Palpatine gained his power by (secretly creating and controlling and) really pushing the threat of the Separatists. Anyone who balked at the kind of control Palpatine was taking would have been accused of having "anti-republican / separatist politics" and would have suffered for it, and I don't think that kind of propaganda goes away overnight. And to hold his Empire together afterwards, it's important to continue demonizing anyone advocating for independence from the Empire.

Under the Empire, in SW stories, all anti-Imperials tend to be called "rebels" because that's what they are, but also because we're used to calling them that thanks to the OT. In-universe, within the Empire, thanks to the prequels and associated media, a lot of Imperial Core citizens should probably also regard the Rebel Alliance as "separatists" because the term is already culturally synonymous with dangerous radicals, traitors, rebels, terrorists, warmongers, and so on. The original group of Separatists are either dead or have been absorbed back into the Empire, yes, but I think that the political term as a weapon should probably still be around.

Child Leia Organa was probably called a separatist by one of her peers for expressing any support for independence. There are probably insufferable in-universe debates about whether or not having "separatist politics" means you endorse the monstrous actions of the CIS, and whether or not the political identity can be reformed.

Meanwhile, all that said, isolated people like Owen and Beru Lars, who have little personal experience with the Republic and none with anything the CIS did, might still privately think of themselves as "separatists / anti-republicans" of a sort because to them that maybe just means the Empire ought to leave their planet alone. As Outer Rim people, they might have been getting more Separatist propaganda than Republican, if they got much of anything. In their view, the Republic became a damn Empire, so maybe those Separatist folks were kind of right, actually?

Luke: "And then I want to fight the Empire and become a Separatist."

this is based on a picasso painting called guernica:

and i am absolutely obsessed with what symbols they chose to keep

To clarify, this shot wasn't just in the clone wars (2008) (I looked this up as well) it was also in Rebels, 2014, where I noticed it in Thrawn's office, where he was analyzing the Mandalorian people. I was wrong, it was in Pre Vizsla's home as well.

With that said, I think it represents the sacking of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and the taking of the darksaber from the Jedi Archives, and I have a few reasons for that.

The skyline resembles that of that of Coruscant from the Jedi temple

The woman in the front has a lightsaber that has fallen from her hands at the mandalorians feet.

Coruscant has the amount of moons required for this sort of depiction, Mandalore only has two. (Coruscant has four total, and I can see three in the piece, the two in the front, and then one more further back, next to the tip of what I presume is the darksaber.

The woman with the blaster isn't depicted as another mandalorian, she's unarmored, and given the period this was made at it could very well be that she's meant to represent the republic, in-universe, working in tandem with the Jedi.

The piece is depicted quite clearly as a moment of triumph for the Mandalorian at the center of the piece, he's domineering and above the fray, with that halo around him. On a meta level of the piece (Guernica) He'd also be the fire consuming the buildings and the women in the painting, as well as the tangle of bodies in the middle, the bull and the horse and the sword and the fire, consuming Coruscant in victory.

The attack on Coruscant happened during the fall of the Old Republic, the Mandalorians were at war with the planet, and as Pre Vizsla explains it, this war allowed a few members of House Vizsla to steal the darksaber from the jedi archives. It was in Thrawn's office because the man studies his subjects through the lens of art, what does the art say about the people, etc.

If we take it as the sacking of coruscant and specifically the jedi temple perhaps there's a level of awareness by the artist (in universe) that they (the mandalorians) attacked Tarre's people— more than likely archivists, padawans, and temple employees, while there was a war going on. It's a less than honorable battle for a supposed holy goal that destroyed many, many people — the jedi and mandos ultimately among them.

And ofc using the real context of the painting— we know it was not an honorable battle, it was bombing and using the guns in the aircrafts to terrorize a city full of mostly women children on a market day, during a civil war when there wouldn't be soldiers around to do anything or help anyone there. And they specifically targeted that city, as it was a cultural heritage site to basque country, important to that resistance to Spanish nationalism/fascism.

Correct me of I’m wrong, but I thought the Sacking of Coruscant happened in 3653 BBY, while Tarre Vizsla (the creator of the Darksabre) was inducted to the Jedi Order around 1050? I see these two events conflated often enough though, and Tarre Vizsla’s Wookieepedia page also mentions Sacking of the Jedi Temple sometime before 1032 BBY. So it seems to me that there have been two different sacks.

But yeah, I think this could be either the Sacking of Coruscant, which depending on the artist and what they wished to convey, could either glorify war (in line with the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders who did the sacking), or it could condemn the senseless destruction of war, represented by the Neo-Crusaders and their worship of war itself (in line with the modern New Mandalorian thinking).

Or this could represent the Sacking of the Jedi Temple and stealing the Darksabre, which would make sense if it hung in some Vizla property, as they see the artifact as a symbol of their righteous rule.

Those Kom’rk class fighters in the background would seem to suggest the latter; but they could be anachronistic as well if the painting itself was made later.

cubism aims (between many things + I'm generalizing because there are obv different phases and interpretations of it by diff artists) to show an object through different times. you can never see a "full" chair - you're always gonna see one side of it. you have to walk around it or move it around to see the entirety of the chair. cubists (or at least some of them) make you see all sides of the chair in one moment. it's a "distortion" of space and time. (obv it's a lot more than this and much more complex but this is what i wanna highlight for my interpretation)

so. cubism in star wars obv didn't arise in the context of 20th century avantguarde. if cubism is the style developed by their culture, maybe this way of dealing with the representation of time depends on how the mandalorians understand and narrate time. (again I'm not familiar with mando lore so tell me if it makes 0 sense) they could, for example, see time as something rather still, instead of moving on a line or a circle like we do: they could believe that in every moment there is everything that there will be and that already has been - everything that is present now was present back then and will be present in the future. in this context that sees "time as a capsule" the sacking represented is not one specific sacking, and debating on which sacking it was would be futile. what's more artistically interesting would be what "core truth" do mandos see and choose to represent on wall that the event stands for. it's more interesting to see what it says about how mandalorians see themselves.

(also just. fyi, this idea of trying to figure out what specifically a painting or an art in general is representing is an idea that is deeply rooted into western's understanding of art - the idea of copying and representing reality, in this sense, is not common in places where the greeks' understanding of art didn't arrive)

in the case of this painting, the center is taken by a giant mandalorian towering even higher than the biggest ecumenopolis in the galaxy, towering over defeated enemies that stand for some of the biggest institutions of their time (jedi and republic). this speaks tons on how mandalorians see themselves - they're literally the biggest in the galaxy, the strongest, the best, the most powerful and fearful. it's interesting though that there isn't a bunch of mandalorians in group that tower over everything but one big mando. this showcases of how tight their sense of community and identity are. they represent themselves as one. they're so connected with each other that they have no problem in representing themselves as just one individual. maybe, but it's a stretch, it's them acting as one big individual that made them so bigger than everyone and everything else.

on the topic of halos and christian imagery, i'd like to point out that in some art history spaces it's believed that halos are an evolution of some tactics to distinguish people (specifically emperors) in big and messy roman narrative reliefs like Trajan's triumphal column or Marcus Aurelius's: they're so full of people it's hard to distinguish the scenes and characters. (I'll put some images to make it clearer)

this was the average complexity of a scene. these columns are like 30 meters high. it'd be impossible to distinguish the emperor from a soldier (even with the original colors) at such distance. so they decided that the emperor would be isolated from the rest of the people, who were "pressed together" - he'd be on the foreground with no one behind him (because if there was, their head would pop out from behind his shoulders) and no one pressed on his sides (or just their successor or someone that needed to be "praised" on the side). this left a sort of void around the emperor, especially the head. as this need to distinguish the emperor from the rest grew (with time, roman emperors became more and more autocratic and at some point they introduced the divine right to reign) this void started to be emphasized with colors like gold (used often for divine or important beings). when christians started to make their art, they "copy-pasted" many of this pagan systems to resematicize them (it must've had a big effect back then) and then, gradually, with time, we started to associate these symbols with christianity. MAYBE mandalorians had a similar story (or have similar story)

i wanted to add, also, that it's possible that the painting was re-painted multiple times. it's implied in canon by how sabine talks to thrawn that she doesn't agree with his approach to art (very western, art gets preserved in a museum and analyzed from "afar", while sabine seemed to condemn it because she views art as having a more active role, and interacts with it more freely). this way, anachronisms and contradictions could be explained: for example, the signature vehicles could've been added much later than the original painting because the older fighters weren't as easily recognized or understood by the contemporary mandos for what they were and what they meant, or because they were used in the last sacking so it made sense to have them to make the picture more easy to read. OR, another example, the strange figures of the dying people and the pietà reference in particular could've been an anti-war addiction of the "pacifist mandalorians", while the big scary mando was painted in their warrior times.

in the other paragraph that got deleted, i explained why i think that it must've probably been the traditional artstyle. the wookiepedia page saying that "mandalorian cubism came back around the clone wars era". it could be cool to interpret it as the sign of how the mandalorians of that era were switching back to their warrior roots (death watch etc) while at the same time, by being the traditional artstyle, it's also entirely normal and possible that satine got herself a portrait in that style without viewing it as the artstyle of the violent side of mandalore she didn't like. she just thought it's tradition. what I'd be most interested in, though, is when and why did that "art nouveau/art deco" style of architecture (like. main hall of the palace) and style in general (satine's iconic dresses) took off. is that their version of avantguardism/modern art?

also just. fyi, this idea of trying to figure out what specifically a painting or an art in general is representing is an idea that is deeply rooted into western's understanding of art - the idea of copying and representing reality, in this sense, is not common in places where the greeks' understanding of art didn't arrive

OH! And what I also find super interesting, and have no idea how to interpret, is that the Mandalorian in the painting is wearing a cloak that completely covers up most of their armour. It's really far more reminiscent of the Emperor's Red / Royal Guard (these guys) than how Mandalorians are usually depicted! I'm not well-versed in all the lore that is out there either, but I'm currently not aware of a historical Mando figure that dressed that way - even the Ultimate with his glorious cloak had it open in the front revealing his armour. It almost seems to me as if the concealment of the armour also has to be saying something.

but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.

and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.

if you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."

whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,

it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.

Summer Dress

c. 1780

Ecru linen embroidered with wool

1. You sound like a bot

2. You don't give anything to respond to

Remember Inigo Montoya

Polite Greeting: You will be assimilated.

Relevant personal link: Your biological and technological characteristics will be added to our own.

1. Polite Greeting:

2. Name: I’m Luke Skywalker

3. Personal Relevant Link:

4. Manage Expectations: I’m here to rescue you.

Polite Greeting: "Greetings, Exalted One."

Name + Relevant Personal Link: "I am Luke Skywalker, Jedi knight and friend to captain Solo."

Female coal workers at the Rose Bridge Colliery, Wigan, UK, 1860s

because this was their working apparel

but sometimes you see picture combinations like this:

they did mostly wear more conventional clothing outside work hours! you probably wouldn't look at the picture on the right and assume that was a girl who wore trousers and worked at a coal mine, but it was! they did understand "hey a hoop skirt dress doesn't work for every function and adjust for that!"

the multiple instances of “a test of ink” or some other variant thereof, followed by the person’s name and ancestry so that you know exactly who tested this ink

the multiple instances of complaining about the poor materials and subtly blaming others for it (often following the “test of ink” bits)

random blessings on God and on people (also random invocations to Mary)

the passive-aggressive prayers for the owner of the book, Edmond MacRichard, mostly for making them write on Sunday nights

the passive-aggressive prayers for everybody, actually

that one time one scribe cursed a dog

all of the random signatures that list not only their name, but their ancestors and where they came from, for absolutely no reason that I can see

the commentary on Edmond that alternates between complaining about him, praying for him, and seriously detailed accounts of what’s happening at the time with him

the pointed comments about what the book they’re restoring is lacking in, both in subject matter and quality

the complaining (seriously there is so much complaining it’s great)

some gems:

“The writing above was bad before it was restored and it is bad now.” (burn)

“If this story is in this book twice, it is not by mistake but because it is so well told here.” (sheer confidence radiates from this quote I tell you)

“Do not swear by the sod on which you stand. You shall be over it but a short time: for a long time you will be under it.” (that’s not creepy at all)

the stories, poems, and miniature history accounts that are entertaining to read that pop up every so often

every single instance where the word “alas” gets used (hint: there are many)

the sea monster bit? that there’s no context for?

the bits of advice and musings that occur which are actually quite profound

these guys need Sleep™

that one scribe from “dread and dismal Greece” who’s just hanging around for some reason

calling people leeches (which I’m pretty sure is one scribe doing it multiple times, so this is a call-out for Diarmaid Ó Conaire, who thought he could get away with it BUT HE CAN’T)

For example:

Diarmaid: “Understand those things above, ye historians and judges and leeches. I am Diarmaid Ó Conaire etc.”                the response underneath: “And by this page Diarmaid himself did not understand these things above. I am Seán Mac Fhlannchadha.” (FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT)

the passive-aggressive insulting by the scribes of the other scribes, and the resulting conversations (read: arguments) in the margins

that relatable feeling when you turn in something you know is terrible to your teacher and you know he’s going to die a little on the inside after seeing it but it’s circa 1500s Ireland: “This is a prayer for my teacher, Maurice son of Thomas son of James, for whom I have restored this little piece with bad tools.”