan), it can be read as “Yoshimura”. Even though Eto’s surname is spelled differently (芳村 Yoshimura, meaning something similar to “fragrant village”), it is still very ironic because of their hatred for each other and the way they contrast each other. But despite their differences both of them are connected on serval levels (for example: both of them being one-eyed ghouls, were rejected by their parents, both share relationships to V, both of them plot to destroy the current world order etc.). So it fits them to have a similar name, even if the similarity shows in such a subtle way.   

I will just leave this here. Thank you very much for reading!. :D