Hyperfixations Stuck In A Revolving Door 🫠

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.

More of my art @alwaystiredshark

Attatchemnt and love/affection are two very different things. You can be loving and affectionate without being attached to someone.

The same way, letting go doesn’t mean forgetting. It’s accepting the way things are and that death and loss are a natural part of life. You can’t fight what’s natural. It also doesn’t mean to sit back and just accept things as they are, or why would Jedi fight to protect? To change things and save people?

Love is knowing to put the many over the few. If someone you love is in danger, but there’s also a boatload of civilians, it’s going for the civilians, even if you hate them, despite wanting to save the other. ie. Letting go of your feelings. Not being attached.

So why this rule is such a big deal.

For a Jedi, being *attached* poses a much bigger problem than for the average person (looking at you Anakin Skywalker.) If a normal person can go to extremes either as a result of losing someone or wanting to protect them, think of what a Jedi, who feels things more deeply because of the Force, could do if they can’t let go.

The important thing is Jedi don’t say ‘don’t love.’ They don’t say ‘feel nothing.’ In fact you often hear Obi-wan and others say to trust feelings, instincts and refer to each other affectionately.

Anakin: You’re like a father to me.

Obi-Wan: Then why don’t you *listen.*

(Episode II. Not a reprimand for calling him father-like but asking if that’s how he feels, why doesn’t Anakin listen like a son should.)

What they *do* say is don’t get carried away in positive or negative feelings, as both can lead to impulsive actions with long term consequences. It’s a concept that follows the lines of mindfulness and just being *aware* that they have so much power, they can’t afford to be reckless. Because the damage *will* be long lasting.

They say don’t love someone so much that you’ll do anything for them. They say don’t be *possessive.* Because that’s a *very* dangerous place to go for a normal person, let alone a super powerful being who could leave *chaos* behind. Attachment is refusing to let go. Stopping someone from doing what they love because you’re scared. Love is trusting and accepting things can’t/will change even if you don’t like it, and accepting that when there’s nothing you can do without breaking your moral code.

Jedi grieve. They feel loss. They get angry. They *love.* They just don’t let those feelings overwhelm them to the point of irrationality, accepting, understanding, and releasing them because they’ll do no good in the long run. If emotion overwhelms the brain, the logical part shuts down, and we’ve all seen what force fuelled temper/grief can do.

‘Kanan and Ezra don’t follow the rule.’

On the contrary.

You see Kanan learn to let go of his grief and *attachment* which has been holding him back all this time. I’m doing so he becomes a Knight and Master. He loves Hera, yes, but he loves unconditionally. Not possessively. He’s fine with Hera going on dangerous missions and accepts that there will be times she’s hurt. That there’s always a possibility she might not come back and he’s gonna have to live with that. He doesn’t try to stop her. He doesn’t fall into a rage if she gets hurt. He accepts it, pain, rage, grief and all, but lets it go so he doesn’t become fearful to the point he won’t let *her* go. He accepts Hera loves the Rebellion and compromises even if he doesn’t like it. Love. Nothing wrong with that in the Jedi Order.

In contrast you have Anakin. When Padmé is in danger he will drop *everything* to go to her, including putting his men and padawan in unnecessary danger to do so. You see his jealousy when Clovis is around. His lack of faith in Padmé despite her assurances. How he won’t back down even if it scares or disturbs her. You see how he *refuses* to take any chances at all with her health to the point of breaking his moral code. This isn’t love anymore. This is attachment, possession. This is what the Jedi forbid.

You see Ezra struggle with letting Sabine go on a dangerous mission and Kanan teaching him that he has to accept the danger, that she might not come back. and how to do it. Telling him to respect her abilities, what she wants to do, and not loving her to the point of stifling her. This is what letting go is. This is what the Jedi teach.

Ezra has to learn to let go of his own grief and accept Kanan’s death. This is what love without attachment means. This is what the rule is. Feeling it. Accepting it. Then letting the emotions go so they don’t control your actions more than your mind does.

Also, anyone can leave the Jedi Order. If they don’t agree, there’s nothing forcing them to stay. Being a Jedi is a religion, a way of life. You can discuss and debate the details, but you don’t get to pick and choose what parts to follow.

You can be a force wielder without being a Jedi. The privileges the Jedi received were because of their belief and the respect that earned.

Obi-Wan brings Quinlan Home after the events in Dark Disciple. He was taken home, and treated like he had been deeply hurt, because he had. No one gave up on him when he needed them most.

Barriss, in contrast, was put into a position where she was beholden to the Senate’s Court and rules, taking the final step she could never come back from, and in doing so subjected Ahsoka to the scrutiny of the courts as well. Courts which, I have to stress, Palpatine was sitting as Judge, Jury, and Executioner with the ability to manipulate everything into making Anakin distrust the Jedi further. Had Ahsoka (and then Barriss) been tried only by the Jedi, it is very likely the punishment would have been house arrest and mandatory meetings with a Mind Healer weekly. I say this because of Barriss’ Arc in Tales of the Empire; in the end, after coming back, she was a Healer, refusing to fight for herself but protecting others. She forgave the woman who killed her as she lay dying in that woman’s arms. It is the Jedi way forgive, to heal. Which is why Cal telling Merrin “we were Peacekeepers” hits so hard in Jedi: Fallen Order. Why he is so sad in saying it, and why Merrin looks at him and believes him.

Because, if given the chance. If the Galaxy were a perfect, faultless place where the Light Thrived and corruption and the Dark did not exist, the Jedi would tend to their gardens and tend to their animals and raise their younglings in Peace, and they wouldn’t have ever once made the first Blades that eventually became lightsabers.

But the Galaxy was Balanced before the Sith infiltrated the Senate, and in the early days before things had truly taken hold. Because as we have witnessed with Bendu in Rebels, Dark and Light and Grey all exist and occur naturally in the Galaxy. The Hutt Empire, the Zygerrian Empire, were Dark. The corrupt politicians in the heart of the Republic, and corrupt businessmen, were Dark. The Nihil and Black Sun and Crimson Dawn (etc) were Dark. And the Jedi, who were once 10,000 strong at the height and waning of the High Republic, Balanced against that Darkness by fighting it as the Light.

Were there only 2 Sith against 10,000 Jedi? Yes. But consider that one does not have to be a Sith to be Dark, and that greed and selfish desire are Darker Aspects of Sentient Nature. Things were Balanced, until a Sith got into the government (either Plagieus or prior), and made it far too easy for the Dark to take hold and begin to rot the Republic’s Heart until, by the time the Clone Wars broke out, nothing could have stopped its eventual collapse.

In the arc where Ahsoka get’s kidnapped and hunted by lizard people we see this very subtle selfish quality of Anakin’s. When Ahsoka comes home from her traumatizing ordeal what is the very first thing that Anakin does? He makes things about himself. He makes things about his failure to protect her, his  concern, his worry, his fear for her, his own shortcomings. He is obviously coming from a place of genuine love and concern for Ahsoka, but it’s still about him. There’s nothing evil about that kind of selfishness, seeing a situation from your own point of view doesn’t mean you don’t care, anyone who says that they don’t make things about themselves is almost definitely a liar but you can’t deny it. In that moment Ahsoka had to comfort Anakin. That moment is beautiful and poignant regarding their bond and their friendship, but it’s also very telling if you look at it through a slightly more cynical lens.

It reminds me of in AOTC when Anakin kneeled at his mother’s grave and talked about himself and his feelings of inadequacy rather than his mother herself. Or in ROTS when Anakin was concerned for Padme’s life and committed to saving it in a way he knew that she wouldn’t approve of. When he pledges himself to Palpatine he doesn’t say he wants to save her life because she deserves to love or anything that has to do with her. It’s because he couldn’t live without her, he needs her, he loves her, she can’t leave him because he couldn’t take that. It’s about him. 

Anakin’s feelings of selfishness don’t mean that he doesn’t actually love or care about these people, his possessive nature and selfishness actually come from his love for these people. He just can’t separate the way he feels about these people from the individuals themselves. He always makes it about himself and his needs and desires, not theirs. It’s possible that the first person that Anakin really loved in a nonselfish way was Luke by the end of ROTJ.

Just to reiterate: India got an email, but as for Paul, y’know, the previously incumbent Doctor… not a sausage.