#also like the pt!movies and novelizations Anakin worked really hard to please the Jedi council

[gch1995]

"how much of a sellout George Lucas is" I mean me personally, I do find it weird how the fandom has done a total 180 in their attitude towards him and generally treat him like a saint, but what do you mean by sellout?

I mean, the Disney Star Wars sequels are the biggest insult to the lessons of the first generation into the second generation of the Skywalkers. The Republic and the Jedi Council started off as a corrupt system. They had good intentions, but they enabled slavery in impoverished communities. They treated their Jedi soldiers like emotionally repressed cult members who were allowed no personal lives or close connections outside of their organization. They took in infants they started training at 4 as recruits in the Jedi. They had the shady Emperor Palpatine under their nose for 14 years as a politician and suspected nothing when fully experienced masters who’d been with the Jedi for a long time turned to the dark side, like Count Dooku. The Jedi Council had no idea how to raise these children to be emotionally/psychologically healthy functioning adults at all, and they weren’t trying to. They were grooming them to be compliant soldiers to their Order.

While all of the members in the Jedi were mistreated by the elders in the Council because of Yoda’s system, they particularly emotionally/psychologically abused and neglected Anakin Skywalker because he was older than their other recruits when they took him in at 9 years old. He came from a traumatic background of slavery and oppression, they treated him like the black sheep of their cult, he got the brunt of the council’s abuse because he was ambitious and emotional, and they didn’t do anything to help free his his mother and the other people in his home planet from slavery. This gave him completely valid feelings of anger and fear that they kept telling him to just get over because they made him “dangerous” for having, rather than encouraging him to talk about before handing him a lightsaber. They allowed Palpatine access to Anakin Skywalker alone from the age of 12 for “political reasons,” giving him opportunity to groom this kid for the dark side from right under their noses. This all culminated in Anakin Skywalker finally losing his shit at 23 years old by turning to the dark side and pledging himself to Sidious in his desperate fear over losing his wife.

Was Anakin a very selfish man in his fear who holds a level of responsibility for the terrible choices he made as an adult in his intense desperation to avoid potential abandonment? Absolutely. Did he become an addict who gave up fighting when offered the chance for redemption by Padme in his fear of abandonment and blind anger at a misperceived sense of betrayal when he saw Obi Wan walk out of that ship with a look on his face that made him sense he was ready to kill him? Absolutely. He may had untreated trauma, mental illness, and it is understandable why he got addicted to the high of the new dark power. However, that still doesn’t make it okay to murder children, destroy the majority of the Order/Republic, or to recklessly force choke Padme in a blind rage and frantic effort to avoid abandonment. That is still not an excuse to not even try to take the risk to stand up for himself and make the right choice out of fear and uncertainty of unknown from the beginning of ROTS when faced with the choice between Mace and Palpatine, though. I understand why he felt like he had little to no better choice in his desperation when his support system and options for escape from such a toxic environment were pretty limited to nonexistent, but he still ultimately realized that choosing Palpatine over Mace was a bad idea.

That being said, I also can’t completely hold all accountability on Anakin for his fall to the dark side because the level of privileges he held to escape out of the Republic safely were so limited to nonexistent since he had no fortune, family, friends, or connections outside of the Republic and the Jedi Order. He came from slavery and poverty. His wife had a job as a Senator in the Republic. The Jedi Council were shitty parents/guardians and shitty at their job as “space therapists.” Yes, absolutely meditation can be helpful as therapy for BPD and C-PTSD sufferers, which are the mental illnesses that Anakin Skywalker has the most symptoms of, but you also need to know that it’s okay to talk about those negative feelings without being judged. You need to know that people will allow you catharsis to deal with those feelings. You need to know that you have a shoulder to cry on and a sympathetic ear to listen if you open up. You need to know that your negative feelings are going to be heard without being told you’re “evil” or “dangerous” for having them.

Anakin really only got that from Padme in the prequel movies. At least, somewhat. She was willing to give up that life to run away with him because she loved him. However, she was also a senator of the Republic, who never really tried to do much to help the poor, or understood just how rough it was for Anakin to constantly feel terrified about being forced into poverty and slavery again.

Obi Wan tried better than most of the Council, particularly in Revenge of the Sith, but he still victim blamed him for Palpatine grooming him, even though he was the adult with primary care of Anakin who allowed for them to speak alone as a child in the first place. He usually just blew off Anakin’s fears as insignificant when he tried to open up to him about them. He was still a member of an emotionally/psychologically abusive, oppressive, and repressive cult who had been indoctrinated into it from birth. Obi-Wan wanted to let Anakin know he cared, but he was way too dedicated to the Order. He saw this boy as a little brother, rather than the father figure Anakin expected him to be. In AOTC, Anakin tells Obi Wan how he’s the closest thing to a father he’s ever had and he loves him, but Obi Wan says nothing in return. Then in ROTS, Obi Wan tells Anakin “You were my brother Anakin. I loved you.”

Padme was too dedicated to the Republic, and rather naive.

Obi Wan Kenobi and Padme were the only two somewhat healthy emotional support systems that Anakin had in the prequel movies and their roles were still both planted in the broken and toxic system of the Republic, so they couldn’t really be healthy and objective enough for Anakin.

The Republic and Jedi System were overall abusive, classist, corrupt, and hypocritical systems, in spite of its good intentions, that prophetically needed to fail Anakin Skywalker, so he would feel influenced to turn on them to become Palpatine’s accomplice and help him destroy it as Darth Vader because he had this really cataclysmic strength in his power with the force. Did all those innocent people actually deserve to die? No, of course, not. It should have gone far better than the near-extinction of the old Jedi and Republic. Everyone should have been less afraid to speak up for what was right, rather than enabling and perpetuating the wrong things for “the greater good” out of a fear of losing security. However, this kid growing up to help the Sith destroy the Jedi Order was the only thing that finally made most people realize that they fucked up in their negligence and complacency with a system that was messed up, in spite of its good intentions.

So for the next two decades, the Empire terrorize the galaxy with Darth Sidious using Darth Vader as his killing machine. We meet Luke Skywalker, and he’s the neutral good hero everyone needed to save the galaxy all along. Unlike his father before him, he had a good childhood, he had a healthy support system that’s fostered a strong sense of faith in his moral compass, so he is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in and fight for what he knows is right in regards to other people, no matter how much Obi Wan Kenobi, Yoda, his father, and Darth Sidious all try to convince him otherwise. He’s willing to murder a lot of people in self-defense. Luke’s biological father kills his aunt and uncle in cold blood, he hurts him, his friends, stalks him, kidnaps him, cuts off his hand when he refuses to join the dark side recklessly, and offers Luke up to Sidious to kill when he continues to keep refusing to join the dark side. Luke would have absolutely every reason to despise his father Anakin Skywalker, and want to kill him in vengeance or self-defense.

However, much like his father before him, Luke does really value close attachments, family, and friends so much so that he is willing to believe there is good in them and sacrifice his life for them, so when he has a force vision that Han Solo and Leia are in danger he lets Obi Wan and Yoda know that he’s leaving training to go save them. When Darth Vader tells him that he is his estranged biological father Anakin Skywalker, he’s rightfully angry, in denial, and terrified at first. Then, he confronts Yoda and Obi Wan about not telling him that Vader is his father Anakin Skywalker, and refuses to kill him. He can now recognize in that moment in ESB when Vader kidnapped him, told Luke that he was his father, and asked him to join him so they could kill the Emperor and rule the galaxy together, that in his own broken, dark, and twisted, way the good man that Anakin Skywalker was beneath the mask of Darth Vader was trying to reach out for his son’s love and companionship for help because he was tired of being Sidious’ slave to darkness after so many years. He only wanted power to rule the universe if he had someone from his family he felt he could love and trust to do it with him because he was afraid of being abandoned and lonely.

This is what gives Luke the empathy and strength to keep insisting that he knows the good man Anakin Skywalker is still under the dark shell of Vader in there in ROTJ, even after every awful thing that Anakin has done to him, his guardians, and his friends. He doesn’t have to feel afraid anymore, and he can make the choice he knows is right by just being true to what he believes to be right as Anakin Skywalker, not a Jedi, not a Sith, just the man who loves his family enough to turn back to the light to free himself from all the darkness, fear, anger, and self-hated consuming him, so he can save them instead. Thus, Anakin finally does find this inspiration to do so through Luke’s compassion and empathy for him by sacrificing his life to save him from Sidious after offering him up to him at the end of ROTJ because he realizes he’s tired of living in constant fear, anger, and self-loathing.

However, while Anakin Skywalker finally dies happily at peace with himself after years of being a slave to someone else with authority over him in his fear, the legacy of Vader lives on for pretty much everyone else, but Luke who knows that his father died by turning back to the light to save him because he offered him compassion and understanding when Anakin was lost in the darkness, rather than killing him, or turning against him in hatred.

Thus, the cycle of abuse and corruption in the galaxy is finally broken after two decades of the Empire ruling through Luke Skywalker convincing his father Anakin Skywalker to turn back to the light and kill Sidious by pretty much doing what he knows is right, rather than deferring to anyone else who tries to make him compromise his morality.

We didn’t need more of a story to tell after the OT and PT movies. We really didn’t. Yeah, there were certainly parts of the PT movies that could have been a bit more fleshed out, such as Anakin’s and Padme’s romance, Anakin’s childhood of slavery, and Anakin’s days in the temple as a Jedi padawan. However, I don’t think we needed to spend seven seasons focused on the Clone Wars with Anakin. I really don’t. Then, there’s also the fact that Anakin, Padme, and Obi Wan aren’t even the same characters anymore. Anakin’s more endearingly awkward, boyish, conflicted, emotionally unstable, and traumatized side have been undercut. He seems to act more like a man in his 30s. His, cocky and possessive side have been flanderdized. He doesn’t strike me as much as that emotionally vulnerable and sincere 19-22 year old young man he was in the prequel movies, which makes him less sympathetic. Padme is a snarky two-faced bitch, rather than kindhearted and loving. Obi Wan is too much of a hypocrite. Ashoka makes no sense as Anakin’s padawan when taken in with his reaction to the Council rejecting him the position of master as a knight after four years on it in the context of ROTS.

He’s not nearly as intelligent, nor does he look or feel sincere anymore when he says anything, whereas with Hayden Christensen’s Anakin I did get a sense that he still expressed his feelings and reacted genuinely. Those occasional outbursts he had before going to the dark side sincerely felt like someone who was slowly breaking from the inside out after being told over and over again to get over it every time he had valid feelings of anger and fear that he never got encouraged or taught how to release healthily.

While not an excuse for his crimes at all, part of what made Hayden Christenen’s version of Anakin (you know, the one that George Lucas originally envisioned) so tragic was that this young man still felt like a boy who was way out of his depth and trying his best to stay afloat for 14 years with the limited resources he had to survive in such a toxic environment. Then, he finally went haywire when he realized how easily this new power could be used as a release for all those pent up negative emotions of anger and fear recklessly in the heat of the moment because he couldn’t handle dealing with the guilt and shame of the horrible choices he had just made to try to learn that new power to save his wife. We know that Anakin has always been triggered by fears of abandonment.

After cutting off Mace Windu’s hand in a selfish impulse to learn this new dark power that Palpatine who has groomed from the age of 12 says can be used to save his wife, he’s like “What have I done?” He looks fucking exhausted! He looks broken. He looks physically ill in his submission towards Palpatine now that he realizes this guy is a Sith Lord, but he’s willing to sell his soul to him because the odds are against him trying to do the right thing anyway. He is afraid, he is tired of trying to fight to be good in an order that has always treated him like a black sheep of their cult since day one and offers little to no emotional support when he tries to reach out most of the time, anyway. His impulse control over his emotions had been weakening since slaughtering the Tuskens in AOTC for killing his mother, and after getting this new dark power he gets high on the feelings of false invincibility it gives him, and snaps.

Anakin came on rather awkward and too strong with Padme at first in AOTC, but it didn’t seem like he was intentionally trying to be cringey or too forward. It’s just that he lived in a cult with emotionally repressed monks who never let him talk to form relationships with other people outside of the temple. He was socially less mature for his age as a result. He still allowed for Padme to make her own choices, though. I do not understand how people don’t have the ability to get this.

TCW’s and Disney’s version of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were written to appease the venomous and entitled fanboy bullies in the fanbase who could never accept the fact that this character got written to be emotional, relatable, and sympathetic. They are the same ones who constantly bitched about Luke Skywalker being too much of a soft, emotional, and moody teenager, unlike the gruff, rugged, and emotionally reserved swashbuckling Han Solo action hero type. Sure, Luke and Anakin had angsty teen moments, though I’d argue that Anakin had more valid reasons to complain about life sucking than his son when he was growing up because his life genuinely was a constant tragedy with little to no relief in between, but their relatability and strengths were in how emotionally driven these characters were. They were led by their emotions of compassion, anger, love, naïveté, deference, and fear, for better or worse, and fanboys can’t stand that in action heroes. They weren’t driven by rationality, duty, or a desire to push away love.

These were the types of male lead characters that George Lucas originally envisioned for Luke and Anakin to be, but he sold them out to appease the entitled fanboys who kept bitching that Darth Vader needed to be this entity of pure evil who was completely responsible for his fall to the dark side, was always destined to be that way because he wanted to be, and keeps choosing to reject redemption for twenty three years every time a retconned survivor of Order 66 shows up who offers him compassion after recognizing him, he confirms he’s Anakin, has a brief flash of humanity, and then mercilessly slaughters them because he likes being evil, enjoys staying with his abuser as his killing machine. The strength of Luke’s character in his father’s redemption arc now has been undermined in Disney canon and TCW since he’s no longer one of the few people out there to recognize that Darth Vader was a shell of a monster that everyone else saw to cover up the deeply broken and twisted man Anakin Skywalker underneath it all.

My point is that if George Lucas really had any integrity at all, he wouldn’t have signed over his franchise to writers who he knew wanted for Anakin, Luke, Leia, and all these other characters to be more one-dimensional tropes. He wouldn’t have caved in to the bullying of the whiny fanboys in the fandom who kept insisting these characters had to be generic action movie heroes and villains by letting them be rewritten.

#anon answered #star wars meta #anti tcw 08 #anti disney star wars #anti George Lucas kind of #like I both appreciate that he came up with these characters and stories in the ot and pt series but hate him for selling out #pt star wars #jedi critical #luke skywalker #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #darth vader #you had a good story going on in the ot and the pt movies with Luke and Anakin as the leads #we didn’t need to see any more than that #hayden christensen #also I know a lot of fans like ashoka tano but her character doesn’t make any sense being assigned as Anakin’s padawan #she just does not make narrative sense at all when you consider the fact that yoda wouldn’t allow him to be a grandmaster in ROTS #why would yoda give Anakin a padawan but not a position as grandmaster on the council four years after being knighted? #that doesn’t make any sense #also like the pt!movies and novelizations Anakin worked really hard to please the Jedi council #to be honest he cared too much about their validation rather than sticking to his own moral compass because he wanted to be a ‘good Jedi’ #if pt!movies/novelizations Anakin ever rebelled it was in secret from the council and he still beat himself up over it #whereas TCW 08’ Anakin really is that lazy and entitled brat who thinks he’s safe because he’s ‘the chosen one.’ #and that wasn’t who anakin skywalker was with the Jedi council in the movies or novels #he tried really hard to fit in with the Jedi order even if his gut instinct told him he was wrong #and it was this deference to authority figures with power over him in anakin that led to his undoing #pt!movies/novelizations would have been honored to be given a padawan