tbb, tcw, rebels

Whenever Shmi thinks about Anakin being a Jedi, she has a fairly romanticised view of how she hopes his life is. She imagines him in very heroic, noble scenarios, fighting against tyranny, standing up for those in need. She hopes it’s true, because she has to believe it was worth it. Shmi has no idea about the current state of the Republic or the Jedi Order. And she has NO idea that Anakin was initially rejected and is currently still struggling.

So the fact that some people want to claim Shmi of all people is somehow ‘representative’ of being a ‘selfless Jedi’ of the *old* Order is actually quite sickening.

Shmi is selfless, that's for sure. But it’s not because she’s some kind of embodiment of cold, impersonal detachment. In fact, it’s the polar opposite — she is motivated by the personal attachments of her family ties. Because she is a mother who unconditionally loves her son. Shmi is not without pain, worry, or regret with regards to Anakin's absence. A part of Shmi’s heart is always missing while he is gone.

If Shmi has something in common with any Jedi, it’s not with the ones most emblematic of the Prequels-era Jedi Order. Rather, it’s with her own son, whom she taught to be compassionate and to help others above all! And it’s with her grandson, Luke, who declares himself to be ‘a Jedi like my father before me’. In other words, a true Jedi who is moved to save others via the bonds of personal attachments… aka love and family.

The lesson here isn’t that Anakin should have been more like the old Order’s ideal of a Jedi. He tried that, and it ultimately lead to his apocalyptic fall into darkness. No, the ‘lesson’, if you will, is that the Jedi Order needed to be more like Shmi Skywalker, the only person who was responsible for the truly good person that Anakin was.

. . .

Rex can't quite picture Anakin like he used to. He remembers the war stories, but he looks at pictures of him and doesn't remember his hair being that long. And where did he get that scar from?

Wolffe is slowly forgetting the sound of Plo Koon's voice. He used to hear it in his dreams every night, waking him up in a cold sweat, but as the days turned into years, the nightmares became less and less specific, less detailed. Then Wolffe hears Plo's voice on some video on the holonet and he can't remember his buir sounding like that.

Bly used to remember the exact color of Aayla's skin, the specific shape of her lekku, the look in her eyes whenever one of his brothers said something funny. He used to want to die to see her laugh again. Now he sees pictures of her smiling and can't help but thinking that she looks foreign to him.

Cody couldn't help but smile as he remembers catching the Obi-Wan's lightsaber in battle, the smooth and collected tone the General uses whenever he "negotiates" with Separatists. The countless talks while Obi-Wan slowly slipped his tea, the constant discussion of battle strategy, the silent laughs as Obi-Wan rolls his eyes at his former Padawan which Cody would silently agree with. Not that he would ever mention that aloud. But as Cody stares at the news and prays that he never sees an announcement that Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead, he is struck with the fact that he can't remember what kind of tea Obi-Wan likes. The one he would drink when stressed or the one he would drink when he was in a good mood. Cody walks away before he can dwell on that fact any longer.

I did Hera and Ezra’s reunion. Was only right to do the brothers to 🙏

Really enamored with the idea of Kanan wearing an eye patch, so here’s a little redesign where he loses an eye on Malachor (remaining eye is still blind).

Extras:

Echo has gone through SO MUCH by the time Order 66 happens, what if it had actually MEANT SOMETHING?

Because Echo knows, before almost anyone else, what it means to truly lose all of your agency and be turned into a weapon against everyone and everything you love. Echo knows what it is to die and be brought back to life and have to live with knowing he'd been used to hurt his own people, the Jedi, and innocent people in the Republic. Echo knows what it feels like to have to find a way to understand who you are again after that and to keep fighting so it doesn't happen to anyone else ever again.

Imagine Echo being one of the only ones who can reach the clones, who can help them through the trauma of what's happened to them. Because he's not alone anymore, he's not the odd one out, someone no one else can truly understand. They're ALL like him now, they all know exactly what it feels like to be him. And as much as he'd wanted to feel less alone, he wishes it hadn't happened like this. He's glad he can be here to help any of the clones he's able to help escape the Empire, but it would've been better if they'd never needed the help in the first place.

But they do. And he's here, a shining example of what survival in the wake of their worst nightmare looks like. He hadn't always understood what the Jedi had meant when they'd talked about the will of the Force, he'd dismissed a lot of it as just spiritual mumbo jumbo he'd never be able to understand. Most things didn't happen for a REASON after all, they just happened and you dealt with it as best you could. But now, he wonders if he understands it a little better. He wonders if it was the will of the Force that had propelled him towards the shuttle that day on the Citadel, that had caused him to ignore Fives' demand to come back. Because as awful and meaningless as it had felt at the time, it's allowed him to provide guidance to his people in a way no one else can.