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Preach!

I so agree! So disappointed that western media is incapable of following the source material as well as putting down viable careers for women in the past. Like taking the vow of chastity and becoming a nun is a shows dedication and sacrifice, It's so badass and inspiring why did they feel like it was okay to replace her??

Another instance would be the webtoon Go Away Romeo. It's the same premise but set as a sequel of sorts, and Rosaline birthed Romeo's kid. It's such waste, too, cause the aet is gorgeous and a sequel centered around Rosaline is really interesting. But the fandom! Oh my goodness, the double standard of the commenters is something else. Really hate how the main FL would be praised for breaking gender norms while any female side character would be mocked and demonized for it.

Is it just me, or does "modern retellings" often end up with misogynistic vibes or very juvenile a lot of times? A young woman who is uninterested with the man, who already have another path in life line up is turn into the "good girl" and loves the man and whose whole life revolves around him. A young girl who falls into the typical shallow teen love is turned into the homewreaking vixen who pulles the poor naive man (or partner in crime) who the Good Girl has to overcome. It's focused around who is the victim v. oppresser even when it's not there.

The existence of this Rosaline movie makes me so MAD, because SHE WAS NEVER IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ROMEO. SHE TOOK A VOW OF CHASTITY, AND SAID THAT SHE WAS JUST GONNA NOT BE IN LOVE.

SHE. REJECTED. HIM.

SHE WAS NEVER INTERESTED IN BEING WITH HIM AT ALL.

And then they just…make a whole movie from her supposed perspective (which is loosely based on a book which…hoo boy we’ll get to that in a second), where the premise is that she’s jealous and wants to break him and Juliet up? That she’s so in love that she has to win him over again? (Also, how do they justify her knowing that they’re together? The entire point is that no one knows Romeo and Juliet are in love?? I know this is an adaptation, but Jesus Christ.)

WHY DID YOU PICK THIS CHARACTER. TO HAVE THIS STORY WITH. THE WHOLE POINT OF HER CHARACTER IS THAT SHE CHOOSES NOT TO BE WITH HIM. THAT’S WHAT OPENS THE DOOR TO HIM MEETING JULIET. IF ROSALINE IS DEEPLY INTO ROMEO, THE ENTIRE PLAY DOESN’T WORK.

Are we saying that she was just “““playing hard to get”””? That she was toying with his heart for fun? That when she told him no, she really meant “yes”?? I THOUGHT WE LEFT THAT BEHIND OVER THE COURSE OF THE LAST DECADE, I THOUGHT WE DECIDED THAT WAS BAD???!!?

Don’t even get me started on the book this is based on, where that general premise is that Rosaline is just an Innocent Average Girl, and her cousin who is Beautiful™ and vOLaTiLeLY uNsTAbLe and cRaZy comes and “takes” her poor unsuspecting boyfriend who is completely blameless for his own terrible behavior away from her while being called a “slut” the whole time. (I doubt much of this carried over into the actual movie, because that’s being billed as an ironic rom-com, and I highly doubt ANYONE would try to make that genre work while keeping this premise 100% intact.)

WHY WOULD YOU EXPAND THIS CHARACTER LIKE THIS. WHY. WE STUDY THIS PLAY IN SCHOOL AS AN EXAMPLE OF LITERARY STRUCTURE AND POETIC LANGUAGE AND FORESHADOWING AND HOW TO WRITE A TRAGIC NARRATIVE AND FOR WHAT. FOR PEOPLE TO NOT TAKE AWAY ANY OF THE INTENDED MEANING FROM THIS PLAY???!?!?!? I AM SCREAMING SO HARD I WILL BREAK THE EARTH’S CRUST UNTIL I AM SUBSUMED INTO HELL.

If you’re going to adapt something, you’ve gotta make it clear that you have some significant understanding of the original work. Retellings are fine! They can even have different functions or deconstruct tropes or be unexpectedly edgy! But it’s 1000% obvious when you don’t have any knowledge or engagement with the source material, and that is a problem. It’s ignorant, it’s lazy, and everyone involved deserves better.

So are jedi robes / cloaks waterproof? Like if they had to swim across a lake, would they get their undergarments wet? Do they take classes on how to deal with trench foot and shit? I really hope they at least had a change of clothes stuffed somewhere on their utility belt. If they were on the time restraint, say rescuing a princess or defusing a bomb, would they have to stand there and pretend they don't feel the feeling of water sloashing around in their boots, the sand or gravel or whatever makes up the beach / river bank getting everywhere? Leeches getting on you and sucking your blood, don't get me started on the mosquitos! Ugh, imagine doing aerobatics and fighting immediately after all that.

The thought that insiped this: I'm thinking about Attack of the Clones where Kenobi arrives on Kamino. (I don't jackshit about Kaminoians other than they are amphibians and that they specialize at bio engineering.) And I can't help but wonder if the Kaminoians wanted to cool down and had the air conditioning on blast that day.

In light of the recent lore breaking in the Acolyte, in addition to the braindead characterization as well as the nonsensical plot, false advertizing (where's the mystery thriller factor Headland??) AND filler episodes, I have decided that this is all just a figment of my imagination. Acolyte is not canon. It is, at best, a fan's very expensive yet poorly written fanfic that they should not have charged money for. I feel sorry for all the actors in this, especially Squid Game (who was really excited to be part of Star Wars) and the 2 kids that played young Mae and Osha. Hopefully, the more rabid fans won't come after them, and everyone would forget they were part of this shitshow in the next few years.

Btw, to the corpo bootlicker that told me to that real fan would stick around to the end and that I'm "arguing with bad faith" : it is not the audiences job to give countless chances to the show. It is the producers job to catch and keep the audiences attention. Headcanons are fun and all but are not a suitable subitution. If they do a shit job, no one should feel obligated to stick around til the end. When i watch anime, I don't stick around in hopes that it'll get better or that the plot would finally make sense. No, I give it 2 episodes before moving on.

She is with her doves :3c (Also GW give her a Laurel crown, please)

For Jedi June, I give you the Old Jedi Order, naturally as a companion to my NJO collection.

Characters under the cut.

Row 1: Yoda, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Plo Koon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Saesee Tiin, Shaak Ti, Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, Depa Billaba, Stass Allie, Anakin Skywalker

Row 2: Oppo Rancissis, Eeth Koth, Adi Gallia, Even Piell, Yarael Poof, Yaddle, Coleman Kcaj, Coleman Trebor, Micah Gillet, Tyvokka, Syfo-Dias, Jocasta Nu

Row 3: Qui-Gon Jinn, Tholme, An'ya Kuro aka The Dark Woman, T'ra Saa, Tera Sinube, Cin Drallig, Anoon Bondara, Ima-Gun-Di, Tsui Choi, Pablo-Jill, Eno Cordova, Sharad Hett, Cere Junda, Feemor

Row 4: Rahm Kota, Hala, Arligan Zey, Ronhar Kim, Voolvif Monn, Foul Moudama, Roron Corobb, Tiplar, Tiplee, "Bob", Jaro Tapal, B'ink Utrila, Baylan Skoll, Jerec

Row 5: Quinlan Vos, Siri Tachi, Luminara Undili, Bant Eerin, K'kruhk, Nejaa Halcyon, Qu Rahn, Kento Marek, Mallie Marek, Kelleran Beq, Ferroda, Roth-Del Masona, Lissarkh, Jazer R'inoka (OC)

Row 6: Aayla Secura, A'sharad Hett, Ferus Olin, Jax Pavan, Bultar Swan, Sian Jeisel, Lorana Jinzler, Tarr Seirr, Ameesa Darys, Falon Grey, Rissa Mano, Serra Keto, Nahdar Vebb, Bardan Jusik

Row 7: Ahsoka Tano, Barriss Offee, Etain Tur-Mukan, Trilla Sundri, Zule Xiss, Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy "Scout", Whie Malreaux, Cal Kestis, Caleb Dume, Ephalline "F" Kinema, Sha'a Gi, Kalifa, Jinx, O-mer

credit for my pixels here.

@jedijunejune

Imagine if one of Palpatine's opponents tried to discredit him by causing a scandal but every time it fails it gets more unhinged

Drugging the wine to make Palps appear drunk in public but he uses his Sith whatever to keep a clear head

Tapping his office but Palps leaks them information he wants to have spread, so it ends up serving him

(Hiring someone to) go undercover as an intern and trying to seduce Palpy, but all they get out of it is tea & biscuits, during which they receive life advice that helps them face their childhood wounds and they end up sobbing and thanking him

Making Palps end up in a nightclub somewhere, but he's such a sweet grandpa that all the drunk young people just treat him like their new bestie and it becomes a campaign success which wins him support from younger demographics

my most insane au? Fox and Palps actually get along. Palps buys the whole guard pizza every other day, the clones get rights within a week and he takes Fox as his personal prodigy aka the only person he's ever liked.

Anakin hates Fox. As does Dooku. Fox gets written in the will is the sole heir of all of Palps assets. The jedi order now is victim of a special tax law or something.

Pong Krell. It’s universally agreed that he deserved worse than what he got and I get that. I just wished we got to see what he was like before he Fell. Did he always hate clones, was it gradual? Did he suspect something off and went over paranoid?

I’ll say this one and I’ll say this probably a thousand more times but I wished the creators focused on more details with characters. It’s absolutely fascinating that they created a Jedi that Fell but did nothing with it besides outright evil.

How other Jedi reacted to learning that a fellow Jedi betrayed everyone? How did the Republic?

I just wished they did more with him than just, yeah that dude was a dick and killed clones.

Yeah, it's one of the things I don't like as much about TCW, the extremely episodic nature of it means that there really is never any build-up to anything or lasting impact from anything. Unless it's happening within one of the 2-4 episode arcs, we RARELY get to see any kind of build-up or fallout. It's one of the major issues with Barriss, too, we see her ONCE in season 2 and she's calm, kind, methodical, and selfless. And then three seasons later in season 5 she's suddenly ruthless, selfish, doubting everything and everyone, merciless, etc. There is NO BUILD UP to that radical 180 to her character and there's no real exploration of how Ahsoka really feels about that particular betrayal afterwards, the focus in later episodes after the Wrong Jedi focuses only on Ahsoka feeling betrayed by the COUNCIL and her feelings about that. Nothing since TCW has ever touched it either (Rebels, Mandalorian, the Ahsoka show). Satine's death never really comes up again after it happens aside from Bo-Katan being an asshole. Obi-Wan goes from being totally fucked up about Maul coming back to being chill enough to take on Maul and Savage alone and winning without us getting to see him actually deal with those emotions.

Pong Krell and the Umbara arc IN GENERAL falls into this category easily (so do the Zyggeria and the Deception arc tbh). Krell is such a basic evil character, there's so little nuance to him and we never get to see the Jedi react to the revelation that one of their own turned at all. Dooku turned after he had already left the Order as far as any of them really know, but Krell was still IN the Order when he decided to betray them and it would've been really interesting to see the impact of that on them. It would've been ESPECIALLY interesting to explore that more during the Wrong Jedi arc in particular in how the Jedi feel like they can't trust their own people not to betray them anymore after Dooku and Krell.

Krell is presented with like. Zero nuance. He is just unequivocally evil and despite Anakin greeting him in a friendly way at the beginning, the visuals tell you this dude's no good right from his first appearance. There isn't really any chance that he's going to be a good guy at all. So all we are left with are headcanons.

And I remember discussing my Krell headcanons somewhere, but I think it might've been on a Discord server I've since left, so I unfortunately cannot find them again. So I'll try to remember them and immortalize them here, I guess.

Here's the thing about Krell. NO ONE suspects him. So he cannot be overtly acting like a bigoted asshole from the jump at any point, he HAS to be acting in such a way that it's not trickling out to the other clones and to the Jedi themselves that Krell is an absolute monster. Even Fives takes a moment to decide that Krell is suspicious and only brings up Krell's casualty numbers after he sees Krell's behavior for a minute and combines that knowledge with what he's now personally experiencing and is starting to come to conclusions based on that. He doesn't go into the relationship thinking Krell is worse than any other Jedi already.

And based on what we know of EVERY OTHER FALLEN JEDI (Dooku, Anakin, Barriss), they didn't start out as monsters. Dooku was a highly respected Jedi Master who seems to have had a really positive relationship with Yoda and Qui-Gon and simply became disillusioned with the Senate and his care for the people of the galaxy got twisted into something darker over time. Barriss was kind, selfless, compassionate, brave, and resourceful, and it was the war that caused her to start letting her fears and pain consume her into turning on the Jedi. Anakin was kind and spent years having his fears and doubts twisted into selfishness and greed and darkness that allowed him to justify murder and genocide for power. So it wouldn't make sense to me that Pong Krell wouldn't fall into the same pattern where he was once kind and good and selfless and brave, but that the circumstances surrounding the war caused him to lose faith and fall.

My headcanon is that he lost an entire battalion early in the war, much like we see happen to Plo Koon during the Malevolence arc and that that loss and failure just BROKE him. Krell DID care about the clones, he cared about his men, and he FAILED them all. And I think that he saw all of these clones dying by the dozens in all of the other battalions and instead of choosing to let go of his pain and fear and lean into his compassion, he chose to distance himself from them entirely to make it hurt less. If he didn't care about the clones, if he just saw them as the cannon fodder that the Senate treated them all as, then it would hurt less when they died. Maybe the Senate itself even dragged him over the coals for that initial loss. Or perhaps it was the opposite, maybe most of his battalion was killed, but it ultimately ended in a victory anyway because they were forced to just keep going despite the consequences. And so Krell decides to enter this mindset where he is disillusioned with the Senate and just CANNOT allow himself to care about the clones, because it won't change what the Senate is going to do to them anyway, so he may as well just treat them the same way.

And this wouldn't have happened overnight. It wouldn't have been a sudden 180 where he decided he was just going to treat them like shit. But he maybe decided to put some more professional distance between himself and his new battalion, not get close to them, not use their names (although he still knows them, still remembers them all). Maybe one day they're in a tricky situation and all of his options are bad, he HAS to sacrifice some of his men in order to salvage the situation at all, and it's a choice between a full retreat that he KNOWS the Senate won't take well, or sacrificing the men to achieve the victory. So he sacrifices the men. It's not an entire battalion, it's not even a whole company, but it's more than it would've been if he'd retreated. Maybe next time, there's a choice between going back to save some of the men even if it poses a risk to his own life or the mission or something, and he chooses not to go back for them because the mission is more important, or he rationalizes that his life is more important as the Jedi General. And it's just more and more little decisions like that that add up over time to being able to see the clones as nothing more than tools.

The disillusionment with the Senate leads to him sort-of agreeing with things Dooku and the Separatists have said and he can look at the war and realize that it's entirely possible that the Republic is going to LOSE, and he CANNOT be the one who loses again, so maybe he starts bouncing around the concept of maybe switching sides. And of course initially he rejects the idea. He's a Jedi, he won't just abandon the Republic, he can't be a traitor, who in the Separatist side would ever trust him anyway. But once that seed is planted, it doesn't go away and it keeps coming back up and he keeps finding ways to rationalize why it might be a good idea and then deciding not to do it over and over again. Until one day, he can't convince himself that it's a bad idea or that it wouldn't work. He tells himself it's the ONLY option, if he doesn't change sides then he's dead. But Dooku WON'T trust him unless he can prove that he's not on the Republic's side, so he has to come up with a plan to gain their trust. And what better way to earn that trust than to ensure a Separatist victory in an important campaign by double-crossing the Republic.

And once he's chosen to go down that path, it's even EASIER to stop caring about the clones because, well, they're all dead anyway. The Republic is going to lose, the clones are all dead men walking no matter what, so why bother caring about them or trying to keep them alive? He can't lose so often that the Jedi or the Senate become suspicious of him, of course, but it's REALLY easy then to get to Umbara and treat the clones like crap and turn them against each other and intentionally try to get them all killed. They're dead anyway, he's not the one killing them really, is he, the Senate is, the Jedi are, the war is. They were dead from the moment they were created in that test tube because they were created for this specific purpose. It's not his fault.

And much like Barriss turns against the Jedi in part because she did LOVE the Jedi and was devastated by what she saw happening to them and the pain of seeing her people forced to become something they were never supposed to be, as much as her actions were intended as some kind of message to try to sort-of save the Jedi from a course of action she saw as their downfall, I think that Krell turns on the clones because at some point he DID care about them. A lot. And that care became his downfall, the pain at what was being done to them just absolutely gutted him and it threw him down a path that ultimately led him to turn against the very people whose deaths had hurt him so badly just a few short years ago.

Krell might not have been the most effusive or emotional person prior to the war or anything, he might've been a more reserved person similar to Mace or Dooku or Luminara, but I think he probably was a perfectly good Jedi who was kind and selfless and compassionate once upon a time.

And none of the headcanons above have even touched what his relationships with other JEDI must have been like. It's just as possible that he did have friends and people he considered family among the Jedi. Maybe he had a padawan once at some point. And maybe all of those people had died by the time we get to Umbara. Maybe he had to watch a lot of the people he was closest to just fall like flies, and so it starts feeling like nothing matters. Maybe one of the Jedi who died on Geonosis was a former padawan of his, but Krell himself obviously wasn't there and the pain of THAT loss and the guilt he feels at not having been there (even though this padawan had been knighted for a while and there was a good reason Krell wasn't there that day) just sticks with him, too, and he never quite manages to let that go, either.

I think a lot of people choose to just headcanon Krell as having just always been kind-of an asshole even when he was a Jedi, but that doesn't work for me. If Krell was always an asshole, I feel like the Jedi would've stepped in at some point before the war even HAPPENED and tried to manage that situation. And it doesn't match up with the way pretty much every other fallen Jedi has ever been written, where they were GOOD PEOPLE once upon a time who saw awful things happen that they couldn't stop or had an awful thing happen TO them that they couldn't stop and the pain of that experience consumes them to the point that they spiral into darkness as a result. Krell should be the same way, which means he likely was a perfectly good normal Jedi before the war. He would've been kind, he might've been good with younglings (he's tall, maybe he was the one the younglings went to all the time for piggy back rides, maybe he often taught dual wielding to padawans who asked because of how clearly proficient he is at it), he might've taught a student of his own successfully, he would've been wise and selfless and compassionate, he would've loved the Jedi and the people of the galaxy.

Like, to be frank, if Tales of the Jedi HAD to explore a fallen Jedi story, they should've explored Krell instead of Dooku. Dooku has been explored before, we know quite a lot about him and his motivations and his backstory, but Krell, as you noted, is left a mystery and is stuck in the realm of being just purely evil for the sake of the story they were telling in this one arc. Krell needed more nuance in a way Dooku just did not.

Living Saint

by Yos Bayu Pratama

by emwattnot

Bothersome beast, comforting friend

^^ another lazy, half assed attempt to backtrack on a shortsighted mistsake they made

Hot take: The Barriss episodes of TOTE would've been better if they'd been about a random stormtrooper.

I love Barriss, I do, but nothing in this arc had anything to do with her. There's no discussion of her past and how that impacts how she feels about the Empire and the Inquisitors and the choices she's making now. Without that, it could've been a story about literally anyone and there would have been zero differences to the way the story played out.

But the Imperial stormtroopers feel relatively underexplored to me and, unlike the First Order stormtroopers, they joined the Empire willingly for the most part.

This could've EASILY been a story about a random stormtrooper who joined up due to some financial troubles and some propaganda about the Empire bringing safety and security to the galaxy and only realizing later just how bad it is and having to make a choice about whether to stay or leave.

It could've even been a three part exploration of Tala Durith from the Kenobi show and how she got into the Empire and the incident that caused her to defect and then how she ended up finding the Hidden Path, possibly with a cameo appearance by Quinlan Vos to explore him more, too.

I WANT more Barriss, but I want it to be a story about BARRISS, not this half-assed bullshit that just ignores the things she's done and the motivations she might've had that would continue to shape who she becomes later in life.

Space steak

The Jedi were completely justified in in the Wrong Jedi Arc (Part 1)

You know what, let's take a look at the Jedi interrogation of Ahsoka. Which was so bad that it both justifies Ahsoka's belief that the Order deserved what they got and so traumatic that we (according to Ahsoka fans) shouldn't be surprised that it wiped out her personality for around 30 years.

Let's start with "The Jedi who knew too much" since that's where Ahsoka was first suspected. Now let's look at the case against Ahsoka so far...

-She was seen angrily ranting about wanting Leeta to "pay" for bombing the Temple and was outraged that the military took custody of her because she wanted the Jedi to punish her. She's so angry she even starts questioning the Chancellor straight to the face of an Admiral.

-She's invited to speak to Leeta on her request only for Leeta to end up dead by a Force choke.

-Ahsoka was later found outside her cell, armed with her confiscated weapons. When the guard (quite logically) sounds the alarm, Ahsoka flees right into the path of three dead clones. Fox assumes (again, logically) that she killed them.

-She shouts that she was being set up to Anakin who says he believes her and asks her to come down so they can figure things out, but Ahsoka flees and resists arrest instead.

In response to this, the Jedi Council are understandably suspicious. However, their response was to deploy two teams to capture her alive.

Led by Anakin Skywalker and Plo Koon. AKA the two who most believed in her innocence.

That is an insanely compassionate act on their part. To entrust the mission to the very people who believe in her innocence and who'd do everything they could to bring her in safely.

Also everyone blames Fox for assuming she killed the three dead clones she was standing over but forget that Rex called an alert saying "She killed three clones" causing security to freak out and try to blow her away with a cannon.

If at any point Ahsoka had just stopped or stayed in her cell the frame job would've likely been discovered but she picked the worst possible combination of choices. Great job Ahsoka!

I think the one of the dumbest pro Jedi arguments I have seen is that Jedi are not against romance or other types bonds based on love, they are against attachment. If that was the case then why are Jedi not allowed to marry? Why are Jedi not allowed know their biological families? Why do Jedi need to take babies? Also no, I don’t see Jedi taking babies from families as adoption, that is also stupid too. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jedi Knights put pressure on parents to give up their babies by claiming the baby will have a better life. Also I don’t think being critical of certain Jedi Practices means I wanted them to all die like they did or that they are worse than the Sith.

If all Imperial Guard regiments would organise local military Olympics (like various military operations (infiltrations, assassinations, holding the fort) in different setup (hive world or ice worlds environment etc)), which regiment will get most medals?

The Officio Assassinorum wins all the medals because the other contestants keep dying of coincidental poisoning. Or accidental drowning. Or tripping face first onto turbo-penetrator bullets. There is a brief investigation into potential foul play, but after one of the referees tragically slips down two flights of stairs and an eversor assassin, it’s rapidly and unanimously agreed upon that everything is above board.

I don’t know how people come to the conclusion that attachment is good. If someone “loved” me to the point of committing genocide for me — without even caring about who’s innocent and who’s guilty —, I’ll be afraid, thank you very much.

Pong Krell. It’s universally agreed that he deserved worse than what he got and I get that. I just wished we got to see what he was like before he Fell. Did he always hate clones, was it gradual? Did he suspect something off and went over paranoid?

I’ll say this one and I’ll say this probably a thousand more times but I wished the creators focused on more details with characters. It’s absolutely fascinating that they created a Jedi that Fell but did nothing with it besides outright evil.

How other Jedi reacted to learning that a fellow Jedi betrayed everyone? How did the Republic?

I just wished they did more with him than just, yeah that dude was a dick and killed clones.

Yeah, it's one of the things I don't like as much about TCW, the extremely episodic nature of it means that there really is never any build-up to anything or lasting impact from anything. Unless it's happening within one of the 2-4 episode arcs, we RARELY get to see any kind of build-up or fallout. It's one of the major issues with Barriss, too, we see her ONCE in season 2 and she's calm, kind, methodical, and selfless. And then three seasons later in season 5 she's suddenly ruthless, selfish, doubting everything and everyone, merciless, etc. There is NO BUILD UP to that radical 180 to her character and there's no real exploration of how Ahsoka really feels about that particular betrayal afterwards, the focus in later episodes after the Wrong Jedi focuses only on Ahsoka feeling betrayed by the COUNCIL and her feelings about that. Nothing since TCW has ever touched it either (Rebels, Mandalorian, the Ahsoka show). Satine's death never really comes up again after it happens aside from Bo-Katan being an asshole. Obi-Wan goes from being totally fucked up about Maul coming back to being chill enough to take on Maul and Savage alone and winning without us getting to see him actually deal with those emotions.

Pong Krell and the Umbara arc IN GENERAL falls into this category easily (so do the Zyggeria and the Deception arc tbh). Krell is such a basic evil character, there's so little nuance to him and we never get to see the Jedi react to the revelation that one of their own turned at all. Dooku turned after he had already left the Order as far as any of them really know, but Krell was still IN the Order when he decided to betray them and it would've been really interesting to see the impact of that on them. It would've been ESPECIALLY interesting to explore that more during the Wrong Jedi arc in particular in how the Jedi feel like they can't trust their own people not to betray them anymore after Dooku and Krell.

Krell is presented with like. Zero nuance. He is just unequivocally evil and despite Anakin greeting him in a friendly way at the beginning, the visuals tell you this dude's no good right from his first appearance. There isn't really any chance that he's going to be a good guy at all. So all we are left with are headcanons.

And I remember discussing my Krell headcanons somewhere, but I think it might've been on a Discord server I've since left, so I unfortunately cannot find them again. So I'll try to remember them and immortalize them here, I guess.

Here's the thing about Krell. NO ONE suspects him. So he cannot be overtly acting like a bigoted asshole from the jump at any point, he HAS to be acting in such a way that it's not trickling out to the other clones and to the Jedi themselves that Krell is an absolute monster. Even Fives takes a moment to decide that Krell is suspicious and only brings up Krell's casualty numbers after he sees Krell's behavior for a minute and combines that knowledge with what he's now personally experiencing and is starting to come to conclusions based on that. He doesn't go into the relationship thinking Krell is worse than any other Jedi already.

And based on what we know of EVERY OTHER FALLEN JEDI (Dooku, Anakin, Barriss), they didn't start out as monsters. Dooku was a highly respected Jedi Master who seems to have had a really positive relationship with Yoda and Qui-Gon and simply became disillusioned with the Senate and his care for the people of the galaxy got twisted into something darker over time. Barriss was kind, selfless, compassionate, brave, and resourceful, and it was the war that caused her to start letting her fears and pain consume her into turning on the Jedi. Anakin was kind and spent years having his fears and doubts twisted into selfishness and greed and darkness that allowed him to justify murder and genocide for power. So it wouldn't make sense to me that Pong Krell wouldn't fall into the same pattern where he was once kind and good and selfless and brave, but that the circumstances surrounding the war caused him to lose faith and fall.

My headcanon is that he lost an entire battalion early in the war, much like we see happen to Plo Koon during the Malevolence arc and that that loss and failure just BROKE him. Krell DID care about the clones, he cared about his men, and he FAILED them all. And I think that he saw all of these clones dying by the dozens in all of the other battalions and instead of choosing to let go of his pain and fear and lean into his compassion, he chose to distance himself from them entirely to make it hurt less. If he didn't care about the clones, if he just saw them as the cannon fodder that the Senate treated them all as, then it would hurt less when they died. Maybe the Senate itself even dragged him over the coals for that initial loss. Or perhaps it was the opposite, maybe most of his battalion was killed, but it ultimately ended in a victory anyway because they were forced to just keep going despite the consequences. And so Krell decides to enter this mindset where he is disillusioned with the Senate and just CANNOT allow himself to care about the clones, because it won't change what the Senate is going to do to them anyway, so he may as well just treat them the same way.

And this wouldn't have happened overnight. It wouldn't have been a sudden 180 where he decided he was just going to treat them like shit. But he maybe decided to put some more professional distance between himself and his new battalion, not get close to them, not use their names (although he still knows them, still remembers them all). Maybe one day they're in a tricky situation and all of his options are bad, he HAS to sacrifice some of his men in order to salvage the situation at all, and it's a choice between a full retreat that he KNOWS the Senate won't take well, or sacrificing the men to achieve the victory. So he sacrifices the men. It's not an entire battalion, it's not even a whole company, but it's more than it would've been if he'd retreated. Maybe next time, there's a choice between going back to save some of the men even if it poses a risk to his own life or the mission or something, and he chooses not to go back for them because the mission is more important, or he rationalizes that his life is more important as the Jedi General. And it's just more and more little decisions like that that add up over time to being able to see the clones as nothing more than tools.

The disillusionment with the Senate leads to him sort-of agreeing with things Dooku and the Separatists have said and he can look at the war and realize that it's entirely possible that the Republic is going to LOSE, and he CANNOT be the one who loses again, so maybe he starts bouncing around the concept of maybe switching sides. And of course initially he rejects the idea. He's a Jedi, he won't just abandon the Republic, he can't be a traitor, who in the Separatist side would ever trust him anyway. But once that seed is planted, it doesn't go away and it keeps coming back up and he keeps finding ways to rationalize why it might be a good idea and then deciding not to do it over and over again. Until one day, he can't convince himself that it's a bad idea or that it wouldn't work. He tells himself it's the ONLY option, if he doesn't change sides then he's dead. But Dooku WON'T trust him unless he can prove that he's not on the Republic's side, so he has to come up with a plan to gain their trust. And what better way to earn that trust than to ensure a Separatist victory in an important campaign by double-crossing the Republic.

And once he's chosen to go down that path, it's even EASIER to stop caring about the clones because, well, they're all dead anyway. The Republic is going to lose, the clones are all dead men walking no matter what, so why bother caring about them or trying to keep them alive? He can't lose so often that the Jedi or the Senate become suspicious of him, of course, but it's REALLY easy then to get to Umbara and treat the clones like crap and turn them against each other and intentionally try to get them all killed. They're dead anyway, he's not the one killing them really, is he, the Senate is, the Jedi are, the war is. They were dead from the moment they were created in that test tube because they were created for this specific purpose. It's not his fault.

And much like Barriss turns against the Jedi in part because she did LOVE the Jedi and was devastated by what she saw happening to them and the pain of seeing her people forced to become something they were never supposed to be, as much as her actions were intended as some kind of message to try to sort-of save the Jedi from a course of action she saw as their downfall, I think that Krell turns on the clones because at some point he DID care about them. A lot. And that care became his downfall, the pain at what was being done to them just absolutely gutted him and it threw him down a path that ultimately led him to turn against the very people whose deaths had hurt him so badly just a few short years ago.

Krell might not have been the most effusive or emotional person prior to the war or anything, he might've been a more reserved person similar to Mace or Dooku or Luminara, but I think he probably was a perfectly good Jedi who was kind and selfless and compassionate once upon a time.

And none of the headcanons above have even touched what his relationships with other JEDI must have been like. It's just as possible that he did have friends and people he considered family among the Jedi. Maybe he had a padawan once at some point. And maybe all of those people had died by the time we get to Umbara. Maybe he had to watch a lot of the people he was closest to just fall like flies, and so it starts feeling like nothing matters. Maybe one of the Jedi who died on Geonosis was a former padawan of his, but Krell himself obviously wasn't there and the pain of THAT loss and the guilt he feels at not having been there (even though this padawan had been knighted for a while and there was a good reason Krell wasn't there that day) just sticks with him, too, and he never quite manages to let that go, either.

I think a lot of people choose to just headcanon Krell as having just always been kind-of an asshole even when he was a Jedi, but that doesn't work for me. If Krell was always an asshole, I feel like the Jedi would've stepped in at some point before the war even HAPPENED and tried to manage that situation. And it doesn't match up with the way pretty much every other fallen Jedi has ever been written, where they were GOOD PEOPLE once upon a time who saw awful things happen that they couldn't stop or had an awful thing happen TO them that they couldn't stop and the pain of that experience consumes them to the point that they spiral into darkness as a result. Krell should be the same way, which means he likely was a perfectly good normal Jedi before the war. He would've been kind, he might've been good with younglings (he's tall, maybe he was the one the younglings went to all the time for piggy back rides, maybe he often taught dual wielding to padawans who asked because of how clearly proficient he is at it), he might've taught a student of his own successfully, he would've been wise and selfless and compassionate, he would've loved the Jedi and the people of the galaxy.

Like, to be frank, if Tales of the Jedi HAD to explore a fallen Jedi story, they should've explored Krell instead of Dooku. Dooku has been explored before, we know quite a lot about him and his motivations and his backstory, but Krell, as you noted, is left a mystery and is stuck in the realm of being just purely evil for the sake of the story they were telling in this one arc. Krell needed more nuance in a way Dooku just did not.

Back in my day, you had to sift through thousands of probe droid reports with the best hope being that you'd find a lead to the location of the Rebel Base. And yet, we still found the Rebel Base.

Nowadays, no one can find anything without an ancient map of some sorts directly leading to a specific individual and various supernatural nonsense. Worse still, the new generation has no idea whatsoever how to handle incomplete maps. They fall to pieces if they can't find the last piece.

Do you know how many pieces of a map to Luke Skywalker Captain Needa and I received during my career? Absolutely 0. You worked with what you had, and if that went awry, you were Force choked.

Do you know how many special Force sensitive tricks I had access to in the event that I could not locate Grand Admiral Thrawn? Absolutely 0. If I needed to contact him urgently, I called the Chimaera and was transferred 15 times with a total hold time of 6 hours before finally reaching his voice mail.

And so, next time I hear another living soul complaining about missing map pieces, I am going to throw my caf at them.

-Admiral Piett

Broke: Individual Jedi were good people with good intentions, but the Jedi Order as an institution was flawed and needed to be reformed.

Woke: The Jedi Order as an institution is completely correct in all of its teachings about everything and following the Jedi's teachings about selflessness and compassion are what allow people of the galaxy to achieve balance and peace, but these teachings are an ideal to live up to and they assert that everyone has the capacity for darkness within them anyway, so sometimes individual Jedi will make mistakes or struggle with fear and pain and selfishness as they strive towards being their best selves the way their culture trains them to do.

Let's not pretend we know 100% that we'll going to be better than Anakin, especially if we had that kind of power. But we can all still agree that school shooters, and commiting massacres is bad even if we don't know how we would react in their situation. Whatever drug they're using that got them to actually JUSTIFY Anakin's ACTIONS, I want it cause that's wild not to mention going way too far.

Whether or not Anakin's FEELINGS are understandable (holding mom's dying body after being tortured and r@ped can break anyone cmv) he acted on it, killing innocents alongside with the perpetrators and that's what matters.

Ok, since apparently I have to explain this to some people- (*cough* Stanakins *cough*) -here's a quick, easy to understand, post on the topic:

NO AMOUNT OF TRAUMA EXCUSES MASS MURDER, CHILD MURDER, OR VIOLENCE OF ANY KIND!

Zero.

Nothing.

Nada.

I don't give a fuck that Anakin was a slave for 9 years, I don't care that he had to be separated from his mom at a young age, it doesn't matter that he watched her die ten years later.

NOTHING excuses the fact that he literally MURDERED an ENTIRE VILLAGE including THE FUCKING CHILDREN!!!

And, frankly, if you think that committing mass murder and child murder in response to a loved one dying is a "reasonable," "understandable," or "the only human reaction"- (because, yes, I was told that if I wouldn't commit mass murder if my mom died, then I wasn't human) -then please, for the love of god, stay away from other people and never pursue a career in the justice system.

Like, seriously, what the fuck is wrong with y'all?

I see a lot of posts on social media that the council should have trusted Ahsoka, the council should have told the GAR to fuck off, the council shouldn't have surrendered on of their own it proved them corrupt--

Y'all, doesn't that scream corruption? And not the classic jedi criticism of being the Senate's lapdogs, but one that screams that the jedi aren't trustworthy, that they would always close ranks no matter what, that they'll protect justice and peace until one of their own is in trouble.

Idgaf if the jedi is against punishment or revenge or execution, the fact is that when there is collateral, if non jedi are hurt, they should lose all rights to keep it within the Order or bury it so it doesn't reach the public. If the jedi are okay with plain house arrest and rehabilitation for a terrorist or a traitor that's great, but to deny those who don't hold the same ideals of justice but were hurt by their actions just the same, who may have lose their daugher, son, father, mother, lover, etc. is deplorable.

Sure, revenge is not the jedi way, but the jedi serve the people. The jedi should not abandon their duty just because it is inconvenient. Even if admitting a jedi could commit such act would damage their image, playing favorites is betraying their ideals.

The jedi is one of my favorite factions and while they're not perfect, they didn't do anything wrong in The Wrong Jedi arc.

Okay so obviously Sheev Palpatine is just pure evil. But why does he do evil so well? Like if evil, why hot? Honestly his audacity and pure diabolical-ness needs more love.

It's satisfying to watch/read how his plans fall apart, but after the gazillion time it just loses it spark. Especially after the sequels. What even was that? Ignoring the obvious blunder of bringing him back, Where's the masterplan spanning decades? The hiding in plan sight?? The running circles around everyone??? Disney really be saying that they brought him back only add nothing and kill him off in the lamest way possible 😭 A downfall should be earned, not dumbing down the big bad so the perfect, infallible protagonist can roll over them.

The prequels may not have been the best, but coupled with legends, Palpatine's genius shined through. I'd say that it plays a big part in his character that the more it gets taken away or overshadowed, the worst the character gets.

--Not that I have anything against fluff writers, but ao3 has too much fluff. (Or maybe I just suck at the filters)

🙏Please provide fic suggestions of angst!🙏

An personal favorite example of mine, although a really obscure piece of lore (and not a fanfic), would the the Legends one-shot comic by the name of Republic #64: Bloodlines. Befriending a jedi for decades and then callously casting him aside is not unique at all, but the comic presents it in a way that you feel really bad for the jedi. It provides snap shots of the most defining moments of their so called "friendship". Ronhar Kim would save Palpatine's life from an assassination attempt (*wink wink;) ) after they have met at his birth father's funeral. And whaddya know, Vidar Kim was Palpatine's political mentor who he succeeded in office! What a great coincidence, the galaxy sure is a small place :D

Ronhar Kim does not play a huge role in the star wars universe, and yet, it's his betrayal that hit the hardest for me. Guy was just this normal jedi, serene yet defiant in the face of death, who befriends a seemingly sincere politician. Attempted to bridge the gap between the Senate and the Jedi, who arguably came up with the plan that could have exposed the sith lord, and yet all that was him eating from the palm of the one Sheev Palpatine.