Ok I’m being so brave about it but a couple of days ago I saw this post claiming that the Jedi saying ‘this weapon [your lightsaber] is your life’ is emblematic of ‘the Jedi’s failure as peacekeepers’ (not an exact quote but pretty close) because why would a weapon be the life of a peacekeeper?
And like. The Jedi are a culture. They’re a religion.
You know that, right? You know that many cultures, including generally peaceful ones, have sacred weapons, right? You know that the bond between a Jedi and their crystal(s) is an extremely sacred thing that requires the consent of both parties and is integral to their way of life, right?
You know that lightsabers are not intended to be only for killing, right? That the first thing Luke learns to do with his lightsaber is to shield and defend? You know that a culture having sacred weapons doesn’t mean that they view killing as sacred, right?
Not trying to start shit, I don’t even remember who said it, but ugh
lightsaber combat is literally a martial art. if you look at what wikipedia says martial arts are:
I put special emphasis on "practiced for a number of reasons such as physical, mental and spiritual development; and the preservation of a nation's intangible cultural heritage" because that's exactly why the jedi have lightsaber combat: it's part of their culture, as essential to it as the Force, and it's a way to train and connect with themselves, each other, and the Force.
plenty of martial arts use weapons like swords and staffs, and it's most notable on asian martial arts like kendo, which is literally what lightsaber combat in the movies was inspired on. the weapons don't mean they're more violent than unarmed martial arts, or that they are meant to kill. they're just a different style of martial art, much like music has so many different genres.
plus, lightsabers are extremely limited in range, they are obviously meant for defense over offense. they can only cut down people who get close enough to be within range of the blade, and even though they can deflect blaster shots they still need to have been shot at first.
using a lightsaber to kill is easy. anyone who gets their hands on a lightsaber can do that. using a lightsaber to defend, to save lives? now that requires plenty of training, discipline and understanding of oneself and one's weapon. that's what lightsaber combat is. that's why jedi carry lightsabers.
if the jedi were armed to kill, they'd be carrying blasters like the rest of the galaxy
Of late the tired old "Jedi bad for fighting in clone wars/the Jedi should not have fought in the war" argument seems to be somewhat dying off, something I credit to the efforts of those such as @gffa @smhalltheurlsaretaken and @david-talks-sw as many people have come to understand that this argument is either ridiculous or that the Jedi made the best choice out of a series of bad options
But in its place a new argument has arisen, and it ties specifically into @inquisitor-apologist 's original post here
"The Jedi are not supposed to be good at fighting"
This argument's underlying assumption being that the prequel Jedi's (specifically Mace because he's the greatest warrior of his day and the antijedidiots always pick on him) prowess in combat is symptomatic of the Jedi's "fall" or of them "losing their way"
(It also feeds into the ridiculous "sith are better at fighting" nonsense, Yoda explained this to us in 1980, the dark side is easier, not stronger)
No
The Jedi are warriors, and any warrior worth their salt must be good at being a warrior (duh), the Jedi being good at fighting doesn't indicate any moral or systematic decline on their part, it's just a part of who they
Really this whole argument of "Jedi should not be good at fighting" is just another case of trying to shove the Jedi into a box in order to declare them heretics for not fitting into the box they're being shoved into, in this case the box being peaceful monks,which is another instance of missing the point of what the Jedi are
The Jedi are peaceful monks, but they are also skilled warriors, as they are also diplomats, peacekeepers, civil servants, teachers, scholars, and so many other things
alternate scenario where the rebels continue to think the whole thing is a wacky coincidence and that Darth Vader has mistaken Luke for his actual long-lost son
decide this is too good an opportunity to pass up, send Luke in as an undercover agent
Luke ''''pretending'''' to be Darth Vader's son and faking going along w Vader's attempts to turn him to the dark side like yeah i love anger & hate let's do this. can you show me how you do that move where you throw people in the air with your brain.
he is secretly feeding information back to the rebellion all the time constantly
a number of Vader's underlings are pretty sure Luke is a rebel spy but everyone is too afraid of Vader to argue with him on it
Vader meanwhile is desperately trying to train Luke while keeping Palpatine from finding out his son is still alive. Luke wanders in while he's mid imperial conference call and gets tackled to the ground.
after a couple of months Vader decides Luke has had enough training for the 'we should kill the emperor and rule the galaxy together' speech
Luke (who has in a weird way kind of got to like Vader at this point) radioing the rebellion like guys call me crazy but i think we might be able to get this guy on side
Luke: okay dad hear me out. I reach out to the rebellion and tell them I've changed my mind and I wanna start working with them again. we enlist their help to take down the emperor. what do you think?
Vader: and then we rule the galaxy together as father and son?
Luke: sure
Vader: very duplicitous. i like it. once the emperor is dead we will of course crush the rebellion so we can reign unopposed.
Luke: well we can talk about that closer to the time
Okay folks, we’ve talked about Mandalorian colour symbolism, but what about gemstone symbolism?
Did you know that the same quality that makes gemstones suitable for jewellery, also makes them suitable for knife handles? Yes, they’re pretty, but more pertinently, they’re hard. They wear well without getting scratched up.
I’m gonna insert here one of my all-time favourite artist’s pages about gemstone knife handles. If you’ve ever wondered about mandalorian jewellery or what some really fancy knives look like, wonder no further:
Details, descriptions, questions and answers about fine handmade gemstone handled custom knives, photos, pictures, links, details by Jay Fis
List of gemstone knife handles with hundreds of photographic hyperlinks to finished singular, combination, and mosaic gem knife handles
So what about that symbolism? Colour is an obvious association, so here are a few ideas:
Red: honouring a parent
Ruby (& spinel, which is very very similar in looks, to the degree many irl famous rubies are actually spinels): family, familial love, legacy, honour
Garnet: in English, named for their resemblance to pomegranate seeds; in Mando’a, named for their resemblance to drops of blood. Symbol of love, loyalty, bonds forged in battle or adversity; and also hard work (“sweating blood”) and sacrifice.
Red jasper: strength, courage, perseverance, defiance
Agate: colourful and wildly patterned, symbolises creation and creativity.
Orange: shereshoy, lust for life
Amber: varies from yellow to orange, specimens with trapped insects etc. are especially valuable. Symbolises aay’han, or perhaps a mandalorian version of “memento mori”: remember that one day you too will die, so enjoy today like it’s your last day. Or perhaps, “remember that one day you will die, but what your hands have wrought will live forever.”
Citrine: joy, happiness, life; remembrance. Varies from yellow to orange.
Orange topaz, sapphire, diamond, etc: joy, lust for life, enduring joy and happiness. As a gift, send the message of “you are my joy” or “you make me happy.”
Hrthgingian Firegem: canonical gemstone from Mandalorian space. Passion, joy, lust for life perhaps? Irl sunstones or fire opals would be great stand-ins.
Fire opal: fire, creation, skill and knowledge; great trials
Yellow: remembrance
As gifts, yellow gemstones (especially ones that shade to champagne or brown) are suggestive of loyalty and promises kept. They can be a reminder of a promise made or a promise to honour one’s word.
Most commonly, wearing yellow gemstones signifies remembrance. What kind of remembrance depends on the context. In gold setting and paired with black? Out for vengeance. In silver setting? Probably remembering a lost love.
Yellow gemstones are also associated with life, continuity and eternity; lineages and legacies; and keeping the past alive into the future.
And orange gemstones, as above, are associated with shereshoy. Orange-yellow stones can be associated with aay’han, both remembrance and joy.
Some might give the meanings of the various yellow gemstones thusly…
Citrine: joy, happiness, life; remembrance, aay’han. Varies from yellow to orange.
Golden beryl (heliodor): you could also call this stone yellow emerald. Symbol of loyalty, promises kept.
…but in practice, it mostly depends on the shade of the particular stone more than its variety.
Pyrite: vengeance; sometimes greed (in English it’s also called fool’s gold). Sending pyrite jewellery as a gift is a promise of vengeance, not a bribe. It’s saying “here’s the payment you deserve, we’ll send it to you later >:)))”
Green: duty
Jade: prosperity, hard work, good fortune, fertility, vitality and growth
Jasper: protection, strength. Can be any colour, but typically green or red, often bright and multicoloured, well suited for carvings & decorative purposes.
Bloodstone is a type of jasper, usually dark green flecked with red. Symbolises defence, protection, duty and family.
Light green: lust for peace
Mandalorian desert glass (trinitite): Hanile are jewellery, amulets, carvings, or other items made from the glass formed in the Dral’Han. Sometimes left in their natural, irregular shapes, sometimes worked into shapes of extinct Mandalorian plants and animals, sometimes carved with inscriptions. Botanicals are common motifs due to the green colours of the material. Specimens that incorporate pieces of pre-Dral’Han material are especially valuable. Hanile are symbols of remembrance, defiance, and rebirth for some and pursuit of peace for others. (N.B. irl trinitite is still radioactive, so don’t make jewellery out of it; Mandalorian trinitite is 700 years and many half-times older than Terran trinitite.)
Jade (light green): jade and other light green gemstones have also taken on meanings associated with hanile or lust for peace.
Peridot: lust for or commitment to peace, serenity, warding off disaster and protection against curses and misfortune.
Teal: healing
Emerald: the major symbolism associated with emeralds is healing. More superstitious folks might believe emeralds to aid in healing from physical or psychological injuries or protect against poisons (poisons are kind of feared in mando mentality: they’re seen as honourless, but insidious and hard to defend against). Emerald rings are especially associated with the protection from poison superstition. Sometimes the poison can be seen more metaphorically, and can include betrayal from within. A character in a play wearing an emerald ring can symbolise paranoia. Bright blue-green stones are most valued.
Blue: reliability
Sapphire: reliability, endurance, and steadfastness; devotion and fidelity
Lapis Lazuli: trustworthiness, constancy, sincerity, honesty; faithfulness, friendship; promises, contracts. In marriage gifts, symbolises unity and keeping of the promises.
Granite: can be multiple colours (not typically blue though), characteristic pattern. Symbolises reliability.
Light blue: love
Turquoise: *the* classic stone of (romantic) love, super traditional in courting, engagement and/or marriage gifts.
Moonstone: whitish-blue, with beautiful ethereal sheen. Stones with asterisms are especially valued. In Mandalorian culture, more associated with stars than the moon and said to contain the light of the stars and the protection of the Ka’ra; traditionally held to have protective qualities, especially for children. Very popular in jewellery, especially gifted to children and expecting parents, but also popular as marriage gifts and for any occasion.
Aquamarine & sapphire (light blue): fidelity, faithful love
Purple: luck, survival in adversity
Amethyst: *the* lucky stone. Symbolises luck, survival, perseverance in adversity; hope and gratitude for victory. For more religious or traditionally minded folks, the stone of Hod’Haran.
Chalcedony: luck, chance, fortune, serendipity
Opal: associated with rainbows, and in Mando mythos, rainbow comets. The stone of navigators, wayfinders, discovery, possibility, serendipitous finds and foundlings.
Pink: respect, preservation, honouring tradition and heritage, colour of lore keepers
Pink ruby, diamond: truth, vision, honour (if you want to get specific, I might put pink rubies down as honour and pink diamonds as truth, but tbh they look exactly alike to me)
Rose quartz: respect, preservation, vision, inspiration
Pink pearl: preservation, survival
Brown: valour
Tiger’s eye: valour, courage. Associated with warriors and defence of one’s home and family. Called hawk’s eye or galaar’sur’haai in Mando’a.
Smoky quartz (brown): loyalty, faith
Black: justice
Many black stones have white inclusions that can bring to mind the night sky.
Onyx (black agate): a hard stone suitable for hard use. Symbolises justice.
Black diamond (and other black sparkly gems): truth; enduring justice, fate
Obsidian: truth
Grey: mourning, redemption
Hematite: with a metallic sheen reminiscent of bare beskar, the natural association with hematite is mourning.
Black pearl: more often some variety of grey than a true black. Symbolise mourning, healing, and growth after a disaster; redemption, commitment to change (as if repainting one’s beskar’gam), or commitment to justice (see black + pearl).
Grey diamond: enduring grief
White: death, birth, rebirth, change, growth & new beginnings
Diamond: the stone of Ka’ra, wisdom, and eternity. Diamonds, like gold, can depending on the context also symbolise greed, materialism, and decay (stubbornly unchanging things are double-bladed swords like that in mando symbolism).
Pearl: symbolises endurance, toughness, stubbornness—the venerated quality of atin; also achievement and perfection. Long strings of pearls symbolise the long hours of practice and toil needed to reach one’s goals, and can therefore represent devotion to one’s craft, ideal or goals. Pearls and garnets together signify sacrifice and devotion.
Ivory: victory, conquest. D’you guys think there’s mythosaur ivory, like we have mammoth ivory on Earth??? 👀
…but like beskar’gam colours, gemstones are often picked just for their looks rather than their symbolism. They can also just represent the meanings associated with their colours in general.
Stones with asterisms are especially valued regardless of their species—mandos do love their star-symbolism.
Also let’s remember that gemstones are and have always been luxury goods of the rich. This might be different for sci-fi aliens who can produce artificial gems cheaply… or perhaps not: Star Wars is fantasy in sci-fi clothes, and its societies appear very inequal. So let’s go with sparkly stones being status symbols still. I tried to attach values more associated with “old money” and “old rich clans” like legacy or protection from assassination by poison to the precious stones, and more down-to-earth values like love to semiprecious stones like amber, turquoise and garnets, which should be the most commonly used ones.
I think Anakin and Padme deserve to Stay Besties in any AU that isn't Anidala specifically because their love languages are absolutely buckwild and insane to almost anyone else, but match up to each other pretty perfectly, which means that if they aren't dating each other, they are the exact right person to have egging the other on and enabling whatever unhinged bullshit they're planning on doing in the name of romance.
Anakin thinks he needs to serenade his partner? Padme hires him an orchestra.
Padme wants to meet daringly under the cover of night with her new secret lover because that's the only right way to do it? Anakin is staging a kidnapping for her, zero questions.
Anakin is swooning over how his love interest was kissing him! but it was actually lips-to-leg attempts to suck out the venom of a bad bite (something you're not even actually supposed to do, but hey, the Force slowed his heart down enough that maybe it helped! and he survived anyway, it's fine)? Padme is over the moon for him, that's so romantic!
Their brain cells are so, so allergic to each other. Put them in a room and all common sense flees in the face of "okay, but if I challenge her to a sword fight--"
"Padme you can't challenge a Sith to a sword fight."
"No no, but if I challenge her and then you swoop in for me as my substitute, and I promise a kiss to the winner and you throw the match--"
"Okay I don't want to lose to Ventress but oh my god, I love it."
Move aside, Idiots to Lovers, there's a new ballgame in town!
Rewatched Return of the Jedi and forgot how Han and Leia's romance sets up what unselfish love looks like to compare with in the prequels and also gives us context why love can be dangerous for a Jedi.
(Note: this isn't an!dala bashing I like an!dala)
With Han! (Yes! Han the non-Force sensitive.)
Han, we must remember has been out of the loop because of his Carbonite freezing, but even so he wakes up to: someone who loves you. Before that he had Leia declaring: I love you!
He gets very clear signs from Leia that she is in love with him. Like. Very clear out loud signs. In the Ewok village when they reunite they hug.
But he's still jealous of Luke.
So when he finds Leia crying after Luke says he's leaving to face Vader and that he's Leia's brother, his first reaction is jealousy. He gets mad when she refuses to tell him what's wrong. He accuses her of being able to tell Luke but not him, implying obviously she thinks Luke is more important to her.
His fear she doesn't love him back makes him angry.
You can see how it could lead to hate, this kind of situation. Hating Luke and Leia two people he adores because he thinks they're together, which would lead to him suffering unable to let go of his feelings for Leia and Leia suffering from his anger as well. He could destroy all their relationships with his anger, and he's just a normal non-Force sensitive guy.
And Luke and Leia aren't even a thing. He's just assuming! He's letting his emotions control him.
He's about to stomp away with a: bitter forget it! As she sobs.
But he stops! He stops giving into his negative emotions and he goes back to comfort her without demanding answers. He holds her because he loves her. He lets go of his negative emotions and possessive jealous feeling. His love is stronger than his fear.
Then on Endor he point blank asks her if she loves Luke. She answers Yes, not realizing unlike the Skywalkers he didn't get the memo from the Force about the family stuff.
And he is disappointed, but he says he'll step aside. He loves Leia and he's willing to let her go for her happiness.
That's what romantic love without possessive attachment looks like. He loves her. He puts his own initial negative emotions aside.
-
I always wondered why as a kid this was the romance I liked out of all other movie romances. (Usually I hated romance in things.)
At first I thought it was because there's not a lot of emphasis on it, but now I realised when Han has all the opportunities to do the classic Alpha Male stuff, he doesn't. In other movies he would have walked away and let her cry by herself to make drama. Have the stakes higher. They'd get together in the end but it would be after Han does something heroic and Leia throws herself at him or something. Which would make Leia a prize even though she never had to be.
But Return of the Jedi cuts through it. Han comes back, holds her even though she might not love him. That's incredibly powerful. That moment he holds her and apologizes and lets her cry and is there for her despite his jealously. Even now it's pretty refreshing considering the archetype people associate Han with.
And Han doesn't heroically save Leia to win her. They get held up. She has her gun ready to blast their attackers. They smile at each other. That's the moment he says the words I love you out loud. When she is about to save them.
It's obviously contrasted with Anakin and Padme.
Once again it is very clear how Padme feels. They both verbally reinforce their love for each other.
But Anakin isn't thinking of what Padme would want or asking what she would want. Through out the movie he's obsessed with the idea of her death. Letting himself be corrupted and ultimately killing people so that he doesn't have to feel losing her. Unlike Han, he puts his negative emotions and possession of her above his love for her.
And just like Return of the Jedi is different for Han coming back and holding her, Revenge of the Sith is different because usually movies emphasis all-consuming love as a good thing. Love so strong you would do anything to save them is shown as being selfish in RotS because Anakin does it. He does anything and everything. He makes himself unrecognizable.
He will stop at nothing to keep her. And then the moment he thinks Padme herself is the one trying to take herself away from him. When he thinks she's chosen the other side or Obi-Wan or however you interpret the moment and not him, he doesn't let her go. He doesn't love her enough to see her happy, he attacks her. That's what attachment does. It isn't about the love he truly feels for her, it's about the fear of losing her. His negative emotions ruling him. He lashes out and hurts the person he's supposed to be saving because it was about him, not about her. She became a prop. An icon of his fear of loss.
He wasn't acting on his love when he joins Sidious, he was acting on his fear. It is a selfish moment and ends in everyone suffering.
I can see why there was supposed to be more of a love triangle with them and Obi-Wan in the earlier concepts just to heighten the contrast with Leia and Han.
Han accepts that Leia chooses Luke (even though she didn't). He says he'll let her go to be happy.
Anakin accuses Obi-Wan of turning Padme against him (even though he hasn't). He attacks her when he thinks she's going to leave him.
Anakin's love by itself has never been the problem. It's what love so easily can become if darker emotions are controlling you. The Jedi forbid these kind of relationships because of the powers they hold and how easily love can turn to fear, anger, hatred, and suffering. And because they have powers most do not, how devastating that can be. Jedi learn emotional regulation so they don't get overwhelmed and hurt people. Palpatine made an effort to chip away at those teachings by using Anakin's trauma against him and encouraging him to dig into his negative emotions. That he's right for indulging in them and that it's human and normal to do so.
Sidious tries to do this with Luke. He's taking Luke's love for his friends and emotions and trying to get him to strike him. Use his fear to put him on the path to the Darkside. To give into his hatred and violence.
Then Luke remembers the cave. Killing Vader would be to kill himself, just as Anakin had once done. Winning the fight would be losing his soul.
He lets go of his fear for his friends and his hatred for Sidious and he refuses to fight. He sees the only way forward is love. That when Yoda said he must face Darth Vader before he can be a Jedi this is what he meant. In facing Vader he is facing his own darkness.
This is all to say the Jedi teaching doesn't only apply to Jedi. (I mean it's based on real world practices it's not just fantasy nonsense). But it makes sense that it's very important for Jedi.
This is also why I prefer the release viewing order. It gives a lot more context to the prequels that can get lost in the shuffle. Rather than trying to make prequel concepts fit for the OT, OT concepts are actually being expanded on in the PT. Looking at it the other way around is working backwards from the true starting point.
Tl;dr: Han shows what love without attachment looks like.
I just know in my heart that Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee go through about three thousand headscarf pins. It is the bane of their soldiers existence. No one understands how the pin found in depths of the engine got there. The engineer who finds it is so confused. Grey used to have Barriss come hang out with him in one of lounges, however she’s been gently, lovingly banned after someone sat on the couch and got stabbed in the butt with a pin. Barriss has no idea how the pin got there. She feels very bad. Barriss also tells them that if it makes them feel any better, she Master Unduli have also both been stabbed by pins many times.
The fight had been long, and on the humid planet, it had left both Master and Padawan uncomfortably warm and sticky. But at the first brush of wind across their face, it wasn’t relief they felt, but annoyance. Eyes met and Luminara knew that Barriss was also suffering the same problem.
“Any spares?” She asked and the young woman flushed.
“No, Master,” she said. “I was hoping to get some when we arrive at the Temple in a few days.”
A soft sigh escaped Luminara. She was in the same predicament, having lost her own headscarf pins to battle or, more embarrassingly, the laundry. Luckily for her and her Padawan, it just took a touch of the Force to keep the fabric in place. But if another battle erupted or any other big distraction came up, they could lose that concentration.
“Just need to keep it in place until we get back to the ship,” Luminara said, though she perked at the sight of her Commander. “Ah, good to see you, Commander Gree.”
“General, Commander,” he said politely, though his head tilted. “Is there a problem?”
“Just the usual,” Barriss said, sounding exasperated.
Luminara watched as the soldier shifted and pulled a small container out of a hip pouch. Taking the offered box, she opened it and blinked. There were dozens of pins neatly stacked up inside, and a small amount of jewel bright scarf clips.
“What…”
“The men have taken to storing any pins they find,” Commander Gree said. “Those clips were given to us at the last planet. I think the locals knew how important your headscarves were and want to make sure you had something pretty…”
She wasn’t sure if that was the complete truth, but Luminara wasn’t about to call the man out on it. Some of the clones collected anything that sparkled or shined.
“This is much better than finding a pin by sitting on it,” Barriss smiled, picking up one of the blue clips.
#im pretty sure the op intended ‘jedi accountant’ to mean 'accountant who does the jedi order’s books’#but im picturing a force-using accountant (who really should have been sent to deal with that naboo business)#suddenly stopping in mid-calculation and looking around like#'i sense a great disturbance in the force’#pause#'wait where’s qui-gon what is he doing this time’
I was terrified to post this because I thought that it could somehow get better sitting in my photos, but looking back, I actually really like how this turned out!!!
Ya know I feel like Ahsoka had moments offscreen as a Padawan who tried something stupid to impress her master and ended up getting hurt but still made their bond stronger only out of worry XD:
Ahsoka: “And that is how I backflipped, punched, slashed and single handedly stopped that bomb from going off! You’re welcome sky guy!”
Anakin: “Ahsoka you broke both your arms in the process!”
*Looks at her arms in casts then back to Anakin.*
Ahsoka: “…I don’t see your point.” -3-
you say that like anakin wouldn't immediately try to one-up her
Jesse has “Property of the Republic” tattooed right above his ass.
Anakin has a very cheesy tattoo of a lightsaber crossed with the royal mark of Naboo on the inside of his wrist. Padmé forbade him from tattooing her name as it would be a dead giveaway if he would be examined for medical reasons, which happens quite often.
He also has his mother’s name tattooed, on the inside of his upper arm.
He lost both of these tattoos when he became Darth Vader because his skin was so badly burned. Though symbolic for him severing ties with his old life, a deeply buried part of him holds a grudge against Obi-Wan for this.
Ahsoka has a tattoo of Rex’s jaig eyes between her shoulder blades.
Rex has a tattoo of Ahsoka’s facial markings on his right shoulder.
Kanan has a tramp stamp saying “Fuck with Force” that he got when he was drunk off his ass. Hera teases him with it sometimes. When Zeb found out he laughed so heard he fell down the Ghost’s ladder and bruised a rib. He considers the knowledge worth the pain. Kanan’s deepest fear is the kids (and Chopper) finding out about it, and Zeb relishes in using that to shamelessly blackmail him.
Contrary to what many people expect of her, Sabine doesn’t have any tattoos; she likes temporary design better, just like she repaints her armour often. She is a wizard with henna and body paint, though.
Kallus has his designation ISB-021 tattooed on his bicep in white ink, making it look like he was branded with it. This was done voluntarily.
Eli has a single blue T tattooed right over his heart. When Ar’alani finds out she doesn’t know how to talk to him for three days straight.
Thrawn doesn’t have any tattoos, but Faro has multiple times caught him looking up Lysatran art and tattoo designs.
very funny how people will act like all criticism of the jedi comes from the sith—and therefore anyone who’s not 100% positive on the jedi is a “sith apologist”” or whatever—like rots doesn’t have a scene where anakin questions what the jedi are becoming to padme and she hits him with the “have you ever considered that we may be on the wrong side?…what if the democracy we thought we were serving no longer exists? and the republic has become the very evil we've been fighting to destroy?” she absolutely nails that what the jedi are doing in the republic’s name is fundamentally wrong, and they have been led astray from their peacekeeper purposes, directly participating in the rise of fascism. and this is another prophetic moment for rots padme, along with “there’s good in him”. like this is a character who is proven right throughout the movie and subsequent trilogies. it’s not an accident that one of the first things yoda does when we meet him in esb is reject his warrior reputation and say “wars not make one great”—he’s ashamed of the way things went! padme’s bold and correct critique of the soldiers the jedi turned into being forgotten in favor of painting the jedi as an all-good monolith, and padme as a Delusional Female, is pretty annoying if you ask me
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
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