The Truth Is Often What We Make Of It.

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✨✨PRE-ORDERS ARE OPEN!✨✨

Hello there! 

Pre-orders for Passion and Serenity: A Qui/Obi Compendium are now open! They will remain open until October 1st at 11:59 PM EST.

Passion and Serenity features 300+ pages of art and fic created by our talented team of 36 contributors. The physical copy of Passion and Serenity is a 6 x 9 inch perfect bound book, and our artists have designed several wonderful merch items as well.

We have five different bundles available, and we are expecting to ship pre-orders in mid November 2021.

All proceeds from the zine will be donated to UNICEF, a charity supported by both Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson.

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May the Force be with you!

Putting aside that their whole religion is based on Asian philosophies that basically inspired the modern principles of therapy which are used to this day, and putting aside also Anakin'a unwillingness to be helped or to talk about his feelings, and even putting aside that meditation serves the same purposes as therapy...

What... exactly, do you guys think, is that room, private and quiet and calm, in the movies, where Anakin sits down with Yoda to talk about his problems, in those soft couches... what the heck do people think those are if not mental health meeting rooms? Under what pretences to you think that Anakin sat down to have a chat with Yoda, if not for advise and counseling?

Like, sure, it is not definitive proof that the Jedi had a "Formal Therapy Program" or whatever but... there is no reason to think they didn't have a program either. They certainly did offer a support system, (the whole Order is one big support system!) They are George Lucas' literal "intergalactic therapists!" They got that covered!

Now, you may be asking, "why is Anakin so messed up, then?" And like... you guys remember Palpatine exists, right? And you know Therapy needs to be aproached willingly? You do realize how reticent Anakin was and how he compulsively held secrets, hiding away his problems? Who, do you think, has the capacity to drag Anakin Skywalker into therapy?

Yeah absolutely! There are several easy hallmarks that the Jedi are in complete opposite of how a cult works!

1. They encourage individuality, critical thinking, and self reflection. One of he key tenants the Jedi operate by is to teach their Knights to look inward and that all of their relationships with the force are different and individual. When a Padawan or knight struggles with a comprehension or utilization of a tenant or teaching,they are not treated negatively for it,but rather encouraged, much like when a child struggles in a subject in school. A cult punishes differentiation, and it isn’t always an obvious punishment,quite often it’s social judgement and punishment from peers. (You are stepping out of your box,you are other,this is shameful,you are sinning or commiting evil by doing so.)

2. The Jedi allow and intigrate the beliefs of othe peoples! We see them interact with other cultures of force sentients who interpret the force differently than they do,and it is exactly interpretation that they think it is. The Jedi don’t teach that their way is tantamount and that other ways of the force are wrong. And they do not shame or judge others different than them,including non force sentients. Cults exclude and bar interaction with outsiders,or in its most benign form greatly dissuade it and usually teach themselves better or as some “chosen ones” so others and their beliefs are wrong and inferior.

3. You can leave without punishment! We have many examples of Jedi leaving the Order for various reasons,and we are shown that they do not face negative repercussions from the Order if they haven’t committed an act of violence ect. Dooku and others are spoken of quite highly after they leave,they are not stripped of identity and excommunicated. And very importantly, they are not restricted interactions with members after they have left. Whether a Jedi stays or goes is a personal choice, and we know it’s rare but it is not an incomprehensibly horrible thing if they do. Cults do not allow people to leave easily,in its most threatening form leaving is physically barred or threatened by many negative repercussions. In its most benign form leaving is dissuaded by social pressures and fear of alienation and isolation. Cult survivors do not typically have lots of access to family and friends or other members of the cult and they are barred access to previous social support and structure.

4. The Jedi encourage their Knights to keep their cultures and physical forms of identity. We see that many of the knights dress differently and hold onto elements of their species or cultural identity, in tattoos or clothing or hair ect. Cults do not allow physical differentiation and quite often demand physical conformity to its rules or tenants. Stepping beyond that physical conformity at the very least marks you as other and not a part of the social group, and at worst marks you as a deviant/sinner/perpetrator of evil. The Jedi make no demands for conformity and encourage the rich tapestry of difference and individuality in its members.

(This scene is both Yoda directing Ezra to better questions and pointing out that he has to make these decisions for himself, he can’t just let Kanan tell him what’s right or wrong for himself.) The entire Ilum arc is the same, that the test to move forward as a Jedi is one that’s specifically tailored to each youngling having to face a fear (whether it’s a spooky cave, an overreliance on technology, being too brash, etc.) that they’re tasked with overcoming.  They have to look inward and face it, the Jedi specifically take them there to teach them that. Further, the crystals are individual to them, another thing the Jedi specifically take them there to find:

The big ultimate lesson that the younglings learn from going to Ilum? That they were meant to learn to think critically and get themselves out of the prisons of their own mind, which is a very direct parallel to what George Lucas has said: “All my movies are about how the only prison you can really be trapped in is your own mind.”  –George Lucas

The Jedi are teaching them to get out of the prison of their own minds, which is a central theme to the movies, per George Lucas. The Jedi teach them to be unique:

To always be themselves. 2.  That this is also reflected in their clothing, some of which is honoring their birth culture’s rights, like Ahsoka and Shaak both have the akul-tooth headdress:

Luminara and Barriss dress in similar headwraps and clothing, as well as have Mirialan tattoos visibly present:

Or you have characters who might be dressing as part of their birth culture or might just like the way they dress, like Rig Nema:

Are Jedi robes common?  Sure.  But it’s also just as common to see a youngling like Ahsoka wearing a whole bunch of different outfits and that’s supported, too:

3.  Not only can they leave without punishment, but they’re still spoken warmly of!  They literally put busts of the Masters who left right there in the library where anyone can see them!

There’s a scene in Dooku: Jedi Lost where the younglings are walking by the statues of the Lost Twenty and one of them has a question and the Jedi take a moment to talk about them, to say they just chose different paths, they didn’t leave to become Sith or whatever, they left to be leaders or teachers or just simply vanish. In Attack of the Clones, the Jedi don’t believe that Dooku would have turned against them, they speak warmly of him and defend him, despite that he left quite some time ago, showing they still cared about him and didn’t see his departure as a huge betrayal. In Age of the Republic: Count Dooku, a young Jedi Knight tells him there are rumors about Dooku at the Temple, but many think he left to start his own school of Force teaching (which means they’re not keeping tabs on him and just letting him do his thing) and Jak’zin isn’t forbidden from speaking with him or anything, but instead treated Dooku with respect. 4.  They teach their younglings that you have to know yourself before you can hope to know the Force, they teach that introspection of the self is fundamental:

I’m rewatching the prequels and I love these three so much

there are some close-ups under the cut btw ↓

Title says it all.

There’s this notion that, in the Prequels, the Jedi Council failed Anakin, be it by not noticing his fall to the Dark Side or by not granting him the rank of master or “telling him to repress his fears on his first day”. And, like… no.

Lucas made it clear multiple times: the only person to blame for Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side is Anakin himself (and Palpatine, who manipulated him into making the choice he made).

So here’s a long-but-not-too-long post where I sort of break down Anakin’s relationship with the Council throughout the Prequels era. I included GIFs and quotes to make it entertaining.

Abandon all hope ye who enter.

“FEAR LEADS TO ANGER” - Anakin & the Council in Episode I

A lot of people say that the Council berated Anakin for being afraid. Not true.

If you take into consideration the fact that Lucas has stated that Jedi are allowed to feel emotions, including love, then it becomes evident that Anakin being afraid wasn’t the problem.

Anakin refusing to admit he’s afraid was the problem. That’s what they were testing for. The whole time, the Jedi are basically telling Anakin:

“Look, we’re mind-reading wizards, we know you’re afraid, you’re thinking about your Mom, it’s normal… so when we ask ‘how are you feeling?’ the answer is…?”

… and Anakin consistently dodges the question and refuses to admit he’s scared.

And that’s not what a Jedi is supposed to do. A Jedi should embrace their fears, then overcome them. Being a Jedi means accepting, confronting and mastering your emotions, not repressing them.

Which is what the Jedi Council was trying to tell Anakin. It’s okay to be afraid, but you can’t keep it bottled up inside.

And keep in mind… they know that dealing with your emotions in a healthy way is a hard thing to do (especially for someone coming from a slave background, like Anakin), which is why they originally say “no” to him joining the Order.

They know Anakin would struggle to fit in the Jedi mold, they know that Qui-Gon did a very foolish thing by taking this 9-year-old away from his mother and then insisting to make him a Padawan right away, without even going through an adjustment period with the younglings.

“I think it is obvious that he [Qui-Gon] was wrong in Episode I and made a dangerous decision, but ultimately this decision may be correct. […] Anakin is the chosen one, and he did bring peace at last with his own sacrifice.” - Cut Magazine, 1999

“So here we’re having Qui-Gon wanting to skip the early training and jump right to taking him on as his Padawan learner, which is controversial, and ultimately, the source of much of the problems that develop later on.” - The Phantom Menace, Director’s Commentary, 1999

But they give Anakin a chance anyway, and become his adoptive family.

Let’s investigate the alleged “war crimes” of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, using the customary International Humanitarian Law (IHL). IHL is very clear on perfidy: “killing, injuring or capturing an adversary by resort to perfidy is prohibited.” It defines the acts of perfidy in question as “simulation of surrender because an adversary who surrenders is considered hors de combat [out of action] and may not be attacked but must be captured or released” and “simulation of an intent to negotiate under a flag of truce because a person advancing under a flag of truce must be respected.” Acts qualified as perfidy are actions leading the opponent to believe that “he is entitled to, or obligated to accord, protection under the rules of international law applicable in the armed conflict” and one acts is “with the intent to betray that confidence [invited by these actions].” Thus, like some war manuals are putting it: “it is prohibited to commit a hostile act under the cover of legal protection.” In other words, in very simple wording, when you are in war, you are not allowed to purposefully fake a situation in which you are no longer mean a threat to your opponent, thus they are prohibited by IHL to harm you, then taking advantage on them – injuring, killing, capturing them – while they are acting as the faked situation requires them. To clarify the situation a bit further, international law says regarding flag of truce: “a white flag carried or exhibited by one of the hostile parties. The so-called parlementaire [as US defines it, an agent employed by a commander of belligerent forces in the field to go in person within the enemy lines for the purpose of communicating or negotiating openly and directly with the enemy commander] being the person who carries the flag, enjoys protection.” Now, before we should be properly equipped to judge the situations in the Clone Wars movie and in the tv show, we need to get familiar with yet another term in IHL: ruses of war. It is an umbrella term in IHL, referring to basically any deceptive actions what are not perfidy, actions what are misleading the enemy, but “do not invite the confidence of an adversary with respect to protection under that [applicable] law.”

Obi-Wan Kenobi during the battle of Christophsis

In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while Anakin and Ahsoka are about to destroy the shield of the Separatist army, Obi-Wan stays behind in a battle to delay the droids, in order to allow Rex to escape. Eventually surrounded and outnumbered, he surrenders. The droids are taking him into custody, disarming him. The Separatist general demands him “Now order your troops to stand down.” Obi-Wan invites the general to “negotiate the terms of surrender” since he “conceded the battle” and the general agrees to “be civilized about this.” Now, one of the key factors here is that despite Obi-Wan says, the general won the battle, to boost his ego, the battle is not called off: the fights are still raging on. The Separatist general and his army did not consider the Republic troops - including Anakin and Ahsoka, working to disable the Separatist shield - hors de combat who may not be attacked but must be captured or released: they were still advancing, butchering the clone troopers.

The other important thing to realize is that Obi-Wan did surrender, not just simulating surrender, and now he is a prisoner of war, and as such, hors de combat. Consequently, the enemy treats him not as someone “advancing under a flag of truce” and who, as a result, “must be respected”. Despite Obi-Wan proposes a “negotiation”, a prisoner of war who is requesting a discussion between captor and captive about under what conditions the captive willing to comply the wishes of the captor would hardly meet with the definition of “negotiation under the flag of truce”. In fact, the general makes demands, and when he realizes, Obi-Wan is “stalling” to buy time for himself, the situation becomes pretty clear: “Unless you call off your troops right now, I will have no choice but to destroy you.” The droids are grabbing Obi-Wan. It is the general who breaches IHL by threatening the life of his prisoner. This is when the shield is disabled, Obi-Wan frees himself from captivity, jumps into the air, and grabs the General, capturing him instead, the Republic wins the battle of Christophsis.

According to IHL, perfidy would be Obi-Wan pretending to be an agent of the Republic army, employed to negotiate and communicate, then when he is received as such, he takes the opportunity and capturing the unsuspected general; claiming, he will surrender, and when the general approaches to take him into custody, Obi-Wan capturing him; saying, he and his entire army are surrendering, and when the general and the Separatist army are approaching, order his troops to open fire. (I would like to add, strictly speaking, this would be illegal under IHL, but not be considered a war crime.) Instead, Obi-Wan was captured by enemy forces, and when his opponent demanded him to order his troops to surrender, he called the general to discuss the terms of him complying, hoping his fellow general will turn the outcome of the battle. Then, he was about the get killed, while the fight was still going on, and he took the first opportunity to attack his captor, turning the tables and winning the battle.

My verdict: it's a very mild ruse of war.

Anakin Skywalker breaking the blockade of Ryloth

In S01E19, Anakin navigates his heavily damaged battleship all by himself, to the Separatist blockade over Ryloth. He says the Separatist captain, “I’ve been ordered to surrender myself, the entire crew of this vessel and my ship in exchange for safe passage of food and medical supplies to the people of Ryloth.” However, this is a lie: Anakin is planning to destroy the command ship by letting his vessel collide with it. There are two key factors to notice in the situation: Anakin is not arriving under the flag of truce, and he is not treated and greeted as parlementaire, nor he claims to be one. He is viewed as an enemy general with a heavily armed battle ship, capable to fight with troops aboard. Despite he claims, he is ordered to surrender in exchange for allowing humanitarian operations to happen, he did not surrender yet: he is not hors de combat, nor he claims to be one.

The other crucial factor is that the captain did not accept the bargain (yet): despite he is interested, he is suspicious, ordering his men to scan the ship. When he realizes, Anakin is all alone on the vessel, he yells, “You have nothing to bargain with!” – thus, it is obvious that he did not consider the deal to be done and now he lost interest in it. Therefore, Anakin and the captain are two belligerent military leaders who happened to be communicating with each other. Anakin’s act does not qualify to be an “act inviting the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled to, or obligated to according, protection under the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, with intent to betray that confidence.” When his ruse is exposed, Anakin abandons his ship, letting it destroy the Separatist command ship.

Perfidy would be Anakin claiming, he surrenders, asking the Separatist not to fire, claiming, he is approaching the blockade so the Separatists can take him and his men into custody. Then, when captain comply, Anakin would abandon the vessel letting it collide with the Separatist command ship. However, that too would be only considered to be a war crime if the captain is injured or killed, otherwise it’s just illegal.

My verdict: it's a witty ruse of war.

Conclusion

The essence of perfidy is the “invitation to obtain and then breach the adversary’s confidence, i.e., an abuse of good faith.” This clearly did not happen in either case - misleading, the essence of ruses of war, surely did. Both war and law are complicated but from what I know, these two incidents would hardly be qualified as perfidy on Earth.

🎊🎉And that's a wrap!🎉🎊

for hosting! And a shoutout to everyone for paticipating!! We did it!!!! Phew, all 7 days of codywan week, done! A huge thank-you to@codywanweek

As you might've been able to tell, I was purposefully assigning a distinctive colour palette to each day. I think, when put altogether like this, it looks quite cool!

Ever think about how both their first and last interaction were greetings? There’s plenty of goodbye’s there in-between, but their first moment together on the screen was a “Hello” and the last one a “Hello again”.