please tell me you see the vision

I could fix him but I kinda like him a little murderous and psychotic tho

I know many people see Obi-Wan as Anakin's dad, but he's a bit more like Shmi, isn't he? Like they both tell him about the value of letting go and live by their teachings (Shmi giving him up so he could have a better life/ Obi-Wan's entire relationship with Satine) and seem to hold the title of parent in Anakin's mind. Which is why his reaction on Mustafar was so explosive; if Obi-Wan disapproved of his choices, that meant that Shmi would have too and that drives him insane

Idk really know if this is correct

I mean, I don't think seeing Obi-Wan as a father figure and Obi-Wan being similar to Shmi are mutually exclusive things. If you remove the gender from it, it just means both of them are parental figures in Anakin's life. I feel like I've seen people positing that a lack of a paternal or maternal figure in Anakin's life at different points is what fucked him up or something, but this feels like bullshit to me.

I think Anakin does see them as SEPARATE, but obviously Shmi and Obi-Wan do both hold a similar place in his life and they have similar values. I think Anakin is someone who clings pretty hard to the people he loves and he DESPERATELY needs their approval. I think in this case, Obi-Wan is separate from Shmi in this, so on Mustafar it's not really that Obi-Wan's disapproval automatically means Shmi would've disapproved and it's SHMI'S disapproval that hurts. I think Obi-Wan's disapproval hurts ON ITS OWN because he cares about Obi-Wan's opinion regardless of any connection it may or may not have to Shmi.

I also think that Obi-Wan's opinion connects to how good of a JEDI Anakin is. Obi-Wan is a consummate Jedi, and if we take his word for it, Anakin sees Obi-Wan as the wisest and most powerful of all the Jedi. If Obi-Wan disapproves of him and his choices, it means Anakin isn't a good Jedi. And if he's not a good Jedi, perhaps he's not a good PERSON. We see Anakin sort-of fall apart over thinking he's not a good Jedi once in AOTC after the Tusken massacre, and then once in ROTS over murdering Dooku, so we know that being "a good Jedi" matters to him to some degree. If he isn't a good Jedi, then what's left? He's wrapped his entire identity and self worth around being a Jedi in a lot of ways, it's part of why he can't just walk away from it in order to be with Padme instead. He HAS to have both.

And by Mustafar, Anakin is fully in delusion land and is just straight-up lying to himself because he's gone beyond a point of no return and he knows it but can't truly ACCEPT IT. Facing Obi-Wan means facing a particular truth about what he's done that he wasn't actually prepared to face (presumably he would've just thought Obi-Was would die along with everyone else and he'd never see Obi-Wan again). But now Obi-Wan is here, this person he'd loved and who had loved him and who he betrayed in the worst possible way, and he has to actually ANSWER FOR WHAT HE'S DONE. So facing Obi-Wan's disapproval also means facing his own guilt, something Anakin never ever wants to do.

So, yeah, I think Obi-Wan's disapproval means a lot all on its own and it doesn't NEED a connection to Shmi to make it mean something to Anakin. I think Obi-Wan's place in his life as a parental figure definitely adds some weight to his opinion, especially in the absence of Shmi herself and Anakin's desire to find a replacement for that relationship in his life, but I don't think that that's the whole or even the main reason why Anakin's reaction to him on Mustafar is the way it is.

WHEN AHSOKA GOT CLOSER TO THE RED LIGHTSABER AND HER EYES TURNED THE SAME COLOR AS A SITH'S I FUCKING LOST IT I COULDNT HELP IT I SCREAMED MOTHER OUT LOUD IM NOT SORRY BUT SOMEBODY NEEDS TO WRITE A FIC NOW

I think if Obi-wan was a woman Anakin would have a harder time Falling, if he Fell at all.

Not because this changes anything about Obi-wan, but because Anakin ‘He’s the closest thing I have to a father’ Skywalker, would see a woman trying to raise him and go ‘oh like a mom. I love mom.’

Nothing changes in regards to Obi-wan’s treatment of Anakin, but Ani isn’t putting this nebulous title of ‘Father’ to him, but the concrete ‘Mother’,

if anyone Palpatine tried to pit Ani against Obi-wan he would be like ‘But that’s Mom. Moms say no to fun things sometimes. Mom on Tatooine almost didn’t let me pod race, and that’s the best. I love mom’

It's called "vibin," you should try it some time

Darth Vader (2020) Issue #1

I think I want to soak up every take you have on Anakin and Padme with a sponge because yes yes yes. Thoughts on Mustafar?

since this is a more general ask i will take this as an opportunity to chat about something i've been thinking about lately: the direct connection between the aftermath of the tusken raiders massacre and anakin's conviction on mustafar that padme didn't love him anymore.

it's fairly clear from anakin's behavior and language following his massacre of the tuskens that he's aware that what he's done is objectively wrong. he also seems aware of the disconnect from the objective morality of the act, and what he feels about the act. he feels justified in what he did- or, he's trying to convince himself that he is- but he's distressed because he knows that's not what a good person, should be.

(as an aside, a lot of people talk about anakin measuring himself in comparison to morality as determined by the jedi order. but i think in this moment, it's more likely that he's thinking about morality in terms of shmi. he's just killed men, women, and children, supposedly in his mother's name, and on some level he knows that she would never want or condone that.)

anyways, anakin is very unstable and conflicted here. but his response to feeling these emotions- likely influenced by the dangers of expressing such things in his childhood while enslaved- is to lean away from them. he doesn't want to think about, let alone process, the guilt of what he's done. the idea that he's disappointed his mother, that he's tarnished her memory, is too painful for him. he wants someone to give him an excuse not to handle these difficult truths.

this is why he doesn't go to the jedi. it's why he doesn't go to obi-wan. he knows they will tell him what he does not want to hear: that he did a very bad thing. and if they tell him that, then maybe he'll have to confront that his mother would be just as horrified as the jedi were.

and there can sometimes be a fine line between empathy and enabling, which is something padme really struggled with when it came to anakin in particular. (i could make an entire other post about why this is, but we're focusing on how anakin perceived their relationship here, because it'll explain how he perceived her actions within the context of their relationship on mustafar.) and what does padme do?

"to be angry is to be human," she says. providing the justification, the excuse. anakin is able to lean into her comfort, safe in the knowledge that he will not be forced to handle any of the painful truths he had so feared. this comes at the cost of his personal growth; it comes at the cost of his humanity. but in the moment, to him, it feels like salvation. the world was ending and padme made it stop.

i won't go into the clone wars here, because otherwise this post would be too long. but there are many moments within the series where this pattern repeats itself. anakin does something padme isn't comfortable with, or something she initially resists, but her displeasure never lasts and she always returns to him without requiring him to change his mind or understand why she disapproved in the first place. every time this happens, it reinforces and recreates their exchange on tattooine. padme is a safe space for anakin- not just from the world, but from himself. from his own conscience, and from his own guilt.

this brings us to mustafar. anakin has done a terrible thing, an awful thing, in the name of someone he loves. just as he did on tattooine. but while shmi died, and he could only get reprieve from his guilt about the tuskens indirectly (through padme, a surrogate mother figure), in this instance his justification for his crimes is still alive. anakin is hoping for padme to condone his actions, the way he'd hoped shmi would have condoned his treatment of the tuskens.

of course, it was an incredible oversight and misunderstanding of padme as a person on anakin's part to think that she would look past the destruction of her entire life's work. that's just objectively true. but it's also clear to see how anakin's expectations of this unconditional support had only ever been reinforced over the course of their relationship- never challenged.

anakin came to rely on padme for unconditional support, to soothe his guilt and his suspicions that he'd done something terrible. and the moment she finally refused to do that for him, he turned on her.

because in his mind, her love had always been defined by unconditionally supporting him, and if she'd stopped doing that, then to him it meant that she no longer loved him. it's why he was confused- why aren't you doing what you've always done before and helping me ignore my guilt- and it's why he perceived it as a personal betrayal.

Trying to conquer my daddy issues one fanfic at a time

personal headcanon that Yoda was utter shit at raising teenagers and that's why his lineage fell to pieces.

Hilarious that anyone thinks Anakin Skywalker was capable of actual love and not some combination of lust and/or toxic attachment that could masquerade itself as love for a while right up until it couldn't.

Character (with a dark past who lashes out on others cause no one understands their pain or even tries to): *breaking down* Me:

still think it's hilarious that padmé married the one dude that couldn't say her name correctly

pov, anakin skywalker on mustafar in rots when he gets confronted by his wife and father/bestie after having ended the lives of some children with glowy sticks:

(YES, YES, I KNOW, ITS THE RETURN OF THE CODY X ANAKIN CONTENT BECAUSE HOLY SHIT ITS BEEN WAY TOO LONG AND IVE JUST BEEN BOMBARDED (REAL) WITH YOU LOT NAGGING ME ABOUT DOING ANOTHER SINCE THEYRE A STAPLE TO THIS TUMBLING PAGE)

listen. padme amidala is a freak, okay. ever since aotc i’ve had to listen to bullshit arguments about how awful the prequel romance is, how anakin’s a red flag, blah blah blah. that’s a smooth brain take. first of all, of course he’s a red flag. that’s the point. you think padme doesn’t know anakin is ten pounds of mommy issues in a five pound bag? you think she looked at soggy weeping anakin begging her to love him and didn’t immediately think “yes i definitely will peg him” ?? you think just because she’s a queen turned senator that she isn’t just as horny and feral as he is? anakin wasn’t even pushy about it. he was just “oh btw i’ve been obsessed with you for a decade and live in a perpetual state of emotional agony but thats okay whatever you want is fine with me haha” and padme goes “yea okay i’m into that.” two minutes after he’s assigned to be her bodyguard she gives an obligatory little “i have a bad feeling about this” and then just fucking marries him. this is a woman who wore white to a blood bath. come on.