Lady Nightsade

yeah. i think we get a pretty clear idea of the psychological impact it had in the final scene, when rocky informs grace that the hail mary is equipped to return to earth, and all he has to do is say the word. the way grace's body language and expression convey visible relief when he realises that rocky isn't telling him to leave, but asking him to stay. while i don't think the revelation was immediate, i'm certain that grace felt nothing short of saved by the realisation that he wouldn't be able to return to earth. that he had not only the choice but the desire to turn back for rocky. because everyone on earth is, in a way, complicit in grace's violation, through either ignorance or - as carl demonstrates - inaction. stratt made the call to sedate him, but it took multiple people working with her to catch him and pin him down and force him onto that one-way trip. how many other people on earth would have done the same in their shoes, if it meant the best possible chance of saving the world? if it meant that at least it didn't have to be them, or those they love? to return would mean living with the burden of that, either internalising it to avoid tainting the world's pride and joy in the success of the mission and dying with it as a shameful secret, or being subjected to endless relitigation and spectacle. going "home" was never an option from the moment he was recruited.

I added that yelling at a person who's mental well-being is comprised is not the best decision to make and I stand by that, Padmé quite literally did the most emotionally intelligent and generally intelligent thing a person could do when faced with a person who is obviously hanging on by a thread.

Now I don't know if it's because of misogyny, because people have never dealt with a mentally ill person having a breakdown, because people treat fictional characters like real people thus treating their as actions real things that the character decided to do instead of remembering the character isn't real and the person who wrote/created them made them do it, or because they just like Obi-wan and hate to see his actions as wrong or maybe all of the above but Obi-wan took the worst course of action when he was on Mustafar.

Listen, I like Obi-wan (the character as he was written not the fanon version) as much as the next star wars lover. He's interesting, genuinely one of my favourite "failed mentor" characters, he was dead wrong for how he handled Anakin Skywalker when he was on Mustafar and it was not supposed to be seen as a good thing or the right decision, that's was why they made him do that, it plays part in the "failed mentor" aspect of his story. It all led to that final moment on Mustafar.

Agitating a person who you can obviously tell is spiralling is quite literally the dumbest, most reckless and most dangerous thing you could do and the Mustafar scene is probably one of the best depictions of why you should never do that.

It's also not out of character for Obi-wan to be reckless, which is why it's also ironic that he calls Anakin out for being reckless and seems to see it as a flaw, its also funny because Obi-wan has shown himself to be more reckless than Anakin at times but seems to lack the self awareness to realize that Anakin is copying him or learnt it from him

YOU DO NOT agitate a person who is very obviously emotionally fragile and is experiencing a psychological breakdown. I've seen so many people, who clearly don't like Anakin, talk about how "Padmé should have yelled at him after the tuskens massacre" or how "Obi-wan was right to come into the situation on Mustafar with the intentions to fight" but these are the ramblings of people that are definitely ignorant when it comes to mental health or dealing with situations like trying to help a person going through a breakdown or are just not paying attention to the story.

If there's a lesson you want to take away from the PT, it should not be from Obi-wan especially in regards to dealing with high stress situations involving mentally unwell people. What Obi-wan did was not just stupid, it was also hypocritical and not the Jedi way.

Jedi should not be coming into tense situations with the belief that a fight is the only way to de-escalate the tension, coming in with that type of energy was a big mistake. And I know a lot of people will try to defend this by saying that Anakin had massacred the Jedi and Yoda said it was too late but that is the wrong mentality to have.

WORD OF ADVICE: If a mentally ill person is harming themselves or the people around them, you don't instigate a fight, you level with them and try to talk them down, you lower the tension, not raise it.

When Obi-wan said that only the sith deal in absolutes, you're suppose to see what he's saying as ironic and/or hypocritical because believing that the only way to help Anakin is to kill him is an absolute. In general to believe that every Sith Lord you come across is just beyond saving is an absolute.

This is not to say that every Sith Lord should be saved but that it's genuinely dumb for a Jedi to go out of their way to learn everything they know about a Sith Lord or already have information on a Sith Lord and then not use that information to find various solutions to stop them or help them or resolve the problem because "a Sith Lord can not turn back".

Hell Vader wasn't the only Sith Lord who could have been reasoned with and turned back from the dark side, Dooku is another example. It is an absolute to go into every battle you have with a Sith Lord and think that they are beyond saving.

yes not all of them can be, Palpatine is cackling in the corner or whatever but it's an absolute to believe that they are all beyond help.

Padme and Luke took the best course of action when dealing with Anakin, a person who has/had mental health problems, was groomed and was, in the moment when they were trying to talk him down, mentally unbalanced. That's part of the conflict Luke was sensing btw, this dude was one the verge of yet another breakdown.

For an "incompetent woman", Padmé sure has been proving her wisdom and knowledge. It's crazy because during the PT, she was more Jedi like than a lot of the Jedi she was surrounded with. She refrained from violence unless absolutely necessary, unless all other options were exhausted.

She understood the importance of de-escalating a situation involving people who are mentally strained, she chose compassion and empathy as her greatest weapon so to speak.

I don't remember where I saw it but it was somewhere in a video essay on YouTube (or here in Tumblr or both) about how Naboo or the name of the planet apparently came from Nabu, a Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing, which represented how Queen Amidala was the queen of the wise.

I believe that it was from a documentary from the History Channel, I forgot what it's called but it represented how wise beyond her years Padmé was and how wise she continued to be. It's absolute genius honestly and she lived up to it.

OBI-WAN: You look tired. <- obi-wan brings up anakin's tired state; i'm not saying obi-wan doesn't care about anakin at all, it's just that the way he carries on this conversation sucks.

ANAKIN: I don't sleep well anymore. <- implied insomnia/sleep deprivation, which in itself speaks of the seriousness of the situation; i want to note that anakin doesn't try to hide anything, when he's told that he looks tired, he directly says that he has trouble sleeping.

OBI-WAN: Because of your mother? <- obi-wan's assumption implies that anakin was already having trouble sleeping because of shmi or at least worrying about her constantly, which makes sense considering anakin believes she is still enslaved and could be abused/die at any moment.

ANAKIN: I don’t know why I keep dreaming about her. <- anakin doesn't ask obi-wan for advice directly, but let's not be fooled, he openly expresses interest and wonders why dreams even happen, it's a veiled request for advice, but it is there.

OBI-WAN: Dreams pass in time. <- and obi-wan just shuts him down.

honestly, to me, this whole situation with obi-wan and anakin's nightmares in aotc looks like obi-wan is so used to anakin constantly worrying about shmi, so every time his padawan has nightmares or anxiety attacks, he's just like, "is this about your mom? oh, well, no need to worry then" — i make this assumption because obi-wan shuts anakin up right away when he finds out it's all about shmi, as if his mentee's moral injury about his mother remaining in slavery is just a pain in the neck for obi-wan

i'm so tired of people making excuses like "anakin didn't tell poor boo-boo obi-wan that his mom was suffering, so obi-wan is a saint and would have definitely helped her if it weren't for that stupid anakin," because shmi was suffering even before the events of aotc. shmi suffered every day of her life while anakin was in the jedi order and he wasn't allowed to help her; she spent years in slavery with a bomb in her body, she was exploited and abused, she suffered! and you know, shmi's life and safety have value beyond your stupid jedi discourse

Feelings he doesn't want to have, he compartimentalizes and represses too much to care on a personal level.

He had a level of codependency with Anakin that ended in a burst of flames (literally) and as result, now he's stuck there having to separate Anakin and Vader in his mind in order to get some peace of mind.

But at the same time, he doesn't bring himself to care beyond a surface level about Padme, or Luke, or Leia. They're just poor victims, they're just some poor lifeforms wronged by the monster that killed Anakin. Padme is just some silly gal blinded by womanly frelings. The twins are just tools to end Vader. Luke is Plan A and Leia is Plan B, and that's as far as he goes.

He had two meaningful relationships through his entire life (three, if you count Satine). Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin. And Obi-Wan compared the both of them just as much, and both of these relationships turned meaningful in the context of being a Jedi and serving the force. Obi-Wan can't quite escape state of mind that everything he does must, in some way, serve the order and the force.

Luke is just his ex-padawan and brother's child, from some affair he doesn't care about. I'm not one to believe Obi-Wan saw Padme as a friend, at all. Just a means, just some silly thing that keeps Anakin happy (and he would rather Anakin find happiness somewhere else).

Now Luke....Luke's relationship with Obi-Wan is based solely on his desire to know his father. He believes him dead, so the next big thing might as well be the person to claim was his friend. He wants to honour his father and wants to be like him, Luke only wants to be a Jedi because he's told his father was a Jedi

He's distressed when he loses Obi-Wan because he lost the only connection he had to his father (or so, that's what Luke believes), and also because boy just lost his home and family, Obi-Wan was the only familiarity he had keft. Luke's lightsaber is a copy of Obi-Wan's because it's pretty much made out of bit and pieces of Obi-Wan's spare lightsaber. There's no much Luke really does that is for Obi-Wan's sake, it always comes back to Anakin.

So, in summary, Obi-Wan and Luke's relationship is, quite literally, just based on Anakin and it never evolves beyond Anakin. Is like two satellites accidentally crossing paths as they orbite the same planet. And after some mild disturbance, they just continue their orbit

oh yes, I tend to be very cynical and mean with Obi-Wan and Anakin's relationship overall, but I love my Obi-Wan being a bitch.

imagine your father torturing you and your murderer coming over saying he'll do whatever it takes to fix it 🗿 jason bro literally leave gotham and never come back they don't deserve you 😭 let bruce play god over the other soldiers or whatever wtf

i get it now, i finally understand that bruce ain't shit. like, I knew for a while now but now I actually get it

Also it's not even that he rewired Jasons brain, that was horrific, but the MECHANICS of how it works. It's tied to adrenaline. Do you know how fucking easy it is to spike your adrenaline. Any strong emotion at all, riding his motorcycle, driving a car, having an anxious social interaction, getting stressed over work or a test. Involuntary trauma triggers or nightmares. Adrenaline also majorly impacts your heart. Do you know how fuckin easy it is to go into cardiac arrest? Hormones effect fuckin EVERYTHING people DIE from stress!! How many times did he die and come back before the Joker serum? How would we ever know how many panic attacks turned into cardiac arrest when he hijacked that plane? Would Bruce even give a shit? Does he even count them as deaths if Jason comes back? He didn't give a shit when Jason committed suicide for him a week later. If Jason gets back up I guess it doesn't matter if his heart stops for a while.

Like I'm sorry, but Batman isn't exactly the leftist dream either. He's a billionaire who spends his time fighting crime extra judiciously. You can look me in the eye and say that he's a good billionaire, but then it would be wild to single out Jason because he's supposed to be a noble gangster archetype. And if he can't be viewed as being a "good" gangster then I'm sorry there are no "good" billionaires.

It's also important to stress that Jason's ideology has never once been about killing everyone who does bad. It's about who we allow to suffer while we are trying to find the greater good in the ba guys and mass murderers the system lets out. Which I'd argue is a view that centers more so around how the poor and those trying to live there lives are hurt when the system fails.

guys, Luke is the perfect child. Thats the whole point! He gave his offerings he said his prayers he went on his quest he proved his loyalty to Chiron, to the gods, to his dad. And he did it all with a smile. They have no reason to suspect luke! Luke is the best of them!

Ares could’ve come to that meeting waving a big sign that said “LUKES THE LIGHTNING THIEF” and they still wouldn’t have believed him.

Because they also don’t want it to be Luke.

The fact that there was demigods who joined Luke’s side only adds to this, children who believed in Luke’s mission more than they believed in gods. (Idk if I’m misremembering) but in tbotl, when Percy and beckendorf crashes the Andromeda and Percy runs into enemy demigods, his narrative was something like ‘I’m not going to kill them bc theyre demigods and bc they used to be campers’. If this is true, it implies that there are demigods who would willingly side with the monsters that they’ve grown up being warned about, as long as it meant they could follow Luke.

A big part of Percy and annabeth’s disconnect is Percy not understanding how annabeth can still believe there is goodness in Luke. But like the camp, Luke castellan was a constant in her life, whereas for Percy, he knew the man for like, 3 days before he was sent on his first quest.

And maybe Luke reciprocated, maybe Luke really did care for the kids under his protection. His last words are (and I’m paraphrasing here) “-Ethan, all the other unclaimed-” luke knows these children. He can do what their own parents can’t. I’ve seen people assume that luke recruited other demigods, seeing them as nothing more that extra swords and canon fodder, but I really don’t think that’s true. He knows their pains, he gives them a direct solution to bite back.

With Dick it's kind, it's compassionate, it's about filling a void in Dick's life, it's about making a difference in his life after he lost his parents because Bruce understands that pain and relates to him. He wants to help Dick not go through what he did, to give this kid a family. Dick isn't just a responsibility Bruce decides to shoulder for some sort of harm reduction's sake, he's a boy, a child, an orphan — he is a person Bruce connects emotionally with, and taking him on dangerous and violent situations is secondary to their real bond. It's warm.

Jason does in fact have the right to ask. Bruce gave it to him implicitely. Because Bruce a) positioned himself as Jason's father, b) blamed Jason for Garzonas' father trying to get revenge on Batman and Robin and dying for it, c) argued that it was the natural actions of a father to try and avenge his kid.

Either Bruce IS Jason's father, and he failed to live up to the standard he set, or he isn't, and he sold a lie to an orphan to put him in the line of fire to deal with the loneliness of his eldest leaving the nest.

Jason, when coming back to life, seeing the Joker alive, must have felt incredibly betrayed and foolish. "I thought I'd be the last person you'd ever let him hurt."

Jason's ultimatum in Under the Red Hood is asking Batman to put his money where his mouth is.

Was it the natural thing for Garzonas senior to set-up an ambush to gun down Batman and Robin because fathers should avenge their sons?

Was it really Jason's fault back then that three men died in a failed scheme? When Batman toppled the pile of cars on top of Garzonas senior, when he tricked the subordinates into shooting each other, can we still blame Robin for not seeing this coming when he 'maybe' pushed Garzonas off the balcony?

If it is so inevitable that more deaths would follow a son's murder, why is the Joker still alive?

And if it wasn't, if fathers don't normally take bloody vengeance, then perhaps the three men that died should be blamed on the man that 'pushed' them?

Maybe Batman already had blood on his hands.

The fundamental difference between Jason and Bruce is that Jason is cognizant of the harm he causes and Bruce does everything in his power to insulate himself from it.

And you wanna know how I can say that?!

By nature of being a lethal vigilante, Jason takes ownership of the kills he makes. When you see him kill someone, he is saying "I judged them as guilty and sentenced them to death."

He does not believe in the system's ability to do its job.

He doesn't need a jury to convict.somene and a judge to sentence them to death; he do that all by himself.

And Bruce, whether he wants to believe it or not, is doing the exact same thing. I know this is superhero comics, so there is some level of suspension of belief necessary for the world to work, but Bruce is not a superhero; he's a cop.

Bruce does not work in the realm of heroes and villains; he works in the realm of cops and criminals.

This is why Jason is such a base breaking character. This is why he doesn't work within the Bat mythos.

The Bat comics have pulled a sleight of hand on us; they have convinced us that because the crooks the Bats fight wear costumes and act like mustache twirling supervillains, they are a class above the common criminal. But that's a lie. It's a fallacy.

Yep.

"Oh but Bruce deserves to grieve for Jason because Jason was his son!" So that justifies taking every evidence of charging the guy who murder his 'son' away? Lmao yeah, the guy that indirectly cause this to happen deserves to feel grief (well ig yeah but also no) and honestly Bruce doesn't even reflect on his actions on what he could've done to prevent all of this from happening just telling Tim to not be 'like' Jason and etc (because let's face it, if Bruce had put more effort into being there for Jason, not accusing him of murdering someone, and actually comforting Jason when Jason saw someone hung themselves, I'm sure Jason's actions would be hella different - sure Jason doesn't blame Bruce for not saving him, but not giving Jason justice? Absolute bullshit)

what do you MEAN "...jason’s redemption from actively being a vile and violent murderer and terrorist worshipping at the altar of his own pain and into being the wounded antihero with thawed, tentative relationships with the other bats that he’s generally portrayed as nowaways..." what do you MEAN. you can't claim to like Jason in your blog and spew bullshit like that. stop it.

I'll even dubiously accept "vile and violent murderer," despite that being quite a jump, because it's very easy to fall for that propaganda but "terrorist" is crazy work!!! he was fully against terrorism as I seem to recall from utrh, in fact the only one to be like hey why is the killer clown still killing and maybe that should stop????

"worshipping at the alter of his own pain" is even worse because since when is every single person obligated to either A) ignore their trauma or B) use their trauma as fuel for some higher cause that aligns perfectly with Batman's definition of higher cause. because that's fucked up. his actions were influenced by his trauma but that doesn't mean everything he did was "worshipping at the altar of his own pain." by this logic, every single thing bruce did in that bat costume was also worshipping at the altar of his own pain. but I wouldn't personally subscribe to that because I can understand the fact that there's nuance in this vigilante shit.

and what do you MEAN "...everything gets distilled into this ideology of hurting bruce and hating capes and being painfully resentful of the concept of mercy to the point where he feels completely righteous because only his self matters because he’s suffered the most..." where are you GETTING this from???

"painfully resentful of the concept of mercy" mercy to whom??? to the guy that brutally murdered him when he was a kid??? "...because only his self matters because he's suffered the most" is a crazy disgusting thing to say to a victim btw. he SHOULD prioritize himself because he DID undergo something awful and in fact I'd argue that by continuing to interact with batman despite the egregious shit batman did to him he's actually not prioritizing his mental health at all in favor of chasing love that does not exist.

you can't call yourself his fan when you fundamentally do not understand his character. you cannot claim you want redemption for him when your definition of redemption is simply rewriting him to suit a version of him that you have in your head, with no basis in canon, a version that changes who he is and submits to batman's whims at the expense of himself and his own experiences that distinguish him from everyone else.

with Jason todd "fans" like this who even needs antis istg

Dick didn’t get murdered. Dick didn’t have his existence erased—Dick was in fact the constant reminder that Jason was never going to be him and that Bruce’s love was conditional on that front. Dick got to grow up and be his own person and had Bruce’s respect and love after. Bruce literally sliced Jason’s throat and left him to die because he was desperate about Dick possibly being dead. Bruce didn’t remove Dick from the family after he proved himself capable of taking a life.

Dick is literally the golden child. And yes, that does come with cons, that does put him in a position he doesn’t necessarily seek. But it doesn’t leave him in a position in which he loses everything.

What do I mean by the previous points? They are in completely different spectrums of the family hierarchy. Dick being at the very top, while Jason is, quite frankly, far removed (and only included at the cost of himself, whether it be his literal life or morals).

Is the feeling of being replaced something they can relate? On a very small scale, yes. But like everything when it comes to the “Batfamily,” what matters most is the aftermath.

Compare Dick’s aftermath of being replaced to Jason’s, then tell me who is thriving and who isn’t.

Who got to build himself on his own terms and be loved and accepted for it, regardless of his flaws and shortcomings?

we are ALSO insanely good at smelling rain (specifically geosmin, found in the soil and activated by rain) with the ability to smell 10 parts per trillion. this is speculated to have helped our ancestors survive!

we ALSO have absolutely batshit diets compared to most other animals. caffeine and chocolate are completely toxic to most animals but we can eat it without even feeling sick. even avocados are severely toxic to many animals to the point where it can be fatal to eat, but humans love it!!!

we are ALSO the best endurance runners ON EARTH out of ANY other species. we beat horses in endurance running. you know, the animals that gradually evolved away most of their toes in order to be the best runners?? yeahhh.

and to top it all off. our lifespan is unusually long for our species' weight/mass. typically, the bigger a species is, the longer its average lifespan (e.g. domestic mice live for 1-3 years, whales can live over 200) but we're very small for how long our average lifespan is. big cats like tigers live around 14-15 years, brown bears 25 years, yet here we are expected to live around 75-85 years. that is NUTS.

Jason: Rose, we've been married for two years.

Rose: It's not my fault you haven't gotten ugly yet.