sw-itus

Writing about Star Wars sometimes 24 | He/him

[wantonwinnie]

Hey there!

I’m a third-year law student and have been a fan of Star Wars since about 2014. I like reblogging meta, character discussions, fanart, that sort of thing. I will pivot to whatever interests me at the moment, though. My favorite eras in general are The High Republic, Andor/Rogue One, The Clone Wars, Rebels, and the wider Prequel trilogy.

I do somewhat serious meta, do book reviews, gush over High Republic characters, talk about the law as it relates to Star Wars, etc. etc. Just for fun though.

__________________________________________________

My posts about the Jedi:

The Jedi's relationship to death

A Lightsaber's collective connection

My posts about the High Republic:

Convergence Evokes an Active Peace

Quest for the Hidden City Review

The Battle of Jedha Review

My posts about Andor:

Nemik Dialogue

Andor’s Connection to Criminal Procedure

Was there Probable Cause for Cassian's Arrest?

A Niamos-like nightmare? On my planet? It’s more likely than you think (Stop and Frisk)

Legends stuff:

The Bacta War Review (+ X-Wing series in general)

Kenobi Review

Plagueis + Path of the Open Hand connection

Theories/Headcanons

Palpatine + Leveler Connection

How Nemik's Manifesto might have Unified the Rebellion

Other stuff:

THR Artbook Vol. 1 quotes

My Favorite Movies/Shows

My Favorite Novels (Canon/Legends)

__________________________________________________

Tags I tend to use: #andor, #the high republic, #the clone wars, #rebels, #jedi / #jedi order, #reviews

__________________________________________________

Avatar is cover art by Cristiano Spadoni et al. from Daniel José Older’s Midnight Horizon.

Background art (not mine).

[milkmanviii]

Wooden Jedi vector, made with cedar, panga panga, redheart, and lacewood, with a cherry stand.

This was quite awkward to figure out because there isn’t one specific way a vector should look. All the official art is very slightly different so I had to figure out the right shapes and proportions for everything so it still looked enough like a vector. It’s not massively symmetrical but the Art of the High Republic book mentions that ship models for Star Wars actually have built in asymmetry to make it look more lifelike, so yeah that’s all definitely intentional I did that on purpose, definitely…

The joints on this could definitely be stronger, it’s literally just held together with glue, but as long as you don’t swoosh it too hard it does hold itself together.

[wantonwinnie]

I don’t know if I’ll have the time to do this but I’m currently taking my school’s Law of Armed Conflict course and it would be fun to analyze aspects of Star Wars with those principles in mind (others have done a great job of this before!). It gets really funky once you start trying to figure out the statuses of individuals and the type of conflict it is.

[emilianadarling]

A companion photoset with Rebel Alliance propaganda pictures to go with the Imperial ones I used as inspiration for a scene in my fic ‘only as strong as the warrior next to you’! 😃 (Please do mind the tags.) This upcoming (last!!) chapter features some more visibility for the rebellion, so it felt like a good time share. 

Many of the images above can be found in “Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy”. (An incredible reference book, and one that comes with 10 free posters!) The rest are taken from Russell Walks Illustration, who I’m given to understand also has a tumblr - @russellwalks 👀🙏

[allthingskenobi]

A new poster for The Phantom Menace has been released for its 25th anniversary! 🤩

Art by Matt Ferguson

[kenobi-wxn]

what obi-wan was really thinking

[markgraysn]

ALL THAT BLOOD WAS NEVER ONCE BEAUTIFUL; IT WAS JUST RED.

there are better ways of doing this, margaret atwood / revenge of the sith concept art / the carnivorous lamb, agustín gómez-arcos (tr. william rodarmor) / darth vader (2020) / wuthering heights, emily brontë / kait rokowski

[chewvbacca]

the idea that the jedi order "should have walked away from the republic because of its corruption" is very reflective of the weird all or nothing style of political thinking that's so trendy on the internet and we could argue all day about at what point is it a good idea to leave a corrupt political system but it's also pretty divorced from the plots of the films and the themes of the saga and the worldbuilding around the jedi because like

the corruption of the republic increases rapidly in the 10 years between tpm and aotc, and during the clone wars, encouraged by palpatine. the increasing corruption due to palpatine is literally a plot point and part of the big villain's plans, not a base setting of the republic. there was certainly corruption and inaction before but it was often challenged successfully - even in tpm, though palaptine engineers the vote of no confidence in valorum, it is passed by the senate majority who clearly find valorum's response to the trade federation's invasion of naboo to not be strong enough. in aotc, even after 10 years of palpatine as chancellor, it is still challenged and seems to have a good chance of being beaten - palpatine feels threatened enough by padmé's anti-military position that he tries to have her assassinated, nearly blowing his whole secret army plot, so it seems like he thought she and the other senators who were against a standing army had a pretty good chance of winning the vote.

the jedi also regularly challenge corruption where they find it - tcw is full of examples of this and that's when the jedi are distracted by a whole galatic war. one of my favourites is mace windu telling a senator he and their whole planet can shove it in defense of the last living zillo beast. but it is also an important plot point in rots that the jedi are investigating palpatine. despite palpatine's best efforts, they were able to find the source of many things getting worse, and they go to arrest him, to cut off the head of the snake. would that have solved all the corruption and issues in the republic? no, but it was a good start and probably would have led to them investigating his connections.

and to those "it doesn't matter that some people were trying, the republic was Too Corrupt and had fallen from grace before the movies even started and there's no hope of it becoming a force for good" arguments, you're missing one of the most vital messages of the whole star wars saga - you can always choose good and you CAN be better than you were. the point isn't trying to cleanse the sins of the past, it's making a better future. but a real chance for better existing is essential, especially in the prequels, where anakin has the potential to turn everything around and do the right thing, but chooses not to (until episode 6). if there was never any hope all along, you've taken the biggest message and the tragedy of anakin completely out of the story. you've nothing left but fun special effects and action pieces without all that.

i never see people argue that padmé and the other senators should have just thrown their hands up and walked away from the republic like they do for the jedi, which is weird because they're explicitly part of the political decision-making process and the jedi are not, though they can give advice. in fact, one of their main roles in the republic is diplomacy, because it's a given that there will be disagreements, trade disputes, and planets happy to fuck over other planets if it suits them. but diplomacy and the idea that these things can be worked out is a core part of the jedi's role and their beliefs. another central belief is their mission to help people, which is why palatine and dooku encourage the the CIS (that acronym makes me laugh every time) to be so over the top evil, like attacking hospitals and developing weapons that target all organic life, to make it impossible for the jedi to ignore all the suffering and just stay out of the war. so in what world would these same people walk away from the republic because it's been a really rough 13 or so years? especially when they're pursuing an avenue (investigating palaptine) that might turn things around? it doesn't really seem like the jedi have "lost their way" by sticking with the republic, like some claim, given what they're doing is very in line with their beliefs, but rather you want them to be fundamentally different characters with radically different beliefs. which is fine, but it means that all your analysis of the jedi is built on what you wish they were instead of what they actually are.

should the jedi have gotten more involved politically? maybe - there's reasons we could argue yes, in that it might help address the causes of issues in the republic rather than just treating the symptoms, and reasons we could argue no, such as how pursuing power, even with the best of intentions, can be dangerous for both jedi and everyone else, given that the jedi could fall to the dark side and there's very little normal people could do to stop them. but that argument is the opposite of "they should have just walked away, the republic was doomed to fail" and has a lot more nuance than "any interaction with any flawed institutions thereby makes them morally bad too".

if you were in their position, would you genuinely believe that walking away would lead to a better overall outcome? or do you just say they should have walked away to maintain some kind of moral purity at the expense of all the good they did and could do?

[kurtssingh]

"Hello there, little guy. Enjoying the sunset, too?"

[theya-art]

✨🐳Purrgil✨🐳

After my drawing of the Loth-Cat, I decided to continue to draw animals in Star Wars. I love so much Purrgil. Whales in space are so amazing. I decided to make stickers of this series. Next design will be post next week!! I used watercolors, colored pencils and fixed some details with Procreate

[flork-of-cows-official]

clark reupload

edit: forgot the sweater comic

[reblogs-by-jinarra]

[gayluigi]

Can’t believe you forgot the Connecticut dog!!

[amethystsoda]

[my-friend-jade]

Never pass up an opportunity to reblog Connecticut Clark.

[viralfrog]

[huffy-1337]

THAT WAS THE BEST SONG CHOICE FOR THIS VID

[evengirlierballs]

I thought I dreamt this video

[wantonwinnie]

If it helps anyone, I think a good way to enjoy Star Wars media (and probably any other media for that matter) is to approach each show/book/etc. with no particular expectations. Not necessarily expecting it to be bad, just trying to avoid preconceived notions of what the story should be and being disappointed when the story doesn't meet that, even if the story has merit on its own terms.

A hypothetical example would be not liking the Obi-Wan show because it wasn't like John Jackson Miller's book from Legends, or it didn't focus on Luke much when I anticipated it would, or the story went in a different direction from a headcanon I had for the period. None of those factors are relevant to my enjoyment of the show when I watched it, whether the story it ended up telling was good, etc.

It's certainly not always easy, but this approach works for me.

[viralfrog]

[huffy-1337]

THAT WAS THE BEST SONG CHOICE FOR THIS VID

[evengirlierballs]

I thought I dreamt this video

[ziggyyyystardust]

The Star Wars fandom is like a case study of what happens when you overthink media intended for children to the point that you’ve completely altered the message and plot that the creator intended. The whole “the Jedi order is evil and Anakin/Vader is the good guy!” Idea fails to take into account the fact that like.. these movies are meant for kids, they’re meant to be easy to follow and easy to understand with obvious good guys and obvious bad guys. Yknow how we know the Jedi are the good guys? - they’re the main characters, they have funny one liners, they kill the evil bad guys who have red laser swords with their blue and green laser swords, they’re relatable, they’re nice, they’re paternal, so on so forth.

I love critical analysis and I’d never speak a word against it, when we consume media we should always take a step back to consider what ideas they’re selling us, what undertones are portrayed, is this supposed to represent a real life problem? But it’s also equally as important to consider who the audience is and how that might impact the story. And ultimately the audience is children, Star Wars is not meant to be a mystery thriller where the good guys are secretly the bad guys which you can only tell when you pick the story apart 20 which ways. The movies could not more clearly tell us who were meant to support. - is it the angry guys with red swords, ugly old guy who shoot’s lighting out of his fingers and takes over the universe, people who blow up planets, chop off their kids hands and blow up planet’s? Or is it the people who wear warm coloured clothing, talk about wanting peace, who tell funny jokes, have heartfelt moments, with blue and green lightsabers, fight against the space fascists and love each other.

Ultimately, Star Wars isn’t that deep, enjoy it for what it is and I promise you’ll enjoy it 100 times more

[writerbuddha]

The thing about the fall of the Jedi Order is that it showed that the good guys sometimes suffer quite devastating defeats by the bad guys, but they always get back on their feet again.

But there is this quite rigid mentality that insists, since "good always wins over evil," if they good guy suffers defeat, it’s because they wasn’t truly good - there was fundamentally wrong with them that prevented them to achieve total, pure goodness that the bad guys can never even touch, let alone deceive or defeat in a battle. It sets unreasonable and unrealistic expectations: if you have the ability to be deceived, to be defeated, you are not a normal human being, but you are "flawed" i.e. there's something to correct about yourself and if you don't do it, then if you are deceived and defeated, then it's your fault.

[yalaki]

Vildar Mac + Tumblr text posts

Bonus Matty helping this disaster man