“A mother is god in the eyes of a child”

- Rose, of Sharon; Silent Hill

♡ :: when they’re orphans and murderers with a tragic backstory 💋

Sorry, but I need to get this out of my chest

"Oh I'm so happy Hayden Christensen finally got his redemption! 😍"

Look, don't get me wrong. I know most of you who say this are coming from a good place and I love you all for it...

BUT

it just bothers me so much because... Hayden never needed redemption! As far as I know, for someone to get any kind of redemption, they needed to have done something wrong first. AND THE ONLY THING HAYDEN EVER DID WAS DOING HIS FUCKING JOB AS AN ACTOR AND GIVING HIS BEST IN HIS ROLE!!! IT'S NOT HIS FAULT THE STUPID FANBOYS DECIDED TO BE FUCKING ASSHOLES BECAUSE THE PREQUELS AND ANAKIN'S CHARACTER DIDN'T TURN OUT AS THEY WANTED TO AND CHOSE HIM TO BE THEIR PUNCHING BAG (AND POOR JAKE LLOYD AND AHMED BEST) !!!

Yes, Hayden Christensen got a new chance to reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker and show the haters they were wrong about him after all this time and I couldn't be more proud of him.

But this shouldn't be seen as some kind of redemption for him because, as I already said, he never needed one because HE DIDN'T OWE THE FANS ANYTHING!!! He could have refused all Disney's invitations to come back to Star Wars, but he accepted! He accepted because HE LOVES STAR WARS!!! HE LOVES ANAKIN SKYWALKER!!! HE LOVES THIS BEAUTIFUL UNIVERSE GEORGE LUCAS CREATED!!!

ALL THE LOVE HE'S GETTING NOW IS NOT SOME KIND OF REWARD FOR FINALLY LEARNING HOW TO BE A GOOD ANAKIN SKYWALKER - HE ALWAYS WAS!!!

ALL THE LOVE HE'S GETTING NOW IS WHAT HE DESERVED 20 YEARS AGO!!!

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk 😘

The Jedi did nothing wrong. They didn't ""steal"" kids. They did not deserve to be fucking murdered. They weren't responsible for their genocide. They are not at fault for Anakin's Fall. They did everything they could do to help people. Anakin is responsible for his of his own actions and choices. That includes his choice to Fall and aid Palpatine instead of stop him, his choice to lead the mind controlled Clones into the Temple, his choice to lead the genocide of the Jedi, his choice to be literally the worst person in the galaxy, murder more people, and help lead and enforce the fascist Empire. Those were his choices, his actions. Not the Jedi's. Don't like it? Too bad, that's was the movies and shows literally show.

Obi Wan: Every day, I re-live every choice I’ve ever made, trying to find just one thing I could have tried to get through to Anakin—

Ahsoka: If I had stayed in the order, if I had warned him, if I hadn’t released Maul, if I had saved more of the children of the force—

Rex: If I could’ve removed my chip sooner, or we had caught Maul quicker, if we had killed him instead of capturing him—

Fives: I mean, if any of y’all had kriffing listened to me—

omg time traveler ahsoka au! she gets obi-wan to leave the order for satine in the hopes that he’d be weird with someone else but anakin gets sent on a mission to mandalore and wow there’s this handsome duke he has to look after. what a shame he’s married and definitely wouldn’t leave his wife for this jedi he feels immediately weird about

hmmmmmmm this is one of Ahsoka’s closest attempts because obi-wan’s personal sense of loyalty wouldn’t let him cheat on his wife, and he’s spent so long building a family and a life on Mandalore that he would never toss it aside to be romantically involved with a kid (read: 22yo) that he doesn’t even know even though he feels a very strong pull towards him….obi-wan is adept at lying to himself

It gets easier to lie to himself when he realizes that Skywalker is also married, though secretly…..it offends part of Kenobi, but that’s just because Skywalker is making a mockery of the Jedi order with his secret marriage!! Kenobi is no longer a Jedi of course but he still has great respect for the Order!!!

That’s the only reason he feels so strange when he thinks of Skywalker’s marriage even long after Skywalker and the senator he was guarding as she came to a celebratory feast on Mandalore leave again.

(Ahsoka tenses on her reset button as anakin makes his way back to mandalore a few months later, but they’re being….normal…this anakin requests to study ancient mandalorian and Jedi texts that are housed in the capital city and it’s weird because he’s never really cared about history but he’s being very…respectful….and master obi-wan is also being very respectful if a little stand offish….he accompanied him down to read the texts and they spend hours down there together but as far as Ahsoka can tell there is nothing inappropriate happening —she has gotten very good at telling when something inappropriate is happening between her old masters—they really are just…talking and reading and they’re being…sort of weird…but sort of normal….it’s the closest they’ve come to the original timeline in fact…Ahsoka relaxes on her reset button)

War breaks out anyway of course and obi-wan lasts only a month or so after anakin is pulled to the front lines before donning an old beat up and anonymous suit of mandalorian armor and flying to fight with him. The Duchess of Mandalore offers no comment. The official story is that her husband is sick in bed from a nasty case of Flafu flu. No one knows that it’s the Duke of mandalore in the red armor, supporting Skywalker’s troops.

Ahsoka wonders if Anakin knows, up until the moment some droid gets a lucky shot in and obi-wan goes down on the battlefield and anakin levels an entire field of droids to get to him looking half out of his mind with worry and rage….then she knows he knows and maybe that he’s always known

She’s tensed up over the reset button again, but after obi-wan’s been seen to by the medic, anakin sends him back to his wife on mandalore and, miraculously, after 2 years fighting to be by anakin’s side, obi-wan…stays, but he looks so beaten down over it, so without half his heart, like he’s suddenly aged 20 years and lived in a desert for all of them. But he stays.

The war ends eventually and the Jedi triumph. Ten years later, leia runs through Anakin’s study with an old red helmet over her head as Luke runs after her, playing war. anakin gently takes it off her and sets her on the ground. He cradles the helmet though in battle worn hands, but thankfully before either of them can ask, padmes speeder arrives and they shoot off to go welcome their mom home - anakin stays for a second longer, just staring at the helmet with such a naked expression of wistfulness longing heartbreak and acceptance that Ahsoka almost wants to turn away. Before she does she sees anakin touch his forehead to the helmet’s once before rising and putting it away, turning instead to go greet his wife

and it leaves Ahsoka with such a WEIRD feeling in her own heart that she’s pressing the reset button before she can think it through because she wants them to be apart and she wants the Jedi to win the war and everyone to get their happy endings but…but not like this…not if they’re not happy….she gets 1 reset where she gets to be selfish ok she’s gone through thousands now probably.

Me: I will not post random thoughts on Tumblr to strangers. I can keep my opinions to myself.

Also me: Why is everyone so mean to Ben?? How could Obi-Wan have known that Luke would somehow become the first person ever to take a Sith and pull them back to the light side without any amnesia involved? How could he have known that?? Also, he watched Anakin murder children, I don’t think it’s fair to make him out to be the bad guy for not giving Anakin another child.

Also, is the scene on Bespin supposed to be Vader’s turning point? Because sources say he was very evil and bad and more evil, but was Bespin the point when he realized? Like, look at it this way. Anakin almost definitely became desensitized to killing. We see that in the Clone Wars; he has no issue killing people for whatever reason, so it’s clear that he’s become numb to it.

But, Darth Vader is used to people doing whatever they can to stay alive near him. People are afraid of him. They do what he says because he is six and a half feet tall and more machine than man, on top of being someone who can choke someone across a video call. The people who do refuse to do what he says are the rebels, the bad guys, from his perspective.

So when he has Luke cornered, he expects Luke to surrender because he views Luke as his son, which means Luke can’t die. Padme died and that is as much death by his own hands in his own family that Vader is willing to take. Luke has to surrender, because Vader doesn’t want to kill him and there’s no other way out, unless Luke wants to let go of the gantry and fall to his probable death.

And Luke lets go.

In that moment, do you think it hits him? Do you think Vader realizes that his own son is willing to die over being on the same side as him? His son hates him so much, he falls into a bottomless hole just to escape him.

Do you think that’s the moment Vader realizes that Luke is fragile? Luke is human? Luke isn’t just a Jedi, he isn’t just the person who is uncatchable and who blew up the Death Star, he’s a person who can die. And it’s highly likely that Luke will die, from Vader’s perspective. This boy who would rather fall to his death than spend another moment in Vader’s company. If anyone was going to die in this fight, surely it would be the dumbass who flies into traps, knowing full well that they are traps.

Do you think that’s what the scene means? Is that Vader’s turning point? Is that the moment when he feels worry for Luke? Not worry for the Luke in his mind, the power that Luke has, or anything. Just, worry for his son.

Vader was willing to kill millions, billions, or even trillions of people to get to Luke, but Luke is willing to kill himself before being caught. Luke, the one person Vader doesn’t want to die. The one person he figured probably couldn’t die, since he pulls stupid shit all the time and walks away like nothing happened.

Is that the moment where Vader dimmed, just for a second, and became a bit more of Anakin, instead?

To continue the woobified view of the Elites and my comparison of them to the Black Eagles :

Same for me regarding the BE, especially because they also literally fought Edelgard's troops in WC when you choose their house, and even if you don't, they definitely still would know that Edelgard dus nasty shits in WC.

The idea that media literacy is dead is quite fitting, because the idea that even rotten persons have loved ones/that having loved ones doesn't mean you're not rotten is a known thing, yet the Eagles and elites get a pass solely because "they genuinely believe in the cause" and "they love and care for each other"

Probably Fraldarius was as devoted to Nemesis as Ingrid to Dimitri, Lamine very well may have been as sassy as Dorothea, perhaps Goneril was as brave and endearing as Caspar, or Maurice was as loyal to his clan's interests as Petra to Brigid's happiness (through a strong bond to the Empire) but like the BE, they are butchers, who relished in the destruction of everything those against them hold dear, lap dogs and rabid curs of someone they definitely know have crushed innocents and scorn the very idea of peace except under their domination.

The only meaningful difference between Edelgard-following BE and the elites is that we can know more about the BE and we are forced to dislike cutting them down even as they refuse to let northern Fódlan alone.

Honestly I need a fanfiction where the BE are called out for that bullshit.

Yep!

That's the tone deaf feeling I got from Nopes, the Deers are hunting someone bcs their leader wants her dead for no reason, but Raph only comments on how hungry he is.

Uh, sure Raph, you're not the most thoughtful character in there, but come on? Some commentary or exposition on what you're doing? Hello KT? Can we have characters be challenged or even react to the events of screen instead of wondering what's for dinner/teatime?

No??

I wouldn't say it's an issue of media litteracy being dead, but more something in the lines of people being more and more "all or nothing" nowadays, without any nuance and conflating liking a character with the idea/image that might project on you : if I like ASOIAF's Cersei, I don't think everything she does is "justified", but modern fandom, I feel like some people would categorize you as a "good" or "bad" person based on the characters you like, and it's just... not what fandom is or was supposed to be imo, I'm here to nerd and gush about favourite characters, not write litteral essays about the Geneva Convention.

Corollary is what, imo, made the Fodlan fandom hell : some people really take "criticism" against a character personally - sure the way FE16 was written invites projection, but at the end of the day, making a Berning Fire Joke is, just, making a joke about a bunch of pixels, nothing more.

Back to the BEs, they can have a sense of camaraderie and genuinely support each other... as they tear apart "people because Supreme Leader told me to" and fight side by side with Bob the Carpented who was turned into Waldi the demonic beast.

Ferdie can skewer Flayn on her father's lance because she is "a creature that has plagued humanity for ages" even if they reached a C support before shit hit the fan - and still protect Mercedes and Bernie from their abusing Fathers. Does that make him a great guy? A nuanced guy?

I think the trope is called "even evil people have loved ones" or something like that?

I don't think so, but he is no random one note villain sycophant either - now, what is the more annoying with the Fodlan games is how this dichotomy is never called upon : everything is just a giant blob or Hresvelg Grey ("morally grey" but only applied to Supreme Leader) where no one really is angry at her, and all the "sacrifices" she's making are off-screen while the characters on-screen always moan about her "ReFoRmS" and "IdEaLs" without talking about the cost bar some milquetoast "but war bad". And no one, in the game, will ever throw this hypocrisy to their face - Gallant Ferdinand will dream about the Opera as he wipes off the blood of a young woman who just wanted to return to the only home she had.

Yay.

FWIW, some mutuals and I have nothing but pure lols about Doro's line in the non-CF routes being "we killed Ferdie professor :'(" because, hey, why should I care more about Ferdie than about random loldier 55 ? Rhea? Felix? Claude? Ignatz?

Maybe the Elites were really friends and became """"nice""" persons with time, to their families and loved ones ?

Does this magically erase what they did before? Will that "good" they did erase all the "wrongs" they have previously done? Will theyr forever escape the consequences of their actions?

In a game that depicts Flamey as a terrorist for 11 chapters only to drop that plot point by the window to moan, again, about her "IdEaLs", "consequences" are maybe something you can eat as a snack, or throw in a trashcan.

So following the rules of this verse, given how Supreme Leader never receives flak for her Flamey stunts, why should the Elites receive any for what they did? Look, Maurice calls Daphnel his friend, surely he is not that bad of a man? Well yeah, he might have seduced women and planted a lot of wild oats here'n'there, but he cares about his friends!

Jeritza likes ice creams and cats! Surely it's more important to paint him as a cat lover than to deal with all the consequences of his stunt as the Death Knight, kidnapping and implied rekting young woman while he was in GM, under Flamey's orders, right?

Calling it now, after eviscerating Seteth's older brother, Goneril might have melted in front of one of Rhea's kittens, and adopted the cat asap. Surely that makes Goneril a "good" character right? And forget the entire "genocided a bunch of hippies living isolated in their village" stuff?

I don't have fanfics recs where the BEs are called hypocrites, but I confess I don't read a lot of fanfics in the FE16 fandom because of all of the aforementioned issues.

Dave Filoni is slowly becoming the Karen Traviss of Disney canon lol. Pro-Mandalorian and anti-Jedi against all reason and continuity

In the year of our lord, 2024, some of the fandom is still approaching the Jedi Order with zero nuance

You flat out belong in a padded room or a jail cell

Lol.

We’re back on our bullshit again are we Jedi-Apologists? Is this the Jedi way? Spreading hatred and cruelty and lies? Over a fandom made up story? I guess I should thank you for outing yourself so thoroughly by saying the quiet part out loud. Your ableist rants and your cruelty to others for simply expressing opinions about fictional characters is noted.

one of my only gripes about tcw series is how anakin was written by filoni and i would like everyone to know anakin acts more like his movie portrayals than That.

Look I just think the takes of "the Jedi were fundamentally a good group of good people" and "the Jedi were vulnerable to corruption and misuse" and "the Jedi did not give Anakin what he needed to succeed" and "Anakin is ultimately the one responsible for his actions" should all coexist.

Star Wars prequel marathon is over, and they remain the best movies in SW. Do not come for me, I will cry

Lovely baby who did nothig wrong: ...

Me: aw I love them.

Troublesome characthers who can't deal with people and did crime:

Me: This is my baby, I'm adopting and protecting them with my life

I have a really hard time maintaining my suspension of disbelief during the RotS movie for everything after the "what have I done?!??!!" line. For me, it all happens too fast; Anakin needs another hour of development or something before I can hop on board; George Lucas fails to convince me.

Thus, I've been terrified to read the RotS novelization... Because I knew, before going in, that Mattew Stover does possess the power to convince me.

And that's risky.

Because my carefully balanced cognitive dissonance between pre-O66 and post-O66 content all hinges on the fact that my suspension of disbelief will consistently fail to endure Anakin's betrayal. Not because he's a fave (despite the often unfortunate consequence of my current WIP being in his POV, Anakin actually shifts anywhere from #2 all the way down to #4 on my list of baes at any given time) but rather because he is the crux upon which the entire narrative sits. Anakin's fall to the dark side is the bridge connecting beginning to end for every single one of my favorite characters. It's the fuel behind the fictional universe's swing between hope and despair and hope. If I become convinced that Anakin is Darth Vader, then everything else will be thrown into jeopardy. The entire table will be flipped and I won't be able to control where its contents land.

Well... I finally took that risk and read the RotS novelization, and... having sobbed for the hours, I was both right and wrong. :(

On one hand, my opinions/feelings toward Anakin have not changed in the slightest. I don't find his actions any more (or less!) excusable than I already did. Which means that my other favorite characters have, thankfully, retained their status quo.

Instead, my opinion of Palpatine changed. And by changed, I mean it has sunk from thinking he's a sicko, a manipulator, and an evil Sith Lord who needs to be destroyed -- and it has plunged into an exponential spiral of revulsion, despair, and absolute loathing. In the novelization, he is the abuser of which the movie shows only glimpses. He gaslights and grooms and lovebombs. In public, he is the politician that wields his "future apprentice" as if he's parading a silent trophy wife. In private, he is the extremist who assaults Anakin with an endless barrage of radical propaganda (we're not arguing, my boy, we're just discussing). He makes the most ridiculous farfetched insinuations and then manufactures their evidence. In doing do, he ensures that Anakin feels betrayed by anyone who can provide logical (and explicitly desired!) counter arguments. Palpatine drills these accusations into Anakin's head so ruthlessly that even Anakin's loved ones become so worn out by their repetition -- and one by one, each of them (even Padme!) gives up on arguing, too. Palpatine is the mastermind behind Anakin's isolation, exhaustion, and general malaise. And there is no escape because Palpatine is also the orchestrator of Anakin's sacred Jedi duty to sit there, as regularly as possible, and "take careful note" of all of his abuser's tiniest reactions. Any attempt Anakin makes to disengage from this assignment (which happens surprisingly often) is seen by the Jedi as an immature shirking of responsibility -- which is by design. So Anakin stops attempting to disengage. In order to save himself the energy it takes to perform verbal and mental gymnastics, he (and this is explicitly stated) stops arguing with Palpatine's opinions. And eventually, because of how hypervigilant he has both become and been expected to be, Anakin is so desensitized that he's willing to agree with literally whatever Palpatine wants. Palpatine becomes his sole source of information. And honestly, it was stunning Anakin managed to resist for as long as he did.

Part II left me in a state of excruciating mental fatigue. After reading, I became emotionally exhausted and terrifyingly numb.

Part III reminded me that, for myself, these feelings (or lackthereof) would end at the same time as the book ended -- but that, for Anakin, "This is how he feels Forever." For forty years. For the rest of his life.

In the end, despite Palpatine's pretty promises of expensive speeders and entire star systems and forbidden Sith lore, Anakin gave everything he had -- and ended up with less-than-nothing in return.

Not to mention, there is the less complicated but no less crushing sadness I felt at Palpatine's merciless destruction of Obi-Wan's entire fucking family. H i s e n t i r e f a m i l y. :(

In conclusion, I may not have to mourn my love for my favorite characters, but I did not avoid the all-consuming grief that Stover convinced me to feel :(

tldr; 5/5 would read it again 😭😭😭