#englishlady

[wildlyspiritedsoul]

Hi everyone!

Yes this is me as some of you have asked. Also taken by myself as i love photography in my free time as well as coastal walks, singing, Pilates, having a good ole dance to most types of music. I love to read, I’m in the process of writing my first novel, it might take me a couple of years but I’m enjoying the process. I also love painting, writing poetry and love to love; a hopeful romantic with a cheeky side ( who hasn’t! ) the list is endless.

I live in the South of England near the sea which is my go to happy place to relax and de-stress; whooshing worries away for a while as I look out to the sea and breathe it all in; sheer blissfullness. I have even seen a mermaid or two shhh!…

I hope my blog pleases some of you at least, bringing a smile and warmth; always happy to chat when on here.

Amanda x

[padawanlost]

So I was on Quora the other day, and someone speculated that insecurity was at the root of Anakin's arrogance and apparent cockiness. I thought this through and it makes so much sense. He felt insecure in his place as a Jedi and had this constant need to prove himself. What's your take?

Personally, I’ve never seen Anakin as arrogant. I think he was *perceived* as arrogant by the people around him but, internally, Anakin was also driven by insecurity (not egotism).

Because he was so insecure in a place where he knew he wasn’t accepted as he was, he overcompensated. It’s a very common behavior: I’ll try harder to prove myself. And because he was so powerful, his attempt to prove himself worthy was viewed as an attempt to show off.

The Jedi Council didn’t want me, either. Being the Chosen One didn’t count for anything. Master Yoda wouldn’t train me, or Windu. Every member of the Jedi Council had had something more pressing to do than help him work out what this terrible, galaxy-changing power of his meant, and how he should live in its shadow. He still wasn’t sure. Anakin recalled standing there in that grand, polished Jedi Council Chamber, surrounded by what felt like fear, and disdain, and bewilderment—who were those Masters to feel bewildered, that the only person there who cared if he lived or died was Master Qui-Gon Jinn. And they stopped him training the Chosen One. Qui-Gon hadn’t cared what the Jedi Council said. He’d trained him anyway, a Padawan in all but name. Why am I thinking of all this now? Haven’t I put it behind me? Haven’t I had enough bad memories since then to take their place? Haven’t I vindicated Master Qui-Gon? [Karen Traviss. The Clone Wars]

Anakin enjoyed praise from Obi-Wan, but often became sullen when he was reprimanded. Obi-Wan assured him that he himself had been frequently reminded by Qui-Gon to be more mindful of the Force, but somehow even the slightest criticism managed to leave Anakin feeling stung. First they tell me to do my best, then they tell me I’ve gone too far! ANAKIN SKYWALKER IN THE RISE AND FALL OF DARTH VADER BY RYDER WINDHAM

Because Anakin had not been trained since infancy at the Temple like nearly all other Padawans, various Jedi Masters accepted the fact that he lacked the discipline of his fellow students. They were less accepting, however, of his arrogant behavior when he demonstrated his abilities. I’m more powerful with the Force than some of my instructors, Anakin thought, and they know it! ANAKIN SKYWALKER IN THE RISE AND FALL OF DARTH VADER BY RYDER WINDHAM

Despite Anakin’s desire to distance himself from the slave he had once been, he was unable, or unwilling, to shed the other aspects that had defined him on Tatooine. He still dreamed of glory, still craved adventure, and never lost his appetite for high-speed thrills and the desire to prove himself in competition. THE RISE AND FALL OF DARTH VADER BY RYDER WINDHAM

What evidence to we truly have that Anakin was arrogance beyond people calling him that? And considering most of his peers and superiors didn’t take much time to get to truly know him, I’d say their option can be considered biased:

Anakin was liked by the other students, but he had no close friends. He was not loved. Obi-Wan told himself that Anakin’s gifts naturally set him apart. But in his heart, he grieved for Anakin’s loneliness. JUDE WATSON [JEDI QUEST: THE WAY OF THE APPRENTICE]

Just when Anakin thought he’d passed that elusive finishing line that said adult, experienced, seen it all, he realized he was still twenty, Jedi or not, and the wounded boy in him still rose to the surface—provoked into angry violence, scared of abandonment, and still in need of approval. KAREN TRAVISS [STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS NOVELIZATION]

[Obi-Wan] knew, glancing at his Padawan’s eager face, that Anakin meant well from the bottom of his heart. If Obi-Wan saw a shadow on that heart, he knew it would pain his Padawan to know it. In many ways, Anakin was still a boy. A wounded, loving, anxious boy with great gifts he did not fully understand. Yet he was also a young man, close to maturity, who could do great harm. To others, yes. To himself, most of all JUDE WATSON [JEDI QUEST: THE SCHOOL OF FEAR]

“I just…” Anakin stopped. He took a ragged breath. “I thought you would be proud of me.” I am proud of you. Obi-Wan wanted to say the words. They were true. He was proud of so much in Anakin. But now was not the time to tell him that. Or was it? JUDE WATSON [JEDI QUEST: THE SCHOOL OF FEAR]

Fixing broken machines was like a meditation. Fixing broken machines was an antidote to every pain, every loss, every fear, every defeat. Fixing broken machines kept him from going mad. CLONE WARS GAMBIT: STEALTH

This doesn’t sound like some who thinks that highly of himself.

 “Master…,” he said hesitantly, “I know I’ve… disappointed you in these past few days. I have been arrogant. I have… not been very appreciative of your training, and what’s worse, of your friendship. I offer no excuse, Master. My frustration with the Council… I know that none of it is your fault, and I apologize. For all of it. Your friendship means everything to me.”

Interestingly enough, Obi-wan says it best:

You are very observant, Ferus, but you must accept that I know him better than you,” Obi-Wan said carefully. “Anakin can be arrogant. I know that. But he is also learning and growing. He is respectful of his great power. He does not abuse it. He is younger than you, but he has seen much injustice, many terrible things. I do not think it so wrong that he wants to change things. You must understand that it isn’t ambition that drives him. It is compassion. OBI-WAN KENOBI IN STAR WARS – JEDI QUEST: THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD BY JUDE WATSON

Yes. Anakin can act arrogantly. We all can. It’s part of being human and flawed. but that doesn’t mean that was ALL Anakin was. More often than not, Anakin was motivated by fear, love, kindess and, yes, even hate.

Taking them, she looked up at him and shook her head, even though it still ached. “It’s odd. You’re nothing like I expected.” “Why?” he said, perching on the edge of the nearby chair. “What did you expect?” “I don’t know,” she said, floundering. “I can’t say I’ve ever given the Jedi much thought. I mean, not as individuals. I never expected to meet one—let alone two. I don’t tend to go places where your skills are needed. But—well—you’re gentle.” That made him smile. “As opposed to what?” She swallowed the pain-tabs, washing them down with a mouthful of water. “Oh. You know. The HoloNet news—it portrays as you as this—this—heroic warrior. Larger than life. Charging into battle, lightsaber flashing. Scourge of the Separatists. That kind of thing.” She shrugged. [Karen Miller. Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Because of Hayden’s Anakin being do disliked and, of course, because of the TCW wonky characterization everyday we are seeing more and more people embracing the idea of arrogant idiot Anakin. even if such characterization is not supported by the movies, the lore and basic common sense.

People use Obi-wan’s words in AOTC against Anakin but the truth is, as shown above, Obi-wan himself later recognizes that Anakin is not arrogant (even if he sometimes act that away). Besides, using AOTC to show Anakin’s arrogance doesn’t make much sense because of Hayden’s acting. Anakin doesn’t act like some arrogant prick for most of the movie. if anything, AOTC is a great of example of Anakin’s submissive and insecure behavior.

At last, let’s not forget that the same people calling Anakin arrogant were also facing the same criticism:

“But he still has much to learn, Master,” Obi-Wan explained. “His skills have made him … well, arrogant.” “Yes, yes,” Yoda agreed. “It’s a flaw more and more common among Jedi. Too sure of themselves, they are. Even the older, more experienced Jedi.” [R.A. Salvatore. Attack of the Clones]

People seem to forget that Anakin was in his early 20s when he ‘died’. Show me a teenager or a young adult who’ve never acted arrogantly and i’ll show you a liar. So why is Anakin the only one getting shit for that?

So, yeah, i agree. Anakin wasn’t motivated by arrogance. He was motivated by fear and insecurity, byproducts of his childhood trauma and years of grooming and emotional neglect.

[helbertinelli]

You know what peeves me off? Its when people get worked up about that scene in The Clone Wars series One in which Anakin tries to persaude Padme to go away with him. They yell and scream about how he's so "selfish" and she is totally focused on career and duty and devotion to "the greater good", and everyone relying on her. Its like in the ond canon, Padme's single minded devotion to career over family or personal relationships was a bad thing. It was a problem for her. Even her parents were encouraging her to retire from politics, but apparently now its a good thing? These people also don't seem to realize that kind of thing causes a person a massive amount of stress, and Padme wasn't going to do anyone any good with a breakdown or a stress related disease. Like some me time isn't evil. Downtime isn't bad, and taking a step back to focus bit on family and personal relationships isn't either.

TCW 08 deleted or ignored all of Padme's development from AOTC. That scene is yet another Anidala scene that get misinterpreted to no end. Also I bet you if it was Padme insisting that Anakin should go with her somewhere and he kept refusing, people would have been throwing all sorts of insults at him. But god forbid they show that Padme is also very much in love with Anakin.

And not only that, but it wasn't an irrational request from Anakin either. He just wanted to spend time with her. Wanting to spend time with your spouse isn't being clingy or possessive, especially when it comes to Anakin and Padme and the two of them are in a war and they barely get to see each other.

I know TCW made it seem like they can always see each other and they're always together, but it really wasn't like that. It was very briefly when Anakin and Padme got to spend time together and the feel we got, from material released around the time of the prequels, was that Padme was always up to spend time with Anakin. I hate that TCW cheapened their relationship to make it seem like a boring westernized romance, where people are together but they actually hate spending time together. There's enough of that everywhere. Anidala was good because both Anakin and Padme loved one another very much and would have done anything to spend time together. TCW missed on so many opportunities of Anakin and Padme getting into all sorts of shenanigans because they're trying to be creative about how they spend time together, because they (TCW) were so hell-bent to portray Anidala as a toxic relationship and to show that Padme only tolerates Anakin rather than love him unconditionally more than anything else in her life.

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

@englishlady Male victims are not taken seriously in our society because it preconditions our men and boys from a young age to "man up”, pretend everything is okay and to not open up and when they do, they get shunned or made a mockery of. Maleficent really got that treatment because well, Women just can’t be bad, it has to be a man who hurt her in order for her to become evil, which to be honest, is a trope I have seen in recent media and I hate it. It helps push the "Men are evil and women are angels” narrative. A male version of the story would have never happened because he would have been portrayed in a bad light, while the female version of the King would have been painted as the "true victim" all along. It’s all about this fake girl power, faux feminist agenda Hollywood has been pushing since the 2010's. I find it interesting how they claim to empower female characters but also imply in the same breath that they are oppressed and will always be victims. Anakin is so demonized for pretty much everything and people don’t even wanna give him sympathy because of who he became later. Anakin made a lot of awful decision and to deny that is taking the agency away from him and I can't have that because it cheapens his character, but at the same time, I really dislike how people love to portray his character as he was evil from birth and how they criticize him for not recognizing that his abuser had been grooming from the age of 12...that is peak victim blaming right there. Some of the demonization and lack of empathy, I’d say, probably has something to do with the stigma surrounding mentally ill and neurodivergent people in general and how people just generally dismiss the concerns of those who aren’t neurotypical. I think that has mainly played a role in how he’s vilified for every single he has done as well.

[padawanlost]

I have a couple of questions about Karen Miller/Traviss (are they the same person?) who wrote the Clone Wars novels. Are they still considered canon? Also, I heard that Karen Traviss was abused online or something, was that over her Star Wars novels? Really, I mean that just takes toxicity to a new level.

This is a hot topic but one that desperately needs to be explored because to this day people are still spreading misinformation about that happen as a way to ‘defend’ their points. So, here we go:

Karen Miller and Karen Traviss are not the same person.

Karen miller wrote novels like  The Clone Wars: Wild Space and the Clone Wars Gambit series.

Karen Travis wrote novels like The Clone Wars movie novelization and the Republic Command Series.

Both, in my opinion, are very talented writers but both also suffered thanks to sexiest and overzealous fans. There are many reason why they became ‘infamous’ but the main reason is their political stance. They both had a lot of sympathy for the clones and the enslaves citizens of the GFFA, and both were not shy about calling out the Jedi Order and the Senate for their inaction. Of course, jedi stans hated them. To add insult to injury, Karen Traviss was the writer who ‘killed’ Mara Jade (btw, this wasn’t her idea but she’s still hated for it).

Karen Miller ‘crimes’:

Her biggest ‘offense’ was being mistaken by Karen Traviss (more on that later). Beyond that all she did was write Anidala and portraying Anakin and Obi-wan as good but flawed people. This is the kind of stuff she wrote:

“Coruscant was out there. Padmé was out there. There was a heart in his chest, beating, but it was only an echo. She was his true heart. She was his home.”  - Karen Miller’s Clone Wars Gambit: Siege

“He saw himself a candle. He saw himself behind a wall. Brick by brick he tried to raise it. Brick by brick, it was destroyed. Every death was a hammer blow. Every loss a chisel. The Sith were a wily foe, they knew where and when to strike. They were drawn to weak places, to old griefs and unhealed wounds.” - Karen Miller. The Clone Wars: Wild Space

To weep for a fallen comrade was to display unseemly attachment. A Jedi did not become attached to people, to things, to places, to any world or its inhabitants. A Jedi’s strength was fed by serenity. By distance. By loving impersonally. Karen Miller. The Clone Wars: Wild Space

Nothing particularly edgy or offensive. Imo, she’s one the best prequel writes in the game.

Karen Traviss ‘crimes’:

Beyond killing Mara Jade, she’s known for being critical of the Jedi and Republic and advocating for clone wars. She supported the highly offensive and controversial idea that clones were human being who deserved the freedom. She also believed that love (romantic or platonic), family and friends were not inherently evil and that Order made mistake by banning them.

Karen Trraviss is also know for writing so much of what we know of Mandalorian culture and she struck a nerve that too.

She wrote things like:

“The only thing [the clones] all had in common was their appearance—although they were starting to age differently, she could see that now—and what the Republic had done to them. Apart from that, they were individuals with the full range of virtues and habits of random humankind, and she now felt completely at home with them. If she had a side in this war, this was the one she chose: the disenfranchised, unreasonably loyal, heartbreakingly stoic ranks of manufactured men who deserved better.”  Star Wars - Republic Commando: True Colors by Karen Traviss

Serenity, my backside. Passion. Passion and anger and love. That’s what this galaxy needs, not serenity. Passion for change. Anger at this brutality. Love-buckets of it, for everyone, love between child and parent, between spouses, between brothers and sisters, between friends. We need more attachment, not less. Attachment can stop us from tearing ourselves apart. The Clone Wars: No Prisoners by Karen Traviss

He wanted to ask her why only a handful of Jedi objected to a slave army, and why they could claim to believe in the sanctity of all life and yet treat some life as being exempt from that respect. [REPUBLIC COMMANDO: TRUE COLORS BY KAREN TRAVISS[

Fandom (over)reaction:

Because of her ‘polemic’ takes, she started getting a lot of hate from the fandom. She used to interact with the fandom and her reward was to get constant death and rape threats. Some fans threatened her with ‘corrective rape’ to change her mind about the Jedi Order and other topics. Apparently, she responded by calling these fans ‘talifans’.

And the fans used that reaction to further vilify her. she was accused of hating the Jedi Order, of favoring Mandalore over them, getting the size of the clone army wrong, of ruining the OT by killing Mara Jade and now, of attacking fans. She was basically bullied out of the franchise.

However, her depictions of Clones and Mandalorians as heroes, while portraying the Jedi as petty or villainous, frustrated some fans, who felt that her stories and characters were counter to Star Wars. These fans wrote negative reviews of her books, and created a petition to George Lucas to stop Traviss from writing further Star Wars books. Traviss also received rape and death threats. Traviss wrote about these experiences on her blog, attacking the fans who created the petition, and likening them to Muslim extremists by calling them "Talifans." Traviss ultimately retired from Star Wars writing due to the threats she received.  [x]

It got to point where she had to write an open letter to the fandom explaining she DIDN’T hate the Jedi Order, she just didn’t believe things like war crimes and slavery should be so easily overlooked.

“No sane human can hate someone who doesn’t actually exist. From a writer’s perspective, the more super-powers characters acquire, the harder it is to develop logical story arcs and true human drama…but I don’t have any real feelings about fictional characters that stay with me once I step out of character-point-of-view-writing mode and get on with my life […] My real problem, then, is not with fictional Jedi, but with the people who refuse to believe they can do wrong. – Karen traviss [x]

If you want to know more about this, check this out :)

Now, back to Karen Miller

A few years ago, a popular sw tumblr tried to discredit Traviss writing by spreading the info that  she was a sexualizing Ahsoka with Bail so people started hating her for that too. Thing is, Karen Miller was the one accused of doing that but here is the deal:

Neither Karens ever wrote Ahsoka interacting with Bail Orgarna. What actually happened was that someone wrote a fic about Bail sexualizing Ahsoka on fanfiction.net, someone read it and decided the writing style was similar to Karen Miller’s so OF COURSE it must be Karen Miller who wrote the fanfic. Thanks to that genius level of deductive work, over the time people started saying that Karen Traviss wrote about Bail wanting to fuck Ahsoka as extra proof that SHE IS EVIL and should not be taken seriously.

Conclusion

Regardless of what you feel about someone writing, it’s NEVER okay to send them rape or death threats. Never! unfortunately, some hardcore jedi stans still spread the ‘karen traviss was attacking us’ without explaining exactly transpired between her and the fandom. According to their narrative, she was the *only* one in the wrong. That’s why there’s so much misinformation about her and what truly happened online.

My take on this ‘controversy’ is very simple: stop sending rape and death threats to women. I don’t care if you agree with her or not. The moment you believe a women *deserve* to be rape or killed, or support those who do, you lose any more ground you might think have. The situation becomes even more dire if it’s done to protect FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. 🤦‍♀️ I swear...this fandom....

[padawanlost]

Is this idea that the Jedi are "found family" actually true to Lucas vision or is it fanon? I believe Anakin actually outright says they're not his family a couple of times, but that might be in Legends.

It’s fanon (at least for the pt-era jedi)

The Jedi had a age rule and removed infants from their families at the earliest age to avoid attachments. It would make no sense for them to immediately go be a family. They were a community that care for each other. But they weren’t a ‘family’, not the classical family (with emotional attachments).  You don’t forbid Anakin to have any contact with his mother than go be a mother to Anakin.

‘… and Master, [Anakin]’s mother is dead.’ Yoda nodded, short and sharp. 'Yes. But mothers die, Obi-Wan.’ - KAREN MILLER [THE CLONE WARS: WILD SPACE]

Same goes for everyone else. Obi-wan, Ahsoka, and all the other had biological families. They weren’t found by the Jedi so they could a be a family. they were taken to be trained because the jedi believed force-sensitive with attachments could be a potential danger. Plus, found family is about people choosing to come together.  

After the Jedi Masters decided that it was too dangerous to train anyone familiar with fear, anger, and any other emotion that might lead to the dark side, it was agreed that Force-sensitive juveniles, adolescents, and adults would no longer be eligible for enlistment or conscription. Instead, they sought out and adopted Force-sensitive infants who would be raised and trained at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant; to prevent any emotional attachments that might cloud judgment, most recruits would never have any subsequent contact with their families. - RYDER’S WINDHAM’S JEDI VS. SITH: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE FORCE

Infants have no agency, they didn’t choose anything.

When Jonava recovered and learned of her daughter’s kidnapping, she used her meager funds to travel to Coruscant and formally petition the Jedi Council to return her child. The Council refused, citing Ludi’s beginning of Jedi training as far too late to return the girl, who was now named Aris-Del Wari. “They said it was dangerous,” she said, choking back tears. “I’ll never understand, in a million years, how my daughter can be a danger. They’re guardians of peace and justice. Well, how is letting me see her again a threat to peace and justice? Who is the monster? Is it me? Is it her? I don’t think so.” [x]

And they certainty weren’t allowed be all loving attached:

“And Ahsoka …” [Anakin] felt his heart thud. “Tell Rex—tell all of them—that anything less than a full recovery is unacceptable. Tell Rex I—” He had to stop. Obi-Wan was in earshot, and they were not supposed to care so much. But Ahsoka cared too much, too. She didn’t need to hear the words. “I will. Don’t worry.” Karen Miller’s Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth

Who wept their tears on the inside, where they would not be seen. To weep for a fallen comrade was to display unseemly attachment. A Jedi did not become attached to people, to things, to places, to any world or its inhabitants. A Jedi’s strength was fed by serenity. By distance. By loving impersonally. [Karen Miller. Wild Space]

As previously noted, Jedi of the Old Republic were generally forbidden to engage in romantic relationships. Although they did not dismiss love, they were cautious of emotional attachments, and knew that various possessive aspects of love could lead to the dark side of the Force. [Ryder’s Windham’s Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force]

Nobody asked the obvious—whether clone troopers were everyone else or not. Joc looked from Ahsoka to Rex and back again. “What’s wrong with attachment?” he asked. “Why can’t you have attachments? You mean love, right?” Ahsoka looked at the clones wide-eyed but in slight defocus, as if she was trying to recall something. “Love is acceptable,” she said at last. “But not attachment.” “What’s love if it isn’t attachment?” “Attachment is … putting personal relationships first, caring about the people you love so that it influences how you act.” Ahsoka seemed to be picking her words carefully. Coric stared back at her. “You know, it affects your judgment.” [ No prisoners by Karen Traviss]

How can you be a ‘found family’ when you can be a family? When you can form personal bonds with the people you’re living with?

But if you still don’t believe me, you can always believe this guy:

[…]Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that Jedi are supposed to care and love and that that’s not a bad thing. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they’ve become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. - Dave Filoni

“Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her emotionally. And at the end of the day, one of the questions that I guess I pose is, is that really a good thing? Is Anakin’s way of being so compassionate wrong? Because on a certain level, you have to accept that the Jedi lose the Clone War. So there is something that they’re doing that’s wrong.” Dave Filoni

“I’ve always felt that one of Anakin’s downfalls, like it’s never that Anakin was innately going to be evil, but the people around him, the Jedi, in their lack of compassion, in being so selfless that they almost forgot to care.”— Dave Filoni

“So as far back as Anakin, there is a seed of an idea of love and compassion, which admittedly in Attack of the Clones, the Jedi say they’re lacking because they’ve become arrogant and very sure of themselves. As Ahsoka gets older, her first big challenge comes when she’s abducted by Trandoshans and put an island [to be hunted for sport]. Anakin is put in a position where he can’t help her, and he obsesses over trying to find her, and there’s nothing he can do. But she survives anyway, and at the end of that she says, “I was only able to do this because of your teachings. Because the other Padawans I was with, boy, they were completely messed up. They were cracking.” So again we see this comparison of where Ahsoka is at because of Anakin, and where these other Padawans, which represent the other Jedi, are at.” Dave Filoni

I think it’s an important thing because a lot of people, when they watch the movie, they go, “Well how can he turn his back on these people? They’re like a family to him.” But when you give the greater context of this series, you see, “Well, it might be a family, but the family doesn’t trust him. The family doesn’t believe in him fully. The family often isn’t as much a family as Palpatine is a grandfather.” Dave Filoni

[padawanlost]

So I'm curious, Dave Filoni has been quite critical of the prequel era Jedi at times (and has got hate for it), but I wondered was the element of criticism of the Order that comes over the prequel movies intentional on Lucas part? A lot of people insist it wasn't and the Jedi are perfect, but I'm not so sure Lucas intended that, at least not in the prequels.

The Jedi Order’s fallibility was necessary for the prequels to exist. I know I’ve posted this many times already but George Lucas said on multiple occasion that he was going for political themes, specially themes about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The story being told in ‘Star Wars’ is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not. – George Lucas in 2005

[The Jedi] sort of persuade people into doing the right thing but their job really isn’t to go around fighting people yet there are now used as generals and they are fighting a war and they are doing something they really weren’t meant to do.They are being corrupted by this war, by being forced to be generals instead of peacemakers. – George Lucas for E! Behind the Scenes - Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith

The prequel trilogy is based on a back-story outline Lucas created in the mid-1970s for the original three “Star Wars” movies, so the themes percolated out of the Vietnam War and the Nixon-Watergate era, he said. Lucas began researching how democracies can turn into dictatorships with full consent of the electorate.

In ancient Rome, “why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew?” Lucas said. “Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon? It’s the same thing with Germany and Hitler. "You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody’s squabbling, there’s corruption.” 

George Lucas has admitted that one of the biggest influences on the series was the Nixon era. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Lucas said Star Wars “was really about the Vietnam War, and that was the period where Nixon was trying to run for a [second] term, which got me to thinking historically about how do democracies get turned into dictatorships? Because the democracies aren’t overthrown; they’re given away.”

There’s a clear difference between the Jedi being fallible and the jedi being evil, but that is a line fandom stan culture has erased. Because of the strong stance people are taking ‘in the defense of the jedi order’ we are living in a environment where recognizing they made mistakes is considered being ‘critical’ or an ‘anti’.

The main difference between the clone wars and the movies is on how these themes were explored. Where George had a limited amount of hours to explore them as the plot moved forward Filoni had years. It’s a big difference, one that allowed to Filoni to consider multiple POVs. The movies focused on Anakin’s journey, Filoni could give a lot more time to the clones, jedi padawans, senators, citiznes, etc. That’s why TCW feels more ‘critical’ of the Jedi order.

The truth is both explored the fallibility of the Jedi Order, but it’s much easier to pretend that wasn’t the case when you only watch the movies. for anyone who has studied gffa history and politics will notice right away how messy everything was and how so many mistakes were made by all sides involved. It’s not just a case of TCW vs movies. If we are being real, it’s a case of comics, novels, shows, movies and creators vs people who can’t admit their fave fictional characters have human flaws.

It’s kind of ironic. The more we see of the Jedi order the easier it becomes to see the cracks the allowed Palpatine’s evil to spread. But instead of enjoy the themes being explored the fandom reaction is Why are you showing me this?!

[padawanlost]

What's the deal with the pod races in Episode One? I mean I know Anakin said he "liked" taking part in them (which some people use to villainize the kid) but I understand it is implied that they were something Watto forced or at least co-erced Anakin to take part in. Can a slave really be considered a voluntary participant in an activity which thier owner wants them to take part in? He might have said he "enjoyed" it but did he really have a choice?

No, Anakin didn’t have a choice. Watto *forced* Anakin to raise to make money. Anakin’s enjoyment of the activity he was forced to perform has no influence over Watto disregard for Anakin’s life and safety. Anakin’s fun at races does not make the fact he was forced to risk his life at them okay.

“Rassa dwee cuppa, peedunkel!” Watto screamed, starting in again on Anakin in a fresh burst of Huttese.

The pudgy body lurched forward a few centimeters with each epithet, causing Anakin to step back in spite of his resolve. Watto’s bony arms and legs gestured with the movements of his head and body, giving him a comical appearance. He was angry, but Anakin had seen him angry before and knew what to expect. He did not cringe or bow his head in submission; he stood his ground and took his scolding unflinchingly. He was a slave and Watto was his master. Scoldings were part of life. Besides, Watto would wind down shortly now, his anger released in a manner that would satisfy his need to cast blame in a direction other than his own, and things would go back to normal.

All three fingers of Watto’s right hand pointed at the boy. “I shouldn’t let you drive for me anymore! That’s what I should do! I should find another driver!”

“I think that is a very good idea,” Shmi agreed.

Anakin’s mother had been standing to one side, not saying anything during the whole of Watto’s diatribe, but now she was quick to take advantage of a suggestion she would have made herself, if asked. Watto wheeled on her, spinning violently, wings whirring, and flew to confront her.

But her calm, steady gaze brought him up short, pinning him in the air midway between mother and son.

“It’s too dangerous in any case,” she continued reasonably. “He’s only a boy.”

Watto was immediately defensive. “He’s my boy, my property, and he’ll do what I want him to do!”  [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace]

There’s also the issue of consent. Even if he had been free to choose, we would have to consider a 9 years old ability to fully understand what he was committing to. And on top of that, we’d also have to consider the recklessness of the adults involved. Just because a child want to join a dangerous race with high death rate doesn’t mean they should. It’s textbook child endangerment.