The Horrors Persist But So Do We

I'd love more exploration of Rex perhaps feeling like he got kind-of the short end of the stick in terms of Jedi. He LIKES Ahsoka, for sure, she's got a spirit he admires and she's tenacious and it's hard not to care for her. And Anakin is, well, powerful for sure and friendly enough, so for a while Rex thinks he came out pretty well with his Jedi.

But then he starts meeting other Jedi or working alongside other Jedi and he realizes how much more competent other Jedi often are, especially the more experienced ones. And while Anakin is friendly enough, he's seen a lot of the other clones have MUCH closer relationships to their Jedi and certainly none of THEM ask their captains or commanders to lie to superior officers about secret relationships or unsanctioned missions. He's a little surprised once when he notices pretty much every other Jedi remembers that the clones can't always keep up with the Jedi and will unhesitatingly adjust their battle strategy to accommodate it. He sees the way other young Padawans are being taught to do something similar, to really consider the lives of the clones when they're in battle as the higher priority rather than the success of the mission.

And Rex starts wondering what his life might be like if he had ended up with a different Jedi. He loves his men, he's proud of the work they do most of the time, and he doesn't DISLIKE the Jedi he ended up with, but sometimes he's kind-of jealous of some of his brothers and wishes he'd gotten their Jedi instead.

Becoming a writer is great because now you have a hobby that haunts you whenever you don’t have time to do it

Because it could have been us.

[My art, don't steal, tag if reposting]

rocks

i was at the beach with my family yesterday. we picked up pretty rocks that we liked, by ourselves. my cousin showed me one that he liked, and i got my uncle to wash off one that i liked in the ocean. my rocks are different from my brother’s rocks, which are different from my aunt’s rocks, and on and on through my family. but we all picked up rocks. 

the thing is, that beach isn’t particularly lonely. it wasn’t crowded, but we certainly weren’t the only ones picking stones. 

it got me thinking about how so many people have done the same thing: picked up pretty rocks at that beach. but i saw my pretty rocks, and i didn’t really look at the rocks that my dad did, or that my cousin did. and so many people have picked up their pretty rocks but ignored the ones i found, the ones i have now. 

there’s a metaphor in there somewhere, i know it. 

I’m going to do my best to frame this as respectful because I do want to understand your Anakin-positive side, but this is also a topic that I get emotional about for many reasons.

Often, the anti-Anakin viewpoint is more based on his active choices, but I’ll touch on that later.

You mention that the Jedi should have freed Shmi. They are not gods — they cannot free every slave, so what makes her more ‘worthy’ of being saved than any other? I am not trying to be heartless, but it’s important to remember when we talk about this.

At the risk of sounding antagonistic, I’d also ask you for a source on both the “expected him to be a perfect Jedi”, and “refusing to acknowledge his traumatic past” points.

I would disagree heavily with the idea that anakin is anywhere near compassionate — and now we’re getting into the ‘active choices’ I mentioned earlier. He murdered children and committed genocide. Intentionally. On two separate occasions. This automatically means that he is not a good person — and yes, I would apply this logic to any other character in any other fandom.

There was, functionally, nothing keeping anakin with the Jedi. Even Count Dooku was friendly with the High Council after leaving them, all the way until he started a galactic war. The Jedi are forgiving, and they would have supported his choice to leave them if he could not handle their life.

It’s also important to note that being a Jedi is, essentially, a religion. No one is forced into it — they adopt children **with their parent’s permission** (Qui Gon asks Shmi before he brings up the possibility to anakin), but if those children grow up and choose to leave the Order, there are no negative consequences.

Anakin couldn’t handle being a Jedi, so he should have left. That discipline isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay, but it’s not on the Jedi to change their entire religion for one person.

To the Anti-Anakin/Pro-Jedi Crowd

Pt. 2/3 of It's Okay to Love the Jedi and Anakin at the Same Time

(Pt. 1 –> here, an angry ask about this post –> here, Pt. 3 –> here)

I think you often forget how Anakin basically had to make a life altering choice when he was 9 years old. Anakin was incredibly intelligent and mature for his age, but at the end of the day he could not fully grasp the weight of his choice until he was much older.

I think– because The Phantom Menace is rated PG– it's easy to forget how horrible it is to be a slave on Tatooine. By the time Anakin is 9 years old, he has endured countless beatings at the hands of someone who literally owned him.

This is inherently traumatizing.

Leaving his mother is traumatizing.

Becoming a Jedi while his mother has to remain a slave is traumatizing. And this incredibly compassionate kid has to deal with that somehow.

Anakin was exceptional, and yet the Jedi were only really willing to make one exception for Anakin: allowing him to train as a Jedi even though he wasn't raised at the Temple. EVEN THOUGH THEY DECIDED THEY WANTED HIM TO BECOME A JEDI.

The moment the Jedi Council decided that Anakin should be allowed to train as a Jedi, they should have understood that an exceptional case must come with exceptional measures.

Instead, they expected him to perfectly conform to the Jedi, even when he was not raised as one. They expected him to interpret every lesson and piece of advice the way almost every other Jedi could, seemingly not realizing that-- because of Anakin's childhood-- he was automatically going to see the world a bit differently and interpret things differently. The Jedi pretty much refused to acknowledge his unique (and deeply traumatic past) in the hopes that Anakin would "let it go."

They should have freed his mother. They should have allowed him to see his mother. He was raised by her, it's not like he was going to unlearn attachment– which is partly what they were concerned about, I get it.

However, Anakin was never going to be like every other Jedi. And the Council should have rejoiced in this.

They should have worked harder to understand him, instead of trying to turn him into the perfect Jedi.

Even in the face of all of this, he became one of the greatest Jedi ever known.

Few Jedi were as powerful as Anakin, few Jedi were as wise as Anakin (especially at his age), and few were as truly caring and compassionate.

yes, their close platonic relationship in canon is important to me specifically because it's both close and platonic

yes, I also ship them romantically, or as part of a romantic poly ship

I refuse to lock myself into a single interpretation of a fictional relationship when there's multiple interesting ways to view it. I can do both

My gel might not be the same as yours but my doctor (who specializes in HRT and trans health and has won awards) said it doesn’t matter exactly when you take it.

It just has to be in the safe areas (avoid your chest/groin, hopefully self-explanatory), it has to dry without being touched (the dose I’m at takes ~20 minutes), and you can’t double-dose within twelve hours. So, for me, if I put the stuff on around say ten at night (2200) I have to wait until ten the next morning (1000) to put on the next dose.

Most people do it in the morning if they shower in the evening, since you should ideally wait 4 ish hours iirc before submerging the gel site.

HELLO PEOPLE OF TUMBLR WHO MAY TAKE TESTOGEL. I REQUIRE ADVICE! MY DOCTOR TAKES A LONG TIME TO RESPOND.

Anyway, I take my testogel in the mornings, at 8am if I can. I'm disabled so I do end up missing a few days from forgetting or not having enough energy in the morning to do it, AND I want to start swimming in the mornings, but I know you can't shower within 6 hours of application and I assume swimming in a public pool is not the best idea, I don't want to contaminate people. Is it possible to switch to applying it at night? I'm going to ask my doctor whenever he next decides to give a fuck about me but I thought I'd ask anyway 😭

twenty years across the sea

What happens when a Jedi Initiate dies?

It cannot always be prevented, the galaxy is a dangerous place, especially for children, and the Jedi are still only mortal.

Accidents happen. Illnesses exist.

Tragedies do too.

The Crèchemasters are highly trained to prevent that, of course, but they too are only mortal. They too can fail.

The death of an Initiate is a heavy burden, for the entire Temple. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it is a heavy burden. It is from that burden that one of the Order's most sacred traditions stems from.

They may die an Initiate, but they will not join the Force without guidance.

When an Initiate dies, they automatically gain the rank of Padawan – no matter their age. They will posthumously be taken in by a Master and be gifted a braid and a lineage. If they already found their crystal and built their saber, these too will be taken care of by their new Master.

Some Masters of such Ghost-Padawans, especially those who had a bond before their passing, will live the following years as if they had a living student. They will not take on another until the Force or they themselves deems them ready, at which point the High Council will hold a honorary Knighting.

Because while the Order might lose an Initiate, no Initiate will ever be left alone.