#cute is nice every once in a while but my ideal jedi/clone dynamic is Toxic

[independent-variables]

Hi! I found you through the post-chain of clones and torture (I appreciated the possibilities it means and how it made me stop and reflect) and I would love to hear more about the nuances in Clone/Jedi ships, if you have the time one of these days!!

I would think the field mine that is the power imbalance alone between a general and their commander is loads, without taking into account freedom/who is considered a person/who has the power to say no. What else would you flag? *ready to take notes*

Feel free to keep this private, as you mentioned the distinction between Public/Private -- and if you're not comfortable feel free to not reply! I understand and I will keep on thinking about this on my own! :D

Hello!!! I want you to know this is the absolute dream ask to get, you are a gem and I am so glad my meta has got you thinking. If I have to be thinking about this at least I don’t have to be thinking about it alone, lol. I’m gonna go ahead and post this publicly because it’s not targeted to any particular ship it’s more about my understanding of the Jedi.

Alright, clone/Jedi ships, where to start… First of all I do read and write for various clone/Jedi ships, I don’t have any kind of moral “you’re a bad person for shipping this” agenda here. I just find the trends of what issues fandom chooses to address within these ships and what issues fandom tends to ignore to be personally frustrating.

You are 100% correct the power imbalance is massive, and the age gaps are nothing to sneeze at either. Depending on when the couple gets together there is also the slavery to contend with. But usually these are addressed in more serious fic. When a writer takes the characters and the ship seriously and wants to do the story justice, the slavery/power imbalance/age gap trifecta tend to be portrayed as Serious Things the couple needs to navigate. This is good! This is wonderful! These are indeed Serious Things a Jedi and clone couple will need to navigate if they want to make a go of it; everything surrounding consent and life experience and what they both want out of the relationship. These are hard conversations to have and difficult differences in life experience to navigate, but not impossible.

What makes it impossible for me to completely suspend my disbelief with any and every clone/Jedi ship is not anything to do with the power and consent issues inherent to the ship. It’s the fact that my own understanding of the Jedi and their no attachment policies gives me a kneejerk NO reaction whenever a Jedi gets into a committed romantic/sexual relationship and the writer portrays this as a good thing. The NO feeling increases when the partner is a clone and the relationship starts during the war.

I know in my heart various clones and Jedi developed intense feelings for each other during the war that could definitely be called attraction, or love, or develop farther into love. I know this. I know there was much drooling and many heart eyes. What I absolutely do not believe for a second is that any self respecting Jedi would even consider for a moment acting on those feelings. That is kinda the point of being Jedi. Entering into a romantic/sexual relationship with a person who is not legally recognized as a person and therefore has no rights or protections? A person whom YOU (Jedi you) holds literal power of life and death over? Absolutely the fuck not. NO. It does not matter if this person is perfect and wonderful and your soulmate and would gladly fuck you silly every night over the desk you two do paperwork on, There Are Standards! There Are Morals! There Are Codes!

If a Jedi and a clone start any kind of Anything during the war, that is a sign something has gone very very very wrong with the Jedi. There would be consequences from within the Jedi Order if this was discovered. Doesn’t matter if the perfect clone soulmate consents absolutely, this is about what it means to be a Jedi and what it means to hold power responsibly and what it means to follow a code of conduct and what it means to be a member of an organized religion. And that toxic “something is wrong but I don’t care because this feels so good” dynamic in and of itself would be interesting to explore, I have found a few fics that explore it, but more often than not a Jedi being in a committed relationship is hand-waved as long as it’s not marriage.

And that’s it. That’s my issue. When nothing starts until after the war and when it is made explicit that Jedi-- by the their own Order’s standards and expectations-- cannot and should not be in any kind of committed romantic/sexual relationship, then I have no problem suspending my disbelief and grinning as the dashing clone Commander and the noble Jedi Knight kiss passionately in the sunset. Good for them. Let them have their moment.

Because, Anakin and Padme are kind of a big deal. Like. The problem was not that they got married, the problem was they made a commitment to each other. Marriage represented and defined that commitment but the wedding was not the start of the toxic obsession and death was not the end of it. Anakin loved Padme with everything in him and loving people is good! Loving people and serving people with compassion is part of the point of being a Jedi! But committing all of your (Jedi your) love to a specific person is very much The Opposite Of Being A Jedi. This is a long and roundabout way of saying I think monogamy is against the Jedi religion actually.

This is also why Obi-Wan and Satine are kind of a big deal. I know what fandom thinks of that particular interlude but I really enjoyed it because it reinforces the whole-- monogamy is not a Jedi Thing. If you (Jedi you) want a committed sexual/romantic relationship, that’s cool, that’s fine, but you can’t have that and also be a Jedi. Jedi cannot have both. There are no handy loopholes for that rule. Because it’s not “Jedi cannot get married” it’s “Jedi cannot be committed to someone or something outside the Order.” And that is a good and logical and reasonable rule to have for an organization of space wizard monks. And it bothers me that a lot of fans who write the Jedi in romantic relationships and especially who write the Jedi in romantic relationships with clones don’t want to engage with that aspect of Being A Jedi and would rather handwave it or find a loophole, because we had three movies already on why there is no loophole and why Jedi cannot have both.

#i like jedi/clone ships i think a lot of them are cute #but #yeah i just #i cannot make Being A Jedi And Also Being In An Committed Relationship make sense in my head #it does not click #cute is nice every once in a while but my ideal jedi/clone dynamic is Toxic #preferably ending in a messy breakup and everybody reassessing their life choices #cordelia answers asks