Imo one of the best things the Star Wars prequels did was establish how much Anakin/Vader *wanted* he and Padme’s baby. Because if it HAD been written as him never knowing she was pregnant, or not caring much because he was Too Much of a Man in War to really give a shit that he was going to have a kid (both of which are things people have suggested would have been *better* somehow), I don’t think it would have added as much to his relationship with Luke as it did. Vader doesn’t love Luke just as an extension of Padme, or in an obligatory, familial way, or even as a last connection to the person he was way.
Vader loves Luke because he’s always loved Luke, from the moment he knew there was going to be a Luke to love. He wants to know Luke because he’s always wanted to know him. He wants to be a part of Luke’s life, because he never had any intention not to be. That’s important. That’s powerful shit.
#luke isn’t just the child he never knew he had#luke is the child he /thought he lost/#‘this son of mine was dead and is alive again’#that’s so much more powerful via @catie-does-things
something something “I’m a person and my name is Anakin” showing his name is a central way he retains identity while a child slave vs “that name no longer has any meaning to me” in almost the same breath as “I must obey my master” thirty years later after Sidious accomplished what Gardulla and Watto never managed to: breaking his spirit and convincing him he has no other options but obedience, accepting painful consequences, never looking for a way out. something like that
a key thing to understand about padmé is that by revenge of the sith she was tired of politics— it simply wasn’t the kind of life she wanted for herself anymore. her ambitions had shifted away from the roles of queen and senator to wife and mother. the same is true for anakin— he didn’t actually care about being the chosen one or ‘the hero with no fear’ or even a jedi master, what he really, truly wanted was to be padmé's husband and father to her children.
the tragedy of it all is that they were two people who had spent their entire lives sacrificing for the good of others, and when they were finally so close to having the life they wanted— a life they had actually chosen for themselves— it was cruelly snatched away.
In Chapter 3, Tanjiro recalls Nezuko repairing an old kimono she's fond of. The first fanbook expands on Nezuko's sewing skills, going so far as to say that this is her hobby and she is so good at it that her work can be sold.
We also know from the second fanbook that she increased the size of Kuwajima's haori so Zenitsu could wear it (including a little dyeing work), and she managed to repair Giyuu's extremely tattered haori. She made it nearly the same as before, despite how much of the fabric was missing. During the time she worked on it, Giyuu was in a coma, and for a time, it looked like he might die. Each day she worked on the haori, she called out for him to come back.
There's a lot that could be said about each of these skills, but I am not a crafty person. Today I just want to focus on a textile technique I always assumed/headcanoned Nezuko was using, especially given the unfinished state of it in the manga panel: sashiko.
Here's the basic idea from the main Wikipedia image:
This style of embroidery is usually seen with thick, multi-strand, cream-colored thread against indigo-dyed fabrics like hemp and cotton, though the multi-strand thread might also be dyed a light blue in many traditional styles. The repeating patterns were both decorative and practical. These stitches were used for repairing clothes by adding patchwork, strengthening clothes before they can tear, and adding extra warmth by filling in the gaps in light (but readily available) fabrics like hemp.
Sashiko is coming back into vogue nowadays for its use of traditional patterns and motifs and environment consciousness. Nowadays it's more of a fashion statement, and because they are so labor intensive, detailed sashiko items tend to be expensive. However, this was a rustic art form born of poverty and necessity. It was intended to strengthen textiles for labor-intensive lifestyles and/or make them last for generations.
Sashiko is especially associated with northern prefectures like Aomori and Yamagata, where cotton could be scarce even during the Edo economic heyday. However, you could find sashiko in plenty of rural places across the country. There are some regional characteristics like the kinds of colors, materials, and shapes that were used, but when it comes to the actual stitching methods and patterns, these were like family recipes. Just like every poor family had to cook, they had to mend.
This means that prior to sashiko's recent fashionable resurgence, it went through a period of rarity. Like how subsistence food loses its appeal as you can afford a more appetizing diet, so too does sashiko lose its appeal. Not only did diets and fashions rapidly change in the Meiji period with influence from the West, but trains made it easier to transport goods like warm fabric across the country. Sashiko as fashion soon felt like millet as diet; it felt like something only the poorest, thriftiest of people would bother with.
And who do we know who is thrifty and talented at textiles? Nezuko.
There are other in-universe reasons I assumed she was doing sashiko in Tanjiro's flashback. Primarily because the asanoha pattern is common in sashiko. For example, here's a dustcloth (my hand included for scale).
The smaller and more detailed a pattern is, the better it accomplishes its job. In earlier Gotouge art, the asanoha pattern on Nezuko's kimono was smaller. Aside from keeping human Nezuko warm up on snowy Mt. Kumotori, this also would have made her kimono better able to stand up to all the abuse it goes through once she becomes a demon.
Other setting details make it feel like this would make sense. For example, the Kamado family's ichimatsu pattern blends well with "boro" patchwork, a clothing mending method often incorporated with sashiko stitching techniques. Urokodaki's seigaiha pattern even seems to be drawn in a way that implies sashiko-style stitching with thick thread (and indeed, that's also a common sashiko pattern).
The thing about embroidery patterns is that even though they are rustic and lovely, they can be really impractical to draw over and over. By the time the anime character designs came out a few years later, the seigaiha lines were smoothed and the asanoha pattern ballooned into having large gaps.
By the time we got live action stage plays and mass-produced cosplay, these lines got thicker and flatter. My next question would be to wonder what other late Meiji methods could be used cheaply enough to make such a stark asanoha pattern, but alas, I am not a textile expert.
That said, people really care about sashiko. Many kimono-making methods are extremely labor intensive, but sashiko wasn't made by artisans. It was made by families, for families. Although sashiko stitches can now be done by machine, some people feel that this can't be called sashiko. Sashiko is in the act, not the result. Even the handkerchief I bought with the asanoha pattern would take far more than an hour to hand stitch.
There's some meditative about hand-stitching. There's something prayerful about it.
Sashiko was worth the effort to keep your family clothed and warm, and often, traditional motifs and geometric patterns had auspicious meanings, or were meant to protect people and ward off misfortune. Even Nezuko's asanoha pattern she wore since she was very small contains a wish for a child to grow strong and healthy, like the hemp plant that inspired it. If Nezuko kept repairing that kimono with sashiko, it's probably a stitch she learned from her mother, just like she'd have learned recipes from her.
We know how sincerely Nezuko prayed for Giyuu's recovery. She likely poured that same prayer into every stitch as she repaired his haori, sashiko or not.
Additional reading:
"Sashiko: The Untold Story" by artisan Futatsuya Atsushi. I haven't read it (and it just came out anyway), but I came across the author talking about it and I was like, "Oh yeah, sashiko. I have meant to write a post about that since forever ago." He is now coming up everywhere as I am refreshing myself on this folk art.
Also, here's another post of mine about other practical skills the Kamado family might have had.
This really sucks but, as the Anakin Skywalker scholars of the world have pointed out, the grooming/sexual abuse/domestic violence undertones of Anakin and Palpatine’s relationship is so so evident to anyone who has even a small working familiarity with abuse dynamics.
Obviously the in-universe characters have far, far less complete information compared to the viewing audience but like………..that had to cross Obi-Wan’s mind when he was in exile on Tatooine no?? Like the only way I think it wouldn’t is him actively avoiding it. Actually I think Obi-Wan having this deep, deep dread that he avoids thinking about may be the most likely.
Or like Luke piecing together information about his father, about Palpatine, from a patchwork of sources it sort of has to be a concern? Base knowledge about Palpatine and the fall of the Republic from Leia, knowing relative ages and timelines, maybe some offhand comments or press clips…
Anyways. Sad. I like to think about characters reminiscing and also about how situations are viewed when further removed.
My guess is that Obi-Wan realized it but after what Anakin did he had to deny it to himself as the truth was too horrifiying, he left his 9 year old padawan alone to be groomed and abused by the Sith Master, the Sith feared by Count Dooku and Darth Maul, he went insane and killed Obi-Wan´s family, then he had to kill Anakin and left him to die alone burning alive on Mustafar.
Obi-Wan can´t see Anakin as Palpatine´s victim because I think it truly would break his mind so he made up for himself the same lie he said to Luke, that Vader and Anakin are two different people, that Anakin was killed by Vader for power and that he had to "kill" Vader as a result as Anakin is no longer alive, so Obi-Wan didn´t hurt "Anakin" he hurt "Vader".
Luke read Obi-Wan diary and consulted the people who remembered Anakin both the good and the bad sides of Anakin´s story and my guess is that he put two and two together and that was another reason why he decided to see his mission as a "rescue from the darkside" to free his father from the Emperor and the Empire, that´s why he didn´t even ask Vader to betray the Empire, Luke knows Vader truly believed in the empire, he didn´t even ask him to kill the Emperor for the rebellion, he only asked him to leave with him and free himself from all of it and that´s why he insisted on freeing him until he got Vader to listen to him.
Imo that hate and anger agaisnt Palpatine wasn´t just because of the Empire or the rebellion, that kind of resentment was very personal for Luke. He was on a mission to save his dad and he wasn´t going to leave until he got his Dad free or die trying.
Luke got from Padme her wish to save Anakin and her way with words and from Anakin the force and his protective steak, Palpatine was done and he knew it, that´s why he feared Luke.
I guess I'm not a fan of the simplification of "Anakin is a dragon so he safekeeps selfishly people like a treasure" because, well, is so simplistic is boring lol
But also because is not quite fitting , what a giant treasure you Anakin greedy bastard, an absurd sum of,,,,,-checks notes-,,,,Three persons?
Reminds me of how there was this kinda study we read ages ago in Animal Production Behavior class, that, in summary, theorized cows could only count up to around 40, because they apparently only cared for 40 individuals in their herd and if one outside these 40 is gone they don't mind. This really dubious, btw, don't trust it.
Either way, cows are more dragon like that Anakin if we're talking just about greed.
When the subject of "Anakin wants to have control, and control those who cares for" surfaces, I think is easy to get blindsided by the very end of ROTS and how Vader carries his dutiea for the empire.
The way Anakin wants control (regarding people) is not in a "I want to control what you do, where you are, what you think, who you associate yourself with", this man wants to control reality itself in a way so his loved ones don't die. There's a big difference here, he wants to control variables around them.
This develops slowly, because when we talk about Shmi, her death was absolutely, and totally avoidable. If you want to add Qui-Gon's death into something that affected/impacted him, it was also, avoidable.
We know that as a child he saw all kinds of horrors slaves were subjected to because he's 9 and he's still able to talk about others' heads exploding.
Is interesting that the movies never posed the question, how does Anakin react to a natural, non violet death? To an accidental death? Well, we don't quite know, at least within the prequels, because all the death he's exposed to is always quite violent.
His vision's of Padmé's death though is a different beast, no, there's nothing that suggests that this is a natural death, from his point of view, this is an actual vision from the force. Nothing about Padmé suggests she was sickly or having complications during the pregnancy (the movies didn't handle Padmé's pregnancy very well, but, again, if this was meant to suggest a death by natural causes, the script would have been very clear about this). This is when we actually see Anakin descent into madness (and villainy) in a desperate and frankly illogical quest that this, somehow will keep her alive. His main reason to turn into a sith was that perhaps sith have knowledge of the force that can resurrect people and conquer death.
We know this doesn't work, but his gradual obsession with control is quite easy to pinpoint, he's someone who fundamentally was born without any rights, was vulnerable and never felt like he had any sort of control over himself or his life. Everything he does is follow orders and wait for someone else to suggest him what to do.
And when he does have power, he wants to control the environment and variables, rather than the person's themselves I think.
And I don't say this to say 'errr so you're saying he's not evil!', I say this because a guy that is legitimately the chosen one, created by a divine magic power itself, and then turns into an evil wizard warrior nun/monk, feeling so vulnerable and lacking agency despite being apparently able to hold back an entire ocean, is very fun.
When it comes to Luke, he does kidnapp and torture his friends, and has a bounty hunter on him, so the line definitely blurries here lolol
But I think a case can be made, he still attempts to genuinely connect and give him a choice, under the belief that if Luke doesn't join him or subjects himself to Ol' Sheev, he will die, which is the ultimate thing he wants to prevent.And his attempts suck, mostly, but he's still trying to control the environment and circumstances, rather than Luke himself. Beating around the bush, so to speak.
With Padmé, well, I legit don't know how you could watch these movies and come to the conclusion he's controlling her, (I'm tired of saying over and over that I'm not underplaying what happens in Mustafar, but knowing Tumblr, I will say it again: this is not an excuse nor woobification nor victim blaming blah blah)
To summarize: Vaderkin is such a interesting bug I love to poke. He's like an elephant tied to a chain that he can easily break, but doesn't realize so because of how much he was beaten down when little.
Or even better, an abused dog, still returns to their abusive home. Over and over.
I'm so confused by comments I keep seeing from fellow Prequels/Clone Wars-era fans saying things like 'the love was there but it wasn't enough' with regards to Anakin. The implication being that because there were people in his life who loved him, he shouldn’t have had any reason to go and fall to the dark side. It always smacks of people blaming Anakin's fall on him not 'appreciating' his loved ones enough or something. Which is just...wtf?? Love was always enough. That's why it's explicitly shown that keeping Anakin from his mother is a huge part of the tragedy. His mother, who loved him unconditionally.
After TPM, being without the unconditional love of his mother was a huge gaping hole in his life. While his relationship with Obi-Wan eventually became closer, that was still not a true substitute for the familial love that Anakin needed and craved. AotC is pretty clear about that. And after AotC, Anakin of course had Padme and Ahsoka in his life, but the problem, in case fandom has forgotten, is that he lived in a context in which his love for others and theirs for him was not valued and was, in fact, forbidden. Anakin was not permitted to live openly as part of a family unit in the manner he needed, nor was he allowed to openly demonstrate his love for others in the way he wanted. Because he was always being told it was somehow at odds with his place in and service to the Jedi Order. This context (particularly the lack of a parental figure) was destablising for Anakin and gave Sidious an 'in' to groom him and exploit his fears. It is also telling that in the lead up to Anakin’s fall in RotS, Sidious was constantly trying to isolate Anakin FROM his loved ones. That certainly suggests that love, even forbidden as it was, still had a chance of holding Anakin in the Light, and that even Sidious knew it.
Lest anyone forget, Anakin's fall happens because of his Fear of Loss, and because of the context in which his struggle takes place. He is afraid of LOSING his loved ones. Of being unable to save them. And he feels unable to seek adequate help in part because he doesn’t want to reveal his secret forbidden marriage to Padme, but also because his dreams about his mother had been previously dismissed and he doesn’t believe that anyone in the Order will care enough to help. Yoda's 'advice' only solidifies this view. And when it comes to direct intervention from his loves ones, we will never truly know if Padme could have reached Anakin on Mustafar because Obi-Wan showed up at the worst possible moment. But even then, even AFTER Mustafar, Anakin didn't fully lose the love in his heart. His first words in the Vader suit are concern for Padme's safety and well-being. Sidious tried to snuff out that 'barest flicker of persistent light' that remained within Anakin ('it seems in your anger you killed her'), but even the years of despair and self-loathing that followed could not fully extinguish it.
By the time we get to RotJ, Luke's love is able to get through to Anakin in large part because the context in which Luke is operating during the Original Trilogy is ENTIRELY different to that of the Prequels-era characters. Luke's not hampered by the Old Order's rigid mentality and restrictive way of life, and has no reason to to view emotions of love and attachment as something he’s expected to avoid. Not to mention that a Sith lord hasn't been grooming him for years nor attempting to isolate Luke from his loved ones. And of course, there's no one else showing up to duel Anakin and getting in the way of Luke's love reaching his father. Luke was able to look at Palpatine with open eyes and see for himself what that evil man had done to his father. And he was able to understand that Anakin was a victim of Palpatine, and was able to empathise with his father, and, crucially, have compassion for him. Compassion, which Anakin himself had once defined as 'unconditional love'. So, it's really frustrating that anyone would dare to say that love was not ‘enough' to save Anakin, when love was ALWAYS enough, and when love literally did save him in the end.
so obsessed with prequels. the dramatic irony. the pain, the tragedy, the excitement. you can't warn them. you wouldn't if you could. it has to play out like this: it already has
Sometimes I think people forget how smart this man actually is 👇🏻
I did a lot of research on him and what exactly he could do regarding his brain skills, and here’s what I found:
-he was an expert in mathematics, engineering, piloting, and pod racing by the time he was 9 years old
-Watto recognized Anakin's "gift for taking things apart and putting them back together and making them work better than they had before"
-Built a working fucking robot (C3P0) before he even hit double digits, to HELP HIS MOTHER WITH HER SLAVE WORK 🥺🥺🥺
-When building C-3PO, he smuggled him to his hovel piece by piece so Watto wouldn’t find out and built him to help his mother with chores and alien translation. (He added the 3 to his name because he considered him a third part of the Skywalker family 🥺)
-this genius motherfucker had built an INTELLIGENCE AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM IN A WEEK for C3P0. A WEEK. And he had a feeling that he was a kind soul so he built him to have a kind personality im crying—
-Watto trusted him to barter with the Jawas on his behalf, and he’d record them so later he could use C3PO to catch their “unguarded remarks”.
-Fluent in Huttese (and who knows... he’s surrounded by so many different species he must have picked up a bit of other languages)
-studied the controls of spaceships by practicing on derelict cockpits he found in the junkyard, that’s how he learned how to fly
-built his own fucking pod racer when he was seven. SEVEN. And he knew Watto would try to take it if he saw that it was valuable so this SMART COOKIE kept it under a tarp in seemingly different states of disrepair so he wouldn’t take it 😭😭
-In his room at the Jedi temple, he installed a workbench and made droids that would fulfill little tasks he made them do. The temple had no use for droids, but Anakins creations were just running around the temple and I think that’s so cute
-He’s got a mechanical arm that he would tinker with and upgrade himself. How cool is that. It even has touch receptors.
-He also added stuff to his glove, like he made it so that it could be super sealed onto his arm so nothing could get in.
-Not to mention he was a general in a full ass war by the time he was 19-20 years old, they say he was a master of combat (not that Rex would agree).
I’m sorry but a man who can use his brain just hits different 🤓🤤
He also could fight off Count Dooku on his own as a padawan despite the fact he was many years his senior and the last padawan of Yoda before Luke.
General Grievious said he was too young for his reputation something other separatist generals commented so he had a gift for combat despite being very young.
Anakin is quite the genius, I think it is bad interpretation that because a character is hot headed, stubborn, and a bit of daredevil, they must be stupid. This isn’t just a problem I see when it comes to Anakin, a lot of very smart characters that have traits I listed that Anakin had are misinterpreted as being stupid because people usually think that a genius is usually more quiet and reserved.
