#sw republic

[swlegends]

They grow up loyal to the Republic, or they don't grow up at all.

requested by @roseaesynstylae

[short-wooloo]

I just cannot understand why people think the Jedi being a part of the Republic and answering to the senate is so bad

"OH no! The space wizards are held accountable by a democratically elected legal authority! How terrible!"

And more importantly, it worked, for 25,000 years it worked

Why does a few decades at the very end mean the whole several thousand year system needs to be written off?

"But the senate was corrupt!"

But the Jedi weren't, they continued to do their job, it's not on them if the senate stopped pulling its weight, not to mention there were still senators who were trying to do their jobs till the very end

Not to mention how the sorry state of the Republic near its end was a product of the sith's efforts to destroy it

[adragonsfriend]

An Unintended Consequence of Genre: fanfiction, repeat characters, and one-bad-apples

Canon characters are often only representations of systematic problems in the original text of Star Wars but when they are used repeatedly in fandom (fanfication and later canon works) as the example of that same bad systematic power--due to a very reasonable thing I will call Canon Existence Bias, ergo it's just simpler, not to mention a premise of the fanfiction genre, to use existing characters--the understanding of these characters is sometimes converted and simplified into one-bad-appleism.

Take the example of Tarkin. In A New Hope, his purpose in the narrative is to be a character who shows us everything we are told about the Empire: they are a Big Evil, doing bad things for selfish reasons, and they cannot be reasoned with, so our heroes have good reasons for being in conflict with them. Tarkin does that by destroying Alderaan, killing its entire population and by being deliberately cruel to Leia as he does so. Using only a little imagination, it is easy to see that while Tarkin is perhaps uniquely powerful, other Imperial officers are probably similar. They are (1) probably selected for those traits by higher ups that value them, (2) receive training that encourages those traits, and (3) a system which not just protects but encourages those traits will draw people who already have them to participate in it.

In A New Hope, Tarkin represents all of that. But take him out of New Hope, give him a backstory and a bunch more interactions with our main characters--like presiding over Ahsoka's trial--and he becomes an individual. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but when paired with a narrative which is reluctant to introduce a dozen other variously corrupt characters or spend many episodes or chapters digging deeply into systematic problems that allow him to exist, it makes it look like a cruel individual is the only problems.

If anytime there is an injustice to do with the empire or Republic's military, Tarkin shows up as the face of it, than the evidence is saying that Tarkin is the problem. The lack of data about the rest of Tarkin's life and actions in ANH is part of what allows him—and a few other Imperial officers—to represent an organization and a system rather than individual cruelty.

Under the Republic, he's actually fairly law abiding. Given a war, he probably uses the leeway of claiming pragmatism to be crueler than he should, but it's nothing compared to under the Empire, where he is allowed to destroy a planet without blinking. The worst think I can think of us being shown is him presiding over Ahsoka's trial, in which he attempts to convict someone of a crime which there is convincing evidence of them committing. The worst thing he does there is probably pushing for the harshest sentencing. Upon the court getting proof of innocence, he is not able to push for further cruelty.

He may be terrible as an individual, but the systems around him change the extent to which that matters. I’m not convinced TCWs did this on purpose, and in fact I think it’s really more the writers doing the same thing fanfic does (reusing a known meanie character), since TCW is, itself, essentially fanfiction. But the comparison does arise from it, so *shrugs*.

None of this is to say that Star Wars is effective at discussing systemic issues in the first place. It is not. But fanfiction can dull it even further—in this case simply due to genre conventions.

This post is really more food for thought than anything, plus maybe an encouragement to make some more OCs, or have the for-some-reason-beloved Admiral Piett commit some casual atrocities once in a while. Fanfiction is primarily a space of indulgent storytelling and so it’s probably never going to lend itself to discussing systemic issues (…which…maybe we should reflect on what behaviour that attracts in fandom, but that’s another post).

[jester-de-punyalada]

forgot that ventress and mace dueled once. bald v bald.....

the sound of that confrontation

[selfpossesedghost]

Taris (Republic)

[jate-kara]

Mace Windu isn't taking any prisoners

[jester-de-punyalada]

Jiesel: I won't join the confederacy but my objections stil stand. The Republic is corrupt. I don't know how we can serve it without being corrupted ourselves.

Windu: Whatever your choice, we on the council will honor it so long as it does not lead you to the dark side. There can be no schism if we keep our hearts and minds open to one another. We are all one in the force. We are all Jedi.

Star Wars: Jedi -- Mace Windu (2003, Dark Horse Comics)

[jate-kara]

Cody thinks this at least fifteen times a day.

(For the love of Mandalore, General, please wear some armor)