Prequel Trilogy - Tumblr Posts
i always wonder, why exactly does anakin hide his relationship with padme if the jedi are allowed to love?
like, if the jedi ban toxic relationships, that's okay. but, anakin and padme genuinely don't believe that their relationship has issues. we know about the insane things those two have done for one another, but no one else does. the council, obi-wan, no one knows. you think those idiots are flying their asses to tatooine and talking to owen and beru? anakin and padme just believe that they're in love. what's stopping them from having a relationship in the open? they'd still be lying about the severity of it, but what's stopping them from just being like, 'oh yeah, we're sleeping together and occasionally go out.' anakin could just simply swear that he isn't attached to a toxic degree, and the council just won't put him on missions with padme to prevent conflict of interest. i get that romantic relationships do often descend into attachment, but numerous jedi had affairs and relationships with one another during the clone wars. this clearly was not new.
like, the only way this would make sense is if everyone was sneaking around the council's back, and no one was allowed to have any relationships. i get the desire to absolve the jedi of this stuff, but not being able to love is a huge plot point in the series. nothing in the series implies that they can, and obi-wan's platonic, familial feelings for anakin are a huge source of shame for him (he's literally embarrassed to admit it to mace windu and yoda in the ROTS novel), but a lot of people i follow show that they can. removing this plot thread ruins a lot of justification and just makes the jedi order and obi-wan seem like horrible teachers for not explaining their rules properly to their student.
Anakin and Padme’s dialogue from Attack of the Clones reads like the English translation of a Bollywood or Tollywood script.
You know, I see all these people who aren't Buddhists who claim that Buddhist doctrine and Buddhist teachings were portrayed really well in Star Wars, and I'm like... uhhh....
I'm just saying, as a Hindu, the man who created fucking Temple of Doom being treated as a source of Asian religions doesn't exactly sit well with me.
This is probably elaborated on a lot more in detailed meta, but for all of the shit that Lucas has pulled and all of his questionable decisions, Palpatine is probably his greatest triumph as a villain within narrative. Yes, he is absolutely a cartoon with no redeeming qualities, and Anakin definitely has a more dynamic character arc, but it's still incredible.
Star Wars as a franchise is associated with war and wartime: laser sword battles, epic forbidden romance, last stand trench runs against powerful enemies. It's all action, stylized violence and "rule of cool." There is good character writing and plot of course, but the public perception of Star Wars as a whole is about the cool space wizards and laser guns.
So it's absolutely curious that Lucas, in a trilogy that he said was geared towards children, had his villain do none of the things that made Star Wars so famous. Palpatine never fought ever. Except in Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine's horrible crimes all stemmed from his politics, and his cunning. Part of the Jedi's blindness to Sidious was that he was playing them on a field that they didn't expect: politics.
The Jedi are not politicians, nor have any interest in politics; the movies make this painfully clear. (The fact that the Council just goes and attempts to execute Palpatine, a popular leader who was "democratically" elected-I will give the Jedi credit; Palpatine is a monster, and killing him then and there was probably necessary- shows that there aren't the most politically minded) Palpatine literally does more damage to the entire galaxy that has repercussions for a generation- seriously, people like Biggs probably lived and died within the Empire- than Anakin could ever do during Operation: Knightfall or even as his tenure as Vader. And the Jedi can't do anything to stop it because they refused to play the game. In fact, one could make the argument that refusing to play only meant that Palpatine could carry out his agenda even faster.
It's almost like the bad guy won because any damage wreaked by an army of space wizards can be done a thousandfold by one politician. And it's like the lesson is that if you turn a blind eye to the injustices in your government, the corruption festers until it turns into something unspeakably horrid, and by then it'll be too late.
That's something to think about.
anti-anakin people say that anakin got off really easy in the narrative by becoming a Force Ghost and should've stood trial or something, but i honestly cannot think of a worse punishment for a dude who wants to die and be free of his pain and suffering than to sit in eternity with people he wasn't particularly fond of and full knowledge of every horrible thing he did so he can watch his family burn to fix the mistakes he made in his lifetime.
Obi-Wan: So how is life with two newborns?
Padme, tearing up: Terrible. I didn't know that it was possible for someone to cry this much, Obi-Wan. Make it stop; I can't take it anymore!
Obi-Wan: .....I'm sure that they'll outgrow it someday, Padme.
Padme: oh no, no, no, no. Luke and Leia are angels; they're no trouble at all.
Obi-Wan:
Obi-Wan: But you just said-
Anakin, from the twins' nursery room: *cries loudly* I LOVE YOU SO MUCH
i think people are sleeping on the potential for starwarsatheist!Padme and jedi!Anakin. Like, Anakin is part of a major religious order that has full belief in the power of a mystic cosmic force that powers their telekinetic abilities and lets them see the future.
Do you know how many people would call bullshit on this?
like, give me padme and anakin arguing about whether the force actually exists, or whether there is a 'god-given' prophecy of bringing balance(i personally subscribe to the discovery of midichlorians being a scientific explanation that most scientists in the universe credit for jedi powers. any self-respecting scientist in the GFFA can and would fist fight a jedi philosopher)
padme just being all, 'this is my beautiful husband. he's a bit of a religious nut, but i love him so so much.'
and anakin would be all, 'this is the love of my life, the angel of the galaxy, and if she thinks that the force isn't real, she's valid and i'll fight all your fuckers that disagree.'
best kind of writing is the kind that's like 'we didn't think about the implications of any of this, and surprise! we created nuanced characters and complex worldbuilding'
the jedi council are indian aunties. no i will not elaborate.
I like the Jedi, but I don't know why "A powerful military organization that actively supports the government while not being a part of the government should have criticized the corrupt policies of their state and raised objections to enslaving and buying human beings" is such a negative take that it warrants being put in the jedi critical tag.
thinking too deeply about the scene where palpatine just goes, 'well, if you want to save your wife from dying, you have to go murder a bunch of kids. it's okay, i know this has nothing to do with prenatal care, but trust me on this one.' like, i know it's just shorthand for 'he's evil now', but what purpose does this serve? what is the reason for murdering children? is it just for palpatine's shits and giggles? does he want to check to see if anakin is really that desperate? why tamper with useful apprentices that could be used as an army, and could eventually serve as viable replacements for anakin lest something happen?
like, lucas went with child murder, and didn't do anything interesting with it. like, at least do something useful with the dead children, like, use their souls to keep luke and leia alive and that's why they make it through childbirth. make anakin drag them up to the top of the jedi temple to show dissenters to the new empire, this is how we deal with traitors. use the dead souls to purge the light of the temple and shroud it in darkness. do something creative!
or, at least, let the dead babies haunt people. every strike vader lands, he can hear a child's cry at the end of it. they sob loudly, and he rips his eardrums from his mangled ear to dull the pain. they whisper in luke's ear as a child, avenge us, and luke wonders if he's gone insane. everytime padme cries out in her birthing, she can hear fifty echoes of babies and children crying with her. and when she turns her head to her daughter and son, the voices that so fervently cried out for help were silenced in eerie quiet, and then she knows.
i don't know where i was going with this. anyway, uh, utilize the child murder properly!
no offense to codywan shippers (ya'll are cool and create great fan stuff) seriously, codywan art and fanworks are some of the most detailed, and well thought out pieces i've seen.
but why do you guys ship codywan? they've exchanged like maybe, two sentences per episode they make an appearance in and its mostly about military affairs. they have a relationship you'd expect between like, somewhat affable coworkers. there's more evidence for rex and hunter than there is for cody and obi wan.
you know, i saw a bunch of codywan shippers and codywan fanart and fics when i first entered sw fandom and you know, i read some and thought "this is sweet. this is a cool dynamic. i could get behind this ship."
i'd like you all to keep in mind that i've never seen TCW at that point.
and then i watch TCW and i'm like, you don't even talk to each other. obi wan is in love with hillary clinton for some reason? cody is one of those rare characters where he has zero lines, but you can tell that he has a separate life outside of whatever bullshit he's put on screen for.
i see it as a "what could have been" ship; a ship that should have been explored a bit, even if the power dynamics are really fucked up, rather than yet another woman being fridged for a man. but like, what made you guys codywan stans?
i'm curious, so hit me with your reasons. i'm not dragging codywan-some of my favorite ships are characters that have exchanged a LOOK, not even dialogue. you guys have more basis than me.
even as a shadow, even as a dream
The tomb preserved everything perfectly.
Her image was preserved for all eternity in the stained glass. It felt almost larger than life, with her regnal portrait transferred to the stained glass. Her brown tresses framed her face sharply, and her cold eyes carried grace and class in a way that even her best speeches never truly brought on. The immaculate image she sought to cultivate every time that he saw her get ready for in the Senate was perfect. An icon for the ages.
She stares at him in final judgment; the tone, the serenity, it all carried him back to another woman, with green locks and pale skin, who stood for light and paid the price for her folly. In another life, when his deepest nightmares merely encroached on his reality rather than merge with it, he imagined himself in black with pale skin, holding the weapon shakily as everything bled and suffered to its death. He’d sit the ashes he’d made, hovering over a body, weapon impaling as his bloody hands wrapped around the handle as the Force screamed what did you do.
My nightmares were always my reality, only I was too weak to see it. I could only hide, and when running was impossible, I crumbled and burned everything else for a chance to escape only to fall into the fire I set ablaze.
Vader stalks through the mausoleum, footsteps dull and angry despite the hesitance in their master. The doors whistled quietly as they shut, the small thud echoing through the chamber until it became a deafening roar. His cape swished ominously, frighteningly cheery and disturbing large swaths of air. Everything about his presence in the tomb was foul, unnatural and inhumane, yet he felt drawn to it.
When he finally gained the arrogance to reenter Naboo and attend her mausoleum, he stopped in front of the carved doors for two minutes. His background swirled in that Force-damned red tinge, his limbs weighed him until it felt like agony to simply remain upright, and his breathing so loud it almost managed to drown out the last words of a strangled woman.
I love you…..Anakin..
Her coffin had her image carved into it, and for a moment he reaches out, to tenderly stroke her face, and he withdraws. He is a monster, she is dead. He will forever hate himself to death, and deny himself the release of impalement, for he would never deserve it. She would remain dead, the galaxy would spin on its uncaring rotation, oblivious to the rage he wreaked upon it. He loved her, oh how he loved her, but that love could not keep her. He'd love her as misery loved him, and even misery's tight fingers felt like a loose grip as he remembered choking the life from her. He once may have proclaimed his desire to move the stars for her joy, to warp reality to her whims, to burn her enemies, smiling at their agonizing screams and to wretch the eyes from her enemies and string them like pearls, but that life was over. None of that weak man, of the lakes of Varykino, of an office corner in Coruscant, of a wine bottle on a speeder exists.
He settles for kneeling, and almost scoffs at the delusions he enjoys laboring under. For all of his denials, hatred and numb terror, he is powerless at her hands. Death, for all of its unstoppable malice and vitriol, could not crush his weakness.
The whiteness of everything, the morning star’s light filtering through the stained glass, the marble arches and walkways, her coffin, the last image of her that he would ever see, repelled him. The purity, the kindness, the goodness, it all fell into a mockery of sorts. Everything that she dedicated herself towards, he proved himself to be the antithesis of. Her Republic was overthrown, fallen with him to create his Empire. Her belief in the goodness of the Jedi? Lost to the cold sweeps of times, which would wash the Jedi’s deeds away until they were nothing more than an ancient memory.
The cold marble seemed to freeze into his joints, almost as a warning. Leave, do not return. Poison this place no longer, demon.
And when Darth Vader turned to leave, he could feel arms around him. He wasn’t sure whether they were holding him in place or dragging him out: kicking, punching, screaming leave leave before he infected her forever.
this came in response to seeing some blog post on my dash about the jedi and republic. i'm usually cool with the jedi, but this post set me off because of the way it defended the Republic.
i understand being jedi positive and jedi critical. i will side eye you immensely and run screaming if you are empire positive beyond the whole 'cool aesthetic and badass villains' and empire crits should and are the norm. i even get being new republic positive-while they suck, they are way better than the neo-nazis.
what i don't understand is, especially in the context of the prequels, is being republic-positive. like, the republic is not this holy paragon symbiotic relationship with the jedi that flourished harmoniously without the evil Sith. like, it's canon that the republic has been failing and a problem since like, before baby palpatine existed. the jedi behold themselves to the republic out of tradition, not for the republic itself. the republic is george lucas's hamfisted take on fucking american imperialism. are you seriously trying to defend this? you really want to look at me and tell me that everything was fine with Bush Era Politics? really?
what are all your guys' heretic star wars music opinions? of course, we love and respect john williams, but what are the real meaty, gets-you-excommunicated-from-fandom opinions? i have LOTS of opinions, particularly ones that will probably get my ass kicked.
i know anidala isn't that type of couple, but if george lucas gave us a single scene of anakin and padme doing her taxes, i would have been ready to burn for their love. i already do that, but it would have been been better.
Padme: Beat three eggs? In what? Political Debate?
Obi-Wan: Must be since Anakin didn't let me bring weapons in the kitchen.
Anakin, who is done with Rich Kids who've never cooked before: Okay, both of you out!