Clone Wars S3 E18

Prisoner Anakin was sent to rescue: Hello I’m Captain Tarkin

Me: Captain who now!

A hodge-podge of Imperials and Separatists for your viewing pleasure.

Six fan art imperial version

I think I have a thing for some Imperial/First Order officiers, they are so badass, but Armitage is always the first for me

There is exactly one criticism that I agree with my, very anti-Jedi, cousin on and that's the Jedi were TERRIBLE Generals. Generals may TRY to make sure their men mostly come back. But useless sacrifices are not only acceptable, but expected, the men are mostly expandable in war. The Jedi did not consider sacrifices like that acceptable or expected. Sure it did happen. It was WAR. But they tried their best to make sure it DIDN'T. The Jedi were terrible Generals. But they were the teachers and Leaders the CLONES NEEDED.

I'm not sure I'd ENTIRELY agree with that. I think I'd be willing to agree that the Jedi were perhaps less CONVENTIONAL Generals, and they definitely do seem to at least TRY to place the lives of their men above just tossing them away for an easy victory, but you can just as easily claim that keeping the men alive to keep fighting is a good strategy in and of itself.

The biggest piece of evidence I'd point to that the Jedi were actually perfectly good Generals is the Citadel arc and Tarkin's criticisms. The one real criticism he makes of the Jedi as military leaders is that they're occasionally too soft and will abandon a mission if it looks impossible to win without near total casualties (on either side). But he's generally fairly positive about the Jedi and if they were truly awful at their jobs, I don't think TARKIN of all people would hold back on saying so, even to the Jedi's faces.

And we DO see the Jedi willing to make sacrifices and accepting that this is a necessary part of war. The Citadel arc is, again, a perfectly good example of this. Obi-Wan and Anakin go in with like 3-4 men each I think and they come back with a grand total of 3 (Rex, Cody, and Fives). A LOT of clones die on this mission that they all KNEW was basically a suicide mission because the Jedi themselves decided that getting the information about the hyperspace lanes was vital enough to the war that it was worth losing multiple lives over (including their own).

So it's not that the Jedi don't understand that sacrifices are necessary in war or even that they avoid it entirely, they just avoid what they see as UNNECESSARY sacrifice for what might amount to a fairly minor victory. Keeping more of their men alive might, in the long run, be a better strategic choice than losing all of them on one campaign, especially if it's over like one uninhabited moon or something like that. There's nothing to say that the losses the Jedi deem acceptable are things that would've changed the entire tide of the war had they chosen to push forward instead.

The other good evidence that the Jedi acting this way would've been the WORSE choice is the Umbara arc. We are told and then see that Krell IS the kind of General who is willing to lose a lot of clones in order to gain victories in battle, and the clones do recognize that he has a lot of victories under his belt. But never once do they discuss whether those victories really MEANT anything or had a large impact on the war effort. It certainly never seems that the Republic is majorly pushing back the Separatists because of Krell's victories, nobody ever mentions that Krell gained them a major advantage with those victories or took out anyone of any consequence on the Separatist side with his strategies. And by the time he gets to Umbara, he's explicitly using this strategy to WEAKEN the Republic side and cause a loss. Several of his strategies WOULD'VE meant the Republic lost on Umbara and it's only the clones utilizing different strategies that put fewer of them at risk that they actually end up continuing to HAVE victories at all.

I'll also point out that the Jedi continuously getting their men killed en masse would've bankrupted the Republic a LOT earlier because they'd have to be paying for more clones a LOT more often than they did in canon and I can't imagine anyone would've considered that a particularly sound strategy and at some point I'm sure the Senate would've felt obligated to put a stop to it anyway and insisted on strategies that kept more clones alive for longer. So I'm not sure it's fair to claim the Jedi were utilizing BAD strategy by not just exclusively using tactics that meant most of their men were killed for every single victory.

So the ONLY criticism we EVER see of the Jedi's ability as military leaders is Tarkin claiming they're "too soft" and Tarkin is the kind of person who would likely say that until the Jedi started carpet bombing entire Separatist planets. Would it give them a victory? Yeah, sure, maybe, but that's the exact same strategy the Separatists are using and look how well that works out for THEM. Everything else we ever see seems to showcase that the Jedi are in fact perfectly good Generals, not just in that they're kind to the clones and are unwilling to carpet bomb Separatist planets, but also because they're just... good at this. They CAN be strategic, they CAN run wars if they want to. And I think that's the whole point of the Jedi in some ways is that yes, they CAN make war when they need to, they just actively choose NOT TO every time they can. THIS is why Qui-Gon tells Padme that he and Obi-Wan are there to protect her but that they can't win this war for her and they end up going off to fight off a Sith while Padme has to actually win the war with her own people and the Gungans instead. The Jedi don't WANT to be in the position of doing nothing but fighting, but they're absolutely capable of this kind of work.

That's the tragedy of the war in some ways, the Jedi ARE good at this no matter how much they wish they weren't sometimes. But being good at it means they can actually protect the Republic, their own men, and even the Separatist civilians better, so they're not going to just sit there and do things that will screw over a bunch of people. Yes, they're going to fight the war in such a way that they reduce casualties as much as possible, but reducing casualties also requires doing enough to not LOSE the damn war, too. It's a delicate balance they're trying to hold on to and I'd argue they manage it better than anybody else would've ever done in their position.

pov: you’ve just proposed the stupidest plan to catch the rebels everyone in the room has ever heard. you are darth vader

I felt the need to make this alignment chart...

Palpatine is just having a good time ruining the galaxy. Look at that smile.

Imp memes part 3 (I think so)

Made this in a hurry cuz I know the booping craze is gonna die fast and the template was too good to pass up. Add anyone else you think of in the tags I guess?

Template courtesy of @andorshitdaily. Thank you for making this!! And I did see you and @air-mechanical saying that Syril would opt out. I agree, but the concept of him spamming Dedra with super boops or Cassian with evil boops was too funny for me not to stick him where he is.

I was thinking about how we never see the fallout of the clone mutiny on Umbara which one would expect to lead to a some sort of situation- i mean yes, Krell turned out to be a traitor, and yes, any number of things could have happened off screen, but we don’t see it, so- and also the chronic occurrence of Anakin disobeying orders and suffering zero formal consequences, which is not generally how armies work-

and one possible explanation that amuses me is the jedi high command basically deciding on a wink-wink-nudge-nudge approach to these things, with no cases of mutiny or disobedience ever reported, no sir nothing to see here, these clones on the list of the dead are definitely really dead not deserters, and Krell died in action, terribly tragic, Captain Rex is of course an impeccable captain who would never dream of mutiny, etc, and that Ahsoka’s trial was literally the first time anyone in that army ended up in front of a military tribunal at all

what your fave star wars movie villain says about you

Darth Maul: You are completely feral and should be put on a leash. Bit of a monster fucker.

Count Dooku: Radical leftist attached to two very particular Star Wars books. Also, dilf lover.

General Grievous: Clone Wars 2003 is the greatest piece of Star Wars media and you are addicted to that one Rasputin amv. Definitely fucks robots.

Anakin Skywalker: Unhinged, ignores red flags, and loves the tragedy of the prequels as well as the added canon of The Clone Wars. Padme kin.

Darth Vader: Monster fucker, robot fucker, dilf fucker, you are the ultimate form of all of the above. That one scene in Rogue One is the greatest thing Disney has ever done with Star Wars and will ever do.

Sheev Palpatine: You think prequel memes are the funniest shit to come out of the fandom and you're completely right. I don't think you would like to fuck this man, but if you do, I am terrified of you.

Grand Moff Tarkin: Either you already loved Peter Cushing before watching Star Wars or his character in A New Hope just is that good. The weird deepfake shit Disney did in Rogue One haunts you to this day. TK-421 is your everything.

Jabba the Hutt: Jabba's Palace scene at the start of ROTJ is VERY underrated to you. You honestly just like the most unapologetically awful characters and I respect that.

Boba Fett: You saw this dude stand around and do nothing and then die, then somehow willed him back to life. Unfortunately, you used a monkey paw to do so, and you got Book of Boba Fett. I am so sorry for what they've done to you.

Jango Fett: You are what Boba Fett fans want and more. The only reasons you aren't worshipped more in the fandom is because you're not from the OT and there's a few million of you running around anyway.

Kylo Ren: heterosexual.

Hux: You think that the best Star Wars villains aren't the force-users, but the officers that command or are equal to them.

Phasma: You are like the Boba Fett fans except Phasma was created to be a Boba Fett-esque character so you are dedicated to fixing Disney's mistake. Gwendoline Christie deserved better.

generic Battle Droid: You are enlightened. Can I join your cult.