“A slave boy helping a Jedi. To me, it seemed matters should have been the other way around.”

— Shmi Skywalker in Troy Denning’s Tatooine Ghost

It’s honestly frightening to read some of the takes that pop up in fandom. It makes it so painfully clear that media literacy and reading comprehension are practically dead.

"All slaves have a transmitter placed inside their bodies somewhere." "I've been working on a scanner to try and locate mine, but no luck." "Any attempt to escape…" "And they blow you up. Poof!"

―Shmi and Anakin Skywalker

One of the things that always get my attention in the phantom menace is how easily the people who would take care of Anakin from his 9 years to a young adult could ignore so easily the way his upbringing would affect him but if you see TPM movie, you get why.

Shmi and Anakin are living in horrorific circunstances, they know their owners, Gardulla and Watto can blow them up anytime they want with all legality on Tatooine so what´s left to them to stay not only sane but also kind under such circunstances is to keep what Viktor Emil Frankl called "mental/emotional freedom" they may not be owners of their own bodies but they are owners of their own mind and they can choose to be kind in their circunstances because they "WANT TO BE KIND" not because some code tells them they have to be kind or compassionate.

This is a family who has personally seen slaves being blown up, from kids, to women to adults of any age, a family who lived inside Gardulla´s the Hutt palace, you only need to remember ROTJ to understand this is a mother who had to explain to anakin what sex was from a very young age so he could tell her if someone wanted to take advantage of him that way even if she could not stop them from taking advantage of her Son.

QUI-GON: You should be proud of your son. He gives without any thought of reward.

SHMI: Well he knows nothing of greed.

So when the Jedi came to Tatooine, given the stories both Shmi and Anakin heard about them, most notably the story about them freeing slaves from the former Sith Empire some thousands of years ago, they didn´t expect much but at least they expected the problem to be recognized but Qui-Gon has to explain to them that they are on Tatooine on accident and that they are not here to free slaves and when you get to Coruscant you learn that the Jedi are mostly concerned to what happens in the Senate to put much attention to what happens in the wider galaxy.

So we get in an scenario where Anakin is send to the Temple by his mother to give him a chance of a normal life but the world in which he gets to doesn´t even have the lenses to begin to understand his pov and not only that, they expect him to adapt himself to them, not the other way around.

You think? I don´t know Yoda, If I were a 9 year old who still has a ticking bomb inside my body(Qui-Gon didnt had time to get him to an infirmary), who had to leave behind my mother in such circunstances and who now is surrounded by adults called masters, who can read my mind, you know, the only thing left free for a slave like Anakin, I guess I would be pretty afraid too and not because I am falling to the darkside but because it´s a normal human reaction but Jedi are just not that empatethic in this version of the Order right?

So what we get is that Anakin gets to live in a place with people who certainly have good intentions, who see themselves as the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy but who mostly believe this means doing what the Senate tells them to do, they are completely unable and unwilling to even begin to understand Anakin, most of them, even Yoda have too sheltered lives to begin to understand where Anakin is coming from and it shows painfully as part of the tragedy, because where they see Anakin, they see pain/anger/hate and where Anakin sees them, he sees ignorance and lack of empathy that he at times sees as cruelty but both sides try to make it work, acting as if that´s not what they see on each other.

So even if Obi-Wan did his best to understand Anakin he´s still too sheltered to understand him they way his mother did, he believes Anakin having a problem with food snacks is a sign of him being greedy /asking for special treatment instead of being a sign of someone who has been starved before as punishment and a natural reaction is to keep food and insects around so he doesn´t die of hunger, Obi-Wan is just disgusted by it.

But you know someone who certainly grew up as sheltered as the members of the jedi order, as part of a noble house in a mid rim planet but who has plenty of life experiences and isn´t so set in his ways that he can recognize the signs Anakin is showing for all to see? who has travelled to Tatooine and many other worlds as part of his Sith training? Palpatine, this is why he allowed Anakin to stay in the Jedi Order, he knew he would just grow up bitter and resentful of them because they were just too set in their own ways to try to understand and that for him, was just preparation for him to be turned into a Sith. He can be the one adult who understands where Anakin is coming from and he doesn´t even need to lie.

So when I see this character seen in the fandom as someone spoiled (lol) who gave Obi-Wan a hard time every chance he got, I wish Lucas had been more direct in telling this part of the story because there´s just so much of this tragedy lost in translation that isn´t even funny.

But you know who also had the means to get to Anakin and completely understand what the hell happened, who was from the same world? Who knew how to get to him in his own language despite years of being submerged in the darkside? Yes, his Son Luke, so I guess this is how the story rhymes.

Anakin´s politics

After reading many takes in fandom of Anakin´s politics as well as many fics, I believe Anakin´s political leanings are often reduced or misunderstood, in part because Lucas didn´t delve too much into them, because Padme and Obi-Wan kind of dimiss htem and also in part because we have two different ideologies, Anakin´s political ideology pre Vader and Anakin´s political ideology post Vader which are similar but not the same.

Early Vader/Just fallen to the darkside Anakin asked Padme to become his Empress but given that at the time he was in a deep, deep breakdown and practically out of his mind deep into darkside force energies which Lucas has compared to a drug, I personally don´t believe even Vader "post dark side high" would have exactly the same idea.

Vader in general was of the mind that the galaxy needed order, that there was a role the Emperor had to play but given Leia´s and Vader´s whole conversation about the Sentate in ANH where Leia accuses Vader of acting outside the Senate approval to which Vader answers that she was a confirmed traitor to the Empire at this point, so her ship could not longer be considered a diplomatic vessel unlike all those other times Vader let her go to do her "mercy missions" which he knew were a front for her pro-rebellion missions, all this means Vader also was often around seeing Sente proceedings, right allong with his military meetings.

Vader he doesn´t care as much about the type of goverment there is in the galaxy as long as it´s effective and less corrupt than the Old Republic was. "Lest bring Order to the galaxy"

Anakin is a different matter, as a child he just knew he wanted to free all the slaves on Tatooine and do his part to support a more equal and fair galaxy "the biggest problem in the galaxy is that no one helps each other".

As a Jedi padawan, when he was talking to Padme about how the system didn´t work, precisely because Padme told him that it was hard for the senate to do anything because they almost never agreed, he suggested someone to "make them agree" "someone wise" and in that way fix the problem of the current system, Padme was talking about the issues of the working system and Anakin suggested a way to fix those inconsistencies.

Here we can already see Palpatine´s hand in Anakin´s political perception but I believe we often forget there is another important body that influenced Anakin political pov´s in his younger years, when Anakin talked about "Someone wise should make them agree" he pretty much was describing Master Yoda and Windu role in most decisions of the Jedi Council when the Council didn´t agree on something.

So my guess is that Anakin was suggesting someone like Yoda and Palpatine supported this idea because it would make it easier to make the change from Yoda to himself.

Here Padme sees it as a dictatorship but I believe here Lucas didn´t really thought things too deeply, because there are Hereditary Monarchies in the Republic and her own role as Queen of Naboo had an almost absolute authority but well I disgress.

Anakin didn´t believe the the Senate needed to be taken down, in fact in ROTS he gets mad at Padme precisely because she was asking him to ask Palpatine to leave his emergency powers and Anakin believed that was something that had to be taken to the Senate instead of using Anakin´s apparent influence over Palpatine, which was non-existent but neither of them knew that.

My point is that Anakin himself wasn´t suggesting to take down the Senate or the Republic, his pov was that the system itself didn´t work as a system that actually got things done for the benefice of the people of the Republic. Anakin´s priority is to fix the system to get things done, not hold an ambigous ideal that only exists for some people.

Lest remember Shmi´s words in TPM "The Republic doens´t exist out there, we have to take care of ourselves"

This was Anakin´s early relationship to the republic and all those diplomatic missions as a jedi in which he mostly helped the elite of each planet didn´t serve to convince him the republic was good for something other than serving the elite.

So while Padme and Obi-Wan saw the Republic as an ideal that could be fixed with time if only because that´s what they had to work with, Anakin thought that it´s alright to hold republican values, in fact he went to war for the whole "keeping the republic together" but this republic "Is functional?" "It works for what it says it works?" and the answer is no, the system is broken, something Padme found out in the first movie, when she saw how the occupation on her planet by the Federation could be ignored because of their influence and it would take months if not years to do something about it while the Senate discussed it but Padme as a Senator hoped to help fix it but then they were at war and there wasn´t time.

So in short, Padme and Obi-Wan see the Republic as something worth fighting for on itself on principle even when they knew the politicians of the senate often were trash while Anakin sees the republic as something that could be fixed but isn´t worth fighting for on itself if it really doesn´t seek to serve the people outside of a few elites. This is something that he understood because he was directly wronged by the dysfunction of the republic.

It isn´t coincidence Anakin as a general in the clone wars tried to serve not only the needs of official Republic allies but also citizens that just happened to be in the crossfire and didn´t have the means to defend themselves but also weren´t anyone´s priority. (Example: The farmers, Saw Guerrera, the slaves who were not allies of the republic trapped on Zigeria, etc) and on this Anakin showed he prefered the people, citizens to take matters into their own hands instead of having to depend of the Republic, Senate or Jedi to act. Just give them the tools to do it themselves.

Vader is the opposite, no longer trust the people to make the best choice but he believes of having order for everybody.

This is interesting because I don´t believe Padme or Obi-Wan ever took seriously Anakin´s political ideology and so they didn´t discuss it with him, they just expected him to support them because they were his wife and master respectively but they didn´t ask for his pov either and Anakin didn´t try to talk about this with them, only Palpatine seemed interested in his political ideas and so Anakin didn´t want to create conflict with people he considered family, it was easier to go along with them than fighting with them over the details.

So while I think he sometimes disliked Padme´s role as a senator for the time it took from them as a couple, he knew it was important for her and he wanted to be supportive, he definitely resented the republic and it´s politicians hypocrisy.

Now Vader is perfectly capable of discussing and getting mad with Palpatine over political issues, the main problem is that he is pretty much broken emotionally and so isn´t so willing anymore to try to make changes, just fix what little he sees he can fix but his perspective is a lot more authoritharian than it was when he was young. He belives if he had to fight some rebels to expand the Empire towards the outer rim, take down governments and give them a similar way of life to the core system, including education and work, he is totally going to do that. The end justifies the means for Vader

#ah those times when anakin and ahsoka went out for food

"The biggest problem in the universe is that no one helps each other" (Anakin Skywalker - TPM)

I usually like to make jokes and enjoy fandom and it usually is pretty great, this is a good fandom to have a good time but this tendency I have seen recently towards saying "Shmi was already acting as a Jedi without knowing it , she could let go of her Son and was ready to stay on Tatooine" makes me mad, way to twist the fact that Shmi gave up her Son to Qui-Gon because she didn´t want him to live with a bomb inside his body and be a slave for the rest of his life, way to twist the sacrifice of a mother who only wanted the best for her child even if it keep her on slavery at the whim of her slave master and way to wash off the hands of the Jedi for allowing that injustice.

I guess Lucas said it best "Only the orphan Anakin cared about Shmi" that´s how the tragedy starts. This original abandonement was the root of everything else that happened in the story, it´s the reason why the darkside begins to grow inside of Anakin and it´s a tragedy because it could have been avoided so easily if someone had shown even a little bit of genuine compassion and care towards Shmi and her Son for the sole reason that it was the right thing to do. I like Qui-Gon but it´s quite clear he only got interested on Anakin because he was force sensitive, if he wasn´t he would have been left on Tatooine just like Shmi. That´s the sad truth of the story, the root of the story is that no one cares enough in the prequel trilogy to try to make changes.

Further works and fandom material have tried to make this impact less by having Sabé or some other Jedi try to do something about Tatooine and Shmi but the original story as it was shown in the movies by Lucas, is that Shmi was left alone on Tatooine, nobody came back for her and the Jedi prevented her from comunicating with her Son and Anakin for looking for her. Only Owen´s dad managed to free her and Anakin meet her again just to see her die after being tortured for weeks.

This is how Vader "the shadow" of the darkside was born inside of Anakin, as if a part of Anakin reflected, you don´t care about my Mom? I will make you care. Sure, it´s not the correct reaction to have but it makes so much sense for a grieving Son to react this way.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020) 2.19 "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" | 4.18 "Crisis on Naboo"

[ID in alt text]

Do you think Obi-Wan and the council were right with the Rako Hardeen business? I thought it was pretty messed to play on Anakin’s emotions like that and found it incredibly manipulative.

Also, I feel like it’s fits into being mock execution which is a form of psychological torture. (which would have affected Ani & Obi) Some quotes ⬇️

“A mock execution is a stratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that their execution or that of another person is imminent or is taking place.”

“Mock execution is categorized as psychological torture. There is a sense of fear induced when a person is made to feel that they are about to be executed or witness someone being executed. Mock execution is considered psychological torture due to the mental, though not physical, harm it induces.”

“The psychological trauma can also lead to depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental disorders after experiencing a traumatic event such as a mock execution.”

Oh HELL no. HELLLLLLL no. They were not right in my opinion! And I think that was the point of it - showing the Jedi making an uncontestably bad and wayward move, acting as political agents and not spriritual guides.

It was a horrible, callous, and cruel thing to do. And very inhumane. Especially to Anakin who they knew struggled deeply with such things as loss of loved ones. Anakin would NEVER be able to handle something like that - he just wasn't ready even if they thought he should be. They did it anyway.

The purpose of the arc was to display how lost the Order had become, mistaking deception as emotional detachment, and emotional numbess for strength. Their political ambitions crushed their moral sense and Obi-wan deeply regretted his part in it.

And it certainly, CERTAINLY drove Anakin further from the Order and drove a wedge between he and Obi-wan. Which was EXACTLY Sidious' plan... and they all played right into it.

And I have a long meta about Obi in the Hardeen arc and how although with freedom from Anakin he was absolutely able to fucking shine in his Jedi skills (as Hardeen) and prove himself to be one of the most talented Jedi ever, he left that experience realizing something shocking to him: it didn't leave him fulfilled.

What was fulfilling about his life was not his skills or even necessarily being a Jedi. It was doing good with the people he loved. It was his emotional connection to Anakin and Ahsoka which he now, ironically, fractured beyond repair.

I keep seeing pro-Jedi posts about how "attachment" in Star Wars is referring possession/obsession and not healthy relationships and like...guys Yoda literally says in ROTS to not mourn or miss deceased loved ones because that is the "shadow of greed". Can anyone else not see how messed up that is?

@tragicfantasy-girl @gch1995 @fanfictasia @caripr94 @caracynthia

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT. DON'T LOOK AWAY.

Dec. 12, 2023: Biden describes Israel's military conduct as "indiscriminate bombing" (Source: Associated Press) Dec. 21, 2023: NYT Investigation confirms Israel "routinely" bombs "areas it designated safe for civilians" (Source: NYT)

Dec. 29, 2023: Despite the well-documented war crimes against Palestinians and the humanitarian catastrophe inflicted by Israel ... *the US sends more weapons*

(Source: Associated Press)

This is not defense, this is not justice, this is an affront to international law. Palestinians are being decimated at this very moment. ISRAEL MUST STOP THE CARNAGE. THE U.S. MUST STOP THE COMPLICITY. I haven't seen Palestinians or Gaza trending on Tumblr for the past several days — we can't lose momentum. DON'T LOOK AWAY. KEEP UP PUBLIC PRESSURE. PUSH FOR PEACE.

Anakin´s politics

"I don´t believe the system works"

I believe we often forget Anakin is bassically describing the Jedi Council to Padme

"If the partys involved don´t agree( jedi masters/senators) then someone WISE should make them agree(Yoda)"

At no point is he considering himself the person wise to lead the republic, he is just talking from his experience living at the temple of how THEY deal with that kind of situation.

Lest also remember than unlike Senators the Jedi Council place in the Order is for life so Anakin truly didn´t see something wrong with that if they were managing things well, compared to his other experiences with goverments, The Hutts".

Padmé herself was a Queen with almost absolute power even if it was temporal over her planet and the Republic recognizes Kingdoms with life long monarchs like Bail and Breah Organa or Satine Kryze.

I do understand we have to see this scene as Palpatine´s influence showing it´s head on Anakin´s pov in poltitics given he just talked to him before going with Padme to protect her but tbh it´s perfectly legit for him to have this perception when he is seeing how corrupt and slow is the Senate and how those goverments like the Jedi, Alderaan, Mandalore seem to get agreetments quicker. Lest also remember he knows by Palpatine the Senate can´t hardly agree to enforce their laws in the outer rim and that´s one of the reasons slavery is still a thing in many of those areas.

We mostly are to listen to Padme because she represents Palpatine´s oppsite but Anakin wasn´t talking about a dictatorship on Ep II, he was describing goverments he already has seen at play.

In discussions of TCW-Anakin vs. film-Anakin, I understand why some people see them as being incompatible or entirely different portrayals. But whatever problems I personally have with TCW are more to do with certain OOC dialogue lines that I don't agree with, or the overly-contrived situations that TCW tends to force him into just so an episode or scene can function as a 'meta-commentary' on his character or storyline. Believe me, I have issues with specific aspects of TCW's writing for Anakin, but the fact he's more outwardly 'suave' or 'dashing' than some people expected is not one of them. If anything, I see the 'Skyguy' persona as perfectly in keeping with Anakin as portrayed at the beginning of RotS, and I would argue that a great deal of the TCW characterisation is pulled directly from those Battle of Coruscant scenes. (TCW Anakin is also heavily inspired by Jake Lloyd's Little Ani in TPM, which, lest anyone forget, counts as FILM-Anakin.) The actual baseline 'persona' for both versions of the character isn't actually that different, and I'm tired of this idea that film-Anakin ISN’T supposed to be seen as ‘cool’ in-universe, just as much as I’m tired of the idea that TCW-Anakin ISN’T supposed to be viewed as a figure of pathos by the audience, either.

Imo, they’re both takes on the same character coming from different angles, set at different stages in his life, and portrayed through different mediums (animated series heavy on self-aware, darkly ironic humour in a more contemporary style intended to entertain and increase enjoyment of the Prequels-era and its characters vs. serious Greek tragedy with Shakespearean overtones made with old-Hollywood-style sensibilities as part of a mythic six-film saga). Just because TCW Ani doesn’t shed literal tears on-screen doesn’t mean he’s not emotional or emotionally vulnerable. As far as I remember, there's even a scene where Obi-Wan and Anakin discuss the fact that Anakin has trouble keeping his emotions hidden, which is the opposite of the 'macho' ideal the TCW version gets accused of being. And the amount of times we're constantly bashed over the head with dramatic irony about his fate as Vader in that series surely drives home the point that his trajectory is still a tragic one. (The way he cries out in agony in the Mortis arc, 'I will do such terrible things!' gets to me, every time.) Despite his powers and prowess, TCW Anakin is even shown as being physically vulnerable at times, as well. (See the Jedi Crash storyline which he spends mostly knocked-out unconscious, the nod to his mechanical arm as a liability in the Zillo Beast and Citadel arcs, and the scene of him futilely struggling like a wild beast before being captured with ropes in the Zyggerian arc, or the fact he gets captured and tortured by Dooku in 'Shadow Warrior'.) Fandom makes endless jokes about TCW Ani getting electrocuted every other episode, but then turns around and uses this to fuel the dismissive view of him as just some dumb himbo instead of understanding that this, too, is supposed to add to the character's pathos.

Likewise, fandom claims that film-Ani is 'uncool' and 'cries all the time', which is simply not true. Film-Anakin banters, jokes, laughs, makes daring jumps out of speeders, does bold piloting moves, is in fact an imposing duellist, and so on. Sure, his character is not supposed to be seen as aspirational (obviously!) and the most memorable and dramatic moments of the latter two Prequels films feature him in the midst of extremely intense emotions. But the oft-repeated view of him as 'uncool' completely ignores the fact that by the time that RotS starts, Anakin is also supposed to be a well-known and widely-admired charismatic general, aka the Hero With No Fear, who is viewed as almost singlehandedly saving the Republic. The audience may be privy to Anakin's inner turmoil, but in-story he is supposed to be seen as THE golden boy of the Jedi Order and the Republic. The RotS novelization frequently mentions that Anakin has 'dash', 'boldness', and a 'presence' 'like the Holo-Net hero that he is'. It literally says he's the best at what he does and he KNOWS it. He's not just supposed to be some sad, awkward idiot like the fandom thinks he is (rather, he's supposed to be shown as falling from a 'great height'). By the time of RotS, film Anakin has just as much swagger and self-confidence in his role as General Skywalker as he does in TCW. Just because that side of him is not the main focus of the film doesn't mean it's not supposed to be there.

i hate tumblr search/tagging system so much like why does it not show the result of what im trying to find 😭 anyway if you dont mind, would you like to talk again (even if in a short paragraph) about your thoughts on anakin & control—of how he has been “rejected” of it ever since he was a child

and how that affects, in your opinion, his bedroom dynamic (only if you want to for this one)

Damn!! I know the ask you're talking about and I can't seem to find it either. I will try my best to recreate it here:

As a slave, Anakin was denied all control in his life. I imagine this forced, chronic lack of agency during his childhood led to him dreaming of taking power back--we see that in TPM when he talks of returning to Tatooine and freeing the slaves. Inevitably, when robbed of control, that vacuum led to him craving control and wishing he could wield power over his oppressors/exact revenge. I also imagine that craving got muddied up in other things he was denied but wanted desperately: freedom,safety, love etc.

All of this leads me to believe that Anakin connects loss of power/control to loss of safety/love. I think submitting would be hard for him--he doesn't trust like that, and his history has inevitably led him to associate submission and supplication to powerlessness and danger and shame and exploitation. As a result, I just don't think he'd be into it. Its super hard for me to imagine a former slave WANTING to submit to a master in a BDSM setting, I feel like it would be triggering. Conversely, I can imagine ANAKIN finding it very titillating to be submitted TO-- because he views submission as shameful/weak, and someone WANTING to do that for him, lay themselves at his feet, give over all the power to him...that would seem like an enormously romantic and intense and sexy thing. I dunno it just seems more in character to me.

saw a post about redemption arcs and i realized that a lot of our discussions would be improved if we discussed villains for what they are (pieces of a narrative whole) instead of what they definitely are not (real people on trial)