p s fucking a : obiwan is not anakin’s dad, was never his dad, never acted like his dad, never tried to be his dad. mentor does not equal dad. teacher does not equal dad. trainer does not equal dad. jedi did not have nuclear family units. those earth-centric, human labels have only ever applied to situations which attempt to get non-jedi to understand their closeness (i.e. ahsoka calling anakin her “brother” in order to get the martez sisters to understand something that is otherwise indescribable and unexplainable to someone outside of the order. or, say, “you’re the closest thing i have to a father” when obiwan was in his most puffed, overcompensating i definitely don’t know what i’m doing phase while anakin was young, created by the force who was taken from his family at a late age, clinging to labels as he fumbles to detach and grow). think communal. think bonded by trauma. think the loss of both of their master, qui gon. think all-encompassing tie to each other through fate, training, insecurities and war. think george lucas quoted saying he created vader and obiwan to be the dark and light fathers of luke. think of obiwan being the backbone of the entire skywalker family.
your generic, crusty ass take is basic, tired and boring. not only that but it’s dated. proven not only by people who can analyze what media they consume, but also by the mf 2022 OWK show and numerous quotes from ms. chow (and countless other canon material which paint obiwan and anakin as soulmates, bound in life and death, a dyad.) this take is also extremely limiting to the overarching beautiful narrative and does a disservice to the characters and operatic nature of the saga. it also excludes the beliefs and practices of entire cultures that george lucas intentionally based the jedi around. *bangs gong repeatedly* wake up idiots not everything is literal
on another note Anakin using his last bit of agency to shove Palpatine down an elevator shaft and fucking KILL HIM is the only ending that is canon in this blog, aside from the alt-canon where he slices his head off like he did dooku. frankly that was so powerful for anakin as a victim of abuse killing off the person who made his life so fucking shitty and to undo that in the new trilogy was thoughtless and ridiculous
(Not the same anon)I’ve never actually read anything about Anakin being female coded. Please tell me more?
So gender coding is terminology I think was coined by the sociologist Erving Goffman that was actually in reference to the shorthand codes our modern western societies use for media,especially advertising. These gender codes are used in film especially,a lot of things people would call hetero-normative stereotypes (Men are strong and stoic and moral,women are emotional,prone to manipulation and need taken care of.)A female coded character is one who exhibits a lot of these female coded personality traits and/or behaviors,and a female coded character doesn’t have to actually be a woman or identify as a woman to be coded this way. Padawanlost has actually written a really great post on this and probably puts it better than I do.
Obi-Wan is a very male coded character.He is strong,moral,and withdrawn while also being charming.Anakin,while he does exhibit both masculine and feminine traits,is very female coded.This doesn’t mean that Anakin is feminine,but that his character shorthands in media align with what western society perceives as female characteristics. He is emotional,is shown to cry multiple times,is easily manipulated and led from the moral path,is romantic,and easily attached to others.Anakin needs the people in his life,and that is usually a very female coded behavior.He is not stoic and in control,he is emotionally volatile.These are extremely female coded traits and the reason I think so many female fans love him so much,because he is a male character with emotional vulnerability.How many stories exist that the male protagonist’s storyline follows the hero’s journey arc while we also see him cry,like really cry?
I also think Anakin’s female coding is why so many male fans hated his character with such a violent passion.They felt betrayed and angry that this extremely masculine and male hero who in all other aspects was what they were used to worshiping and emulating,he’s a warrior and he fights with a laser sword and he’s brave and strong,also showed deep emotional vulnerability and cried on screen.How many times have we all heard Anakin described as a bitch or a whiny baby by angry fans?A lot of toxic male fans that expected a male coded hero and then didn’t get it,felt betrayed and angered by this seemingly masculine character exhibiting traits they perceive as inferior or weakness. (That’s sexism baby!)
It’s why Anakin’s character was retconned for the Clone Wars and made to be way more aggressive,masculine,and less emotional.When he is emotional it’s very male coded allowances of emotion,ie:anger,betrayal,protectiveness ect.It’s one of the reasons Matt Lanter voices him,even his voice is far more masculine and what western society,particularly Americans,perceives to be an attractive male voice.It’s deep and strong and he sounds like a jock,with none of Hayden Christensen’s soft lilting cadence.I’m not shit talking Clone Wars or Lanter,I love both and I love Anakin’s character in it.But it is a grade A example of the studio and Lucas caving to fan’s vitriol against Anakin’s originally female coded character.
ok. last post but no kidding I think one of my fave aspects of Anakin as protagonist is that for once you get a hero who seems to have an obsessive fear of death. every other hero is all "oh I don't care if I die, I just want to protect my loved ones!" and with Anakin it's true too but it reaches another degree that I think only Stover's novelization can capture.
the fact that he realizes this dread exists and it keeps going back to this kind of traumatic realization (finding out even stars can die, everything dies), and the fact that he's like, so self-conscious of the possibility of his own death to cause pain to others too ... (the way it's phrased in Stover is not "oh no, one day I will die" but "Obi-Wan and Padmé will lose me") idk whatever it kills me. especially because it's clear the fear begins long before he loses his mother and long before the war begins, there's not really any rational reason for it. see Stover below
Anakin sometimes thinks of the dread that eats at his heart as a dragon. [...] But Anakin's fear is another kind of dragon. A cold kind. A dead kind.
Not nearly dead enough.
Not long after he became Obi-Wan's Padawan, all those years ago, a minor mission had brought them to a dead system: one so immeasurably old that its star had long ago turned to a frigid dwarf of hypercompacted trace metals, hovering a quantum fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Anakin couldn't even remember what the mission might have been, but he'd never forgotten that dead star.
It had scared him.
"Stars can die—?"
"It is the way of the universe, which is another manner of saying that it is the will of the Force," Obi-Wan had told him. "Everything dies. In time, even stars burn out. This is why Jedi form no attachments: all things pass. To hold on to something— or someone—beyond its time is to set your selfish desires against the Force. That is a path of misery, Anakin; the Jedi do not walk it."
That is the kind of fear that lives inside Anakin Skywalker: the dragon of that dead star. It is an ancient, cold dead voice within his heart that whispers all things die…
In bright day he can't hear it; battle, a mission, even a report before the Jedi Council, can make him forget it's even there. But at night—At night, the walls he has built sometimes start to frost over. Sometimes they start to crack.
At night, the dead-star dragon sometimes sneaks through the cracks and crawls up into his brain and chews at the inside of his skull. The dragon whispers of what Anakin has lost. And what he will lose.
The dragon reminds him, every night, of how he held his dying mother in his arms, of how she had spent her last strength to say I knew you would come for me, Anakin…
The dragon reminds him, every night, that someday he will lose Obi-Wan. He will lose Padme. Or they will lose him.
All things die, Anakin Skywalker. Even stars burn out…
