I’m new to your blog so I don’t fully know your take on Clone Wars and whatnot. I’ve seen the whole show and it seems like the Jedi are fairly trusting of Anakin during the war. My question is, what changed between that and ROTS to make the Jedi not like him? Especially Windu? Do we know? Or is that something that just wasn’t touched upon enough in Clone Wars?
Honestly, I would say that they’re still pretty trusting of Anakin even in Revenge of the Sith!Yoda and Obi-Wan are both there and supportive of him–I know a lot of people don’t like Yoda’s advice in ROTS, but given how both George Lucas and Dave Filoni have talked about Yoda’s words are at the core themes of Star Wars, I’m pretty sure we’re meant to take that conversation in a positive light on Yoda’s side and a negative light on Anakin’s. YMMV on how you interpret it, everyone has their own views, which is perfectly cool, but I’m pretty sure the narrative is trying to show them as supportive, especially since Yoda’s taking time to sit down and talk with him, Obi-Wan makes a point to talk with him and reassure him that he’s on Anakin’s side.The problem with Mace (since Anakin doesn’t really interact with many other Jedi beyond these three/the film doesn’t really show us many Jedi beyond them) is that it’s not really just about Anakin. It’s about Palpatine chipping away at what precious little autonomy the Jedi Order has left, by forcing them to appoint Anakin to the Council despite that he hasn’t yet earned it.This isn’t Anakin’s fault, but he does accept the offer, when he could have turned it down. He’s angry when the Jedi try for a middle road, they have to accept Palpatine’s order, but they’re not going to promote him to Master just because Palpatine says so–and Anakin says, “How can you do this? This is outrageous. It’s unfair. How can you be on the Council and not be a master?”
The looks they’re all giving each other as Anakin’s intensity ramps up says everything about why they don’t trust him, that he’s getting upset because he takes this as a personal attack/betrayal rather than seeing that this is a political attack on the Jedi and that they can’t just bend to Palpatine’s whims.Later, Anakin continues to rail against this decision with Obi-Wan, “What kind of nonsense is this? Put me on the council and not make me a master? It’s never been done in the history of the Jedi! It’s insulting!” “Calm down, Anakin. You have been given a great honor. To be on the Council at your age– it’s never happened before. The fact of the matter isyou are too close to the Chancellor. The Council doesn’t like it when he interferes in Jedi affairs.” “I swear to you, I didn’t ask to be put on the Council.” “But it’s what you wanted. Your friendship with Chancellor Palpatine seems to have paid off. “
It’s not Anakin’s fault that Palpatine is using him as a pawn against the Jedi, but he still accepted the appointment and refused to understand why this was an unearned promotion. (We can see, given the entire plot of the movie, that Anakin has not mastered himself. His Force skills are better than anyone else’s, but that’s not really what makes someone a Jedi. A Jedi is about mastery of self, controlling yourself, and Anakin’s not there, not yet.)That’s why Padme also nails the problem with Anakin’s view, when he tells her, “Obi-Wan and the Council don’t trust me.” She responds with, “They trust you with their lives!” and he changes the subject because he seems to not have a good response to this truth.And it’s also why Mace later says, “If what you’ve told me is true, you will have gained my trust.” because it goes right back to what was shown to us in the Council meeting.
It’s about Anakin previously choosing his friendship with Palpatine at the cost of the Jedi Order, it’s about Anakin accepting the position on the Council because it’s what he wanted without having earned it, rather than understanding why this is such a shitty thing to do to the Jedi.When Anakin comes to Mace to tell him, hey, this person that I thought was a friend is actually the Sith Lord we’ve been looking for, then Anakin did the right thing when push came to shove, which is what Mace didn’t trust he would do before, when he accepted Palpatine’s offer to put him on the Council. He chose what was better for everyone, rather than what was better for himself/his friend.The Clone Wars doesn’t really go into it a super lot, they’re not friendly, Anakin definitely thinks that Mace doesn’t give him enough praise (when Mace praises Artoo for the rescue, Anakin says that he never got any praise like that from Master Windu), so it’s not like they were BFFs before this, but the events at the beginning of the movie are really what puts that tension there between them.Otherwise, the Jedi seem pretty positive towards Anakin in TCW, they praise plenty of times, so it seems like most of them support him pretty well and the problem between Anakin and the Council is about a growing sense of complicated circumstances. Anakin tends to assume the worst, he prioritizes personal loyalty over everything, so he doesn’t understand that their actions aren’t personal towards him. (This is a huge, huge factor in the reasons why Anakin feels so betrayed by the Council, especially as he listens to Palpatine telling him that they don’t value him enough, so his pov gets twisted around a lot.)But things aren’t helped by some of the complicated political situations they get into (when Anakin would like to just go lightsaber everything in the face) and the situation with Ahsoka where everything went pear-shaped is something he blames on them (it’s complicated, too), which gives depth to a lot of the tension you’re picking up on with Anakin vs the Jedi Council, but ultimately I think most of what’s directly causing the Mace vs Anakin part is that they were suspicious of someone who would accept a position on their governing body that was appointed by an outside factor that forced it on them.
