Shmi had Anakin for 9 years and despite living in literal slavery, he was happy, kind, compassionate, loving, and well adjusted.
10 years of living with Obi-Wan and Anakin is still all those things but it’s now buried under a layer of neurotic insecurity, self doubt, and a desperate desire to lovingly connect with his father figure but rebuffed.
Obi-Wan did care about Anakin, but Obi-Wan was more focused on Anakin’s performance as a Jedi than he did about connecting to Anakin as a person. Obi-Wan’s approval was dependent on Anakin meeting certain benchmarks. He also taught Anakin to only follow the council’s wishes rather than helping those in need especially those who were ignored by those in power.
Shmi simply loved Anakin wholly and unconditionally and taught him to do the same to others.
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Something about the way Marinette ends the season mit with telling Adrien the truth, but by deciding (or at least considering) to break up with him, something that is obviously not going to help him in any way either. The comforting thing about self-sacrifice is that you are still in control. Even if hurts, at least it was your plan, your decision. A frank discussion with Adrien, at the end of which he might decide to break up? That’s scarier to her than just her breaking things off outright.
Do you think Anakin is as possessive as fandom makes him out to be?
Disclaimer: I am mainly going off of film-canon here, because that is the highest tier of canon there is. I will discuss the EU (specifically TCW '08) later because it's wildly inconsistent and that's where the canon vs. fanon begins to diverge drastically.
To be possessive towards or about another person, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is to "want to have all of that person's love and attention and [be unwilling to] share it with anyone else", and is commonly associated with being jealous and controlling. Anakin is none of these things, at least not in the sense you might hear from in a stereotypical BookTok dark romance or whatnot.
I'll go through both platonic and romantic relationships. Spoilers: Consider this Part 2 of the Attachment Discourse Behemoth and the Masculinities Essay that I didn't know I'd have to write.
Shmi
Yes, I'm listing her here because the pro-Jedi crowd like to claim that Anakin's "possessive love/attachment" is where everything went wrong, for some reason.
In terms of TPM, he is literally 9 years old. At age 9/10, children are still typically dependent on their parents, and he "knows nothing of greed". I think reading TPM!Anakin as "possessive" is inherently a bad-faith reading because there is zero indication of that being true in the film. As I put it in my last essay: Chat, is a loving parent-child relationship "greedy" and "possessive" now?
In AOTC, Anakin is having nightmarish Force visions of his mother being kidnapped and tortured to death, but has not had the opportunity to check on her until the events of the film. And then Shmi literally dies in his arms. I'm not sure what people are thinking when they claim Anakin is "possessive" of his mother and mad at her because she died on him, because at this point this is just mental gymnastics. The Massacre happened in a vengeful, dissociative grief-induced rage; there is nothing else to it. Star Wars is a very straightforward story; most bad-faith readings make themselves very apparent in terms of how illogical these claims can get.
As for his relationship with the Lars family? I think Anakin is far more concerned for the fact his mother was sold as a bride to Cliegg Lars, which is a very justifiable reason to worry for a loved one (i.e. how consensual the relationship is, if she's free and happy, etc.). It is implied he gets along well enough with Owen and Beru, at least.
Obi-Wan
Yes, apparently I have to list him here too. So here's the thing: Jedi forbid attachment, in practice interpersonal loving relationships; if the two were not defined as equivalent, then the story would literally make zero sense (I said it before, I'll say it again).
Obi-Wan is meant to represent the perfect, archetypical PT-era Jedi who follows all the rules, which means he doesn't get "attached" to other people, and if he does, the only time he's willing to openly admit it is when everything has gone to hell anyway (re: Mustafar). Obi-Wan is literally not "attached" enough to anyone else for Anakin to theoretically get jealous of, at least in film-canon.
To branch into TCW '08, however, we do get to see one potential "attachment" for Obi-Wan in the form of Satine Kryze, an old flame and friend of his. And guess what Anakin's reaction is? He ships them like the postal service! He's happily married and wants his mentor-father-figure to experience the same marital bliss, not try to control with whom Obi-Wan consorts with! He's happy for the people around him if they experience happiness (or at least have the potential to do so)! Why would he be jealous? He's literally watching them bicker while sipping on a space-martini!
Ahsoka
I'll keep her section short because she debuts in TCW '08 and is thus by all means an EU character, but the end of Season 5 of the cartoon says it all: Ahsoka chooses to leave the Jedi Order. Anakin isn't happy about it, but empathizes with her and doesn't make more than a token effort to stop her, and ultimately respects her opinions and her agency to leave. I don't think this sounds like "possessive" behaviour, or at least more "possessive" than the average person to the point of being defined by it.
Another major source of fanonization? The Vader persona and Dark Side corruption, which the argument for the Clovis arc also ties into, because TCW '08 leans heavily into "hypercorrecting" Anakin's characterization to be more Vader-esque when that defeats the point of Anakin as characterized in the actual Prequel Trilogy films.
It's far easier to argue post-Fall Anakin (especially on Mustafar) as "possessive" and he has been described as such by George Lucas, but the issue is that this is not Anakin's default state. He's not in his right mind after being corrupted from immersion in the Dark Side (or as I like to analogize it, being high on metaphysical murderdrugs) and this is meant to be seen as OOC behaviour, both in- and out-of-universe. Any and all "possessiveness" is his inherent love corrupted by the Dark Side.
TL;DR: No, Anakin is nowhere near as possessive as much of the fandom makes him out to be. The reason fanon is like that is in part due to a badly written and OOC TCW '08 story arc, but can ultimately be attributed to the idolization of "Vader" and a refusal to acknowledge Anakin for who he is as his true self: in other words, bad faith readings and media illiteracy.
I haven't seen anyone point this out yet, so I will. Adrien's desire to turn his house into a museum ties perfectly into his arc all season. He starts the season out not wanting to go home. Not wanting to go home so badly that he turns around and starts running away.
And all season we see him unable to get comfortable in that house. His stuff is in boxes. He can't figure out how to paint his walls. He doesn't feel at home there. The whole place already feels like a museum or mausoleum to his father's life. And suddenly he gets an idea. "What if it really WAS a museum?"
What if instead of having to live in the shadow of his father, he could make the house into what it already is. A monument to a man he never knew and never understood. An archive of the past. Something OTHER than a home. Because it doesn't feel like a home to him, it hasn't in a long long time. Yes Marinette contributed to his idea of "making people see the great man Gabriel was." But it's really not about that, it's about making the house make sense to him, and having an excuse to get out. Because you can't LIVE in a museum. Can you. The museum idea is Adrien finding a way to get out from under the house....the only way he has found that feels socially acceptable.
It's kind of hilarious that people always say Marinette is so concerned about Adrien or Chat Noir getting akumatized (which is doubtful, considering her actions), and the characters constantly talk about Adrien like he's some fragile emotional mess who's an easy target for akumas, so they need to keep him in the dark to "protect" him.
Meanwhile, this show has spent six seasons doing everything in its power to traumatize, break down, beat up, emotionally abuse, isolate, manipulate, and generally put Adrien through every horrible thing imaginable just to get him to his breaking point—and he's still standing.
The only two times he actually got akumatized, Gabriel had to personally intervene and deliberately push him to that point. It wasn't just some random bad day that did it.
Meanwhile, everyone around him—including all those supposedly strong, emotionally stable people who have decided Adrien can't handle the truth—has gotten akumatized over the dumbest shit imaginable.
But sure, Adrien is the fragile one who needs to be kept in a bubble lol
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And Palpatine saw a victim ripe for the taking, the perfect weapon to turn against the Jedi at his moment of greatest weakness, and no one stopped him.
Even when everyone else in his circle became suspicious of Palpatine, no one wanted to touch Anakin’s friendship with him, except to ask him to betray his friend for their own gain. They waited for Anakin to find out himself who Palpatine really was, but Palpatine was smart enough to only reveal that once he was sure he had his hooks in Anakin and could make him just conflicted enough at the right moment to make the wrong choice, and to secure his power from the one institution which actually stood a chance of unseating him.
If Qui-Gon hadn’t died, If the Jedi had freed his mother from slavery, if Obi-Wan had not been so rigid in his mentorship, if the Trade Federation had actually faced consequences from the Republic for their blatantly illegal invasion of a sovereign planet, if the Jedi hadn’t forbidden him from being with the woman he adored, if anyone had cared to question why Palpatine was allowed to hang out alone with a 12-year-old, if Mace had been able to see the person named Anakin and not just the Chosen One, if Yoda hadn’t given a 19-year-old fresh from his own apprenticeship responsibility for a 14-year-old apprentice during a war, if he hadn’t then cracked under zero pressure to let that apprentice take the fall for a crime she clearly didn’t commit, if any of this didn’t happen, the story could have been different.
And if the story were different, Anakin Skywalker would be the galaxy’s greatest hero, and not its most feared villain. That’s why the prequels are a tragedy.
I don't feel its that contradictory that Adrien was both on fencing teams and basketball teams, and completely isolated as a child with only Chloe and Felix as his friends.
Adrien at times, though it could be due to the show being from Marinette's pov, can come off as aloof. Even with Nino, who is his best friend, he keeps a distance (which makes sense considering he is Chat Noir). Adrien's character has been stripped a lot since seasons 1-4, but even back then he was much more expressive as Chat Noir than as Adrien.
Kids want to hang out outside of activities. Adrien wasn't allowed to. Kids want to connect on a deeper level, but Adrien as we see him is so attached to the Prim and Proper conditioning his parents forced on him that he comes off as a doll (though Ephemeral does imply this is due to Mari missing his more Chat Noir personality traits when hanging out with him). We even see it with his participation in Kitty Section. He's not close to any of the members, barely interacting with them with the exception of *maybe* Luka, and that's mostly because of Marinette (the episode at the ice rink with Luka and Kagami).
Adrien's participation in team sports could explain how he knows that taking personality traits from anime will go over well as Chat Noir, but it doesn't mean he wasn't isolated. He could be goofy and learn some social cues (such as that people respond well to anime references to tie this back to his chat persona) whilst still missing out on major social developmental milestones due to his home schooling. I've done team sports (volleyball) as well as pottery classes, art classes, etc. I left those classes without a single friend, and I barely talked to 90% of my volleyball team. That's without the awkwardness many home schooled people report (though my autism probably brings me to a similar level as those who were home schooled, or at least close enough to feel comfortable comparing my experiences to his).
Obviously the Adrien we know probably tried to reach out, but I don't think its a stretch that Gabriel and Emilie ruined any potential relationships he could have formed, or that Adrien simply came off as Too Much. If he leaned more chat noir, then we know some people find him obnoxious. If he leaned more Adrien the Brand, then we know many people find him cut off and lacking inner depth - they see him as "nice" and nothing more (compare how seasons 1-3 Nino treats Adrien to the rest of the class - Nino seems like the only one who actually knows him. This is even in ephemeral where Nino isn't phased by his puns and silliness the way Mari is, or in Lies where Kagami shoots down his silly poses while drawing.)
As for why he doesn't have model friends... I'll just say it. Adrien, as he is depicted, is a total nepo baby in the modeling industry. We only ever see him do shoots for his father's company. Closed shoots at that, where he is the only model. If the show let him be an actual super model, like we are told he is, he absolutely would know other teen models (though the above would explain why he's not friends with them, with the added pressure of technically being competitors). Adrien's modeling career, as we're shown it, wouldn't open him up to meeting too many other models. If he were treated like an actual model in the show, then there's more wiggle room to question shit, but as it is the only people I think he should have a relationship with would be the other ladybug movie voice actors. Those being professional relationships, they would only know him as his Adrien the Brand persona.
Yes this is me doing the work of the writers for them, trying to make sense of how he was simultaneously isolated and involved in group activities. I just find this to be less of a contradiction than other writing issues with the show due to my own experiences. Adrien's character has many inconsistencies, especially in later seasons, but strangely enough I don't think this is one of them.
badly explained/written but its 2am and im packing up my house but i have to speak this first
This is shortly after anakin is fitted with his prosthetic/mechanical hand, but the way he holds padmes hand with it is very interesting.
Being that this is a new thing for anakin its neat to watch it shown in the way his fingers begin curling once they are in position, not after padme touches his hand. And when padme readjustes his hand doesnt react.
It's noted throughout star wars canon that anakin despises his mechanical hand, even after years of using it, he often complains it's just a fraction of a second slower than his "real hand" would have been, and that using the force through it is a particularly strange sensation.
While padme and anakin react to eachother the way they do is likely because of the way the hand was created and manipulated on set, I'm choosing to believe that the way padme readjusts her hand is because as anakins is new, his sensation is delayed/lessened he can't really tell/feel the right way to hold her hand with it (though i'm sure he's practiced this exact situation a hundred times before the wedding)
I'm trying to knock some things out of my 'draw later' list. To give you an idea how old this particular item is, I dropped out of the fandom before the 5th season finished airing (and that was in 2023).
One thing I've always found strange is that conversations about Chat Blanc almost never center Adrien.
Yes, the episode is mostly told from Marinette's perspective, so naturally she's terrified by what she witnesses. But discussions often reduce the entire story to a romance plot, or worse, romanticize it by saying things like, "He destroyed the world because she didn't love him anymore."
But that's not what happened.
I genuinely wish MLB handled serious topics better because Chat Blanc is fundamentally a story about abuse, neglect, manipulation, and trauma.
Gabriel exploited Adrien and Marinette's relationship as a way to ABUSE HIS OWN SON. He manipulated him, traumatized him on purpose, and wanted to use him as a weapon. That's the heart of the story, not the romance.
Adrien didn't willingly destroy the world. His first instinct was to resist the akuma. When he realized he couldn't, he literally tried to destroy himself to stop it. He failed, his power spiraled out of control, and the entire world was destroyed. Then he was left completely alone to suffer, lose his mind, and torture himself with guilt for who knows how long. By the time Marinette finds him, he's deeply unstable.
It's so odd to me that one of the most horrific things that ever happened to Adrien, a story that perfectly highlights the abuse, neglect, and trauma he suffered because of Gabriel, gets flattened into a tragic love story. Adrien himself almost disappears from the conversation, even though he's the primary victim of everything that happened.
Chat Blanc is an absolute gold mine from a storytelling perspective. It has so much psychological depth and so much potential to explore Adrien's trauma, his relationship with Gabriel, his fear of his own powers, his guilt, and his identity.
Instead, it's almost always remembered as "the episode where Chat Noir destroyed the world because of love."
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also hayden’s delivery is stunning I truly believe that this is a man who is in physical pain from the yearning
I hate when people act like there’s some artifice or intentionality behind the fireplace confession no he’s not “hitting on her” he’s vomiting out his deepest feelings to the woman who is both the cause of his inner conflict and the only person he trusts to understand him. it’s raw and it’s painful and that’s the point
clone wars by karen traviss kinda 🔥🔥🔥 for saying 20 year old anakin has never been drunk. i love anakin as the lamest guy ever who hasn't done anything. oh he's well aware of the universe's vices, he grew up a slave on tatooine. but he's been an ascetic monk since he was 9 with a helicopter master. he hasn't done shit. the most he got away with is the pod racing on the lower levels
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"Obi-Wan is wise but he has not heart" - Anakin Skywalker
This always comes out on novels both legends and new canon and is strongly implied in Tcw so I believe it´s a character trait Anakin believes Obi-Wan has. In fact this belief from Anakin was quite common especially after AOTC and before ROTS.
There are a lot of reasons for Anakin to believe it, first of all, Obi-Wan tried his best to become an aloof Jedi master so Anakin would become the "perfect jedi chosen one" but Anakin came from a warm family and community so Obi-Wan´s aloofness was understood by Anakin as lack of affection which made him feel emotionally isolated during his years at the temple given Obi-Wan was his main caregiver but he hardly if ever showed him affection the way his mother or his friends at Tatooine did, so Anakin grew up to greatly respect Obi-Wan´s force habilities but learned not to expect him to cover or even understand his emotional needs.
The interesting part is that he still loved him and respected him as a father and didn´t try to change this part of his personality, Obi-Wan was Obi-Wan and Anakin would not try to change him.
This got to a breaking point after Shmi died, because given Obi-Wan lack of wory over Anakin´s mother well being and subsequent death, this didn´t made Anakin love or respect Obi-Wan less but he stopped trusting him altogether and came to this conclusion, Obi-Wan is a wise Jedi Master but he doesn´t have a heart and Anakin could not change this.
This perception helps to explain why Anakin even tried to keep contact with Obi-Wan even after the whole Hardeen bussines in which Obi-Wan quite mercilessly used Anakin´s affection for one of his missions, Anakin forgave Obi-Wan because for him Obi-Wan was acting just like he was an aloof Jedi Master who cares for the mission and the order first and foremost and Anakin´s affection is a sacrificial character trait and comes secondary to this.
This also helps explain why Padme and Palpatine became Anakin´s primary confidants and while he still cared for Obi-Wan, he knew he could not trust him with his heart or his affection of his toughts, Anakin wasn´t even sure Obi-Wan would even care.
The ironic thing is that this change in Anakin made Obi-Wan less neurotic about being the perfect Jedi and actually try to become comrades and fellow Jedi once Anakin stopped asking him to play a role he didn´t ever want to play but just when Obi-Wan tought Anakin was alright, it all came down, because this kind of misunderstandings have consequences.
Obi-Wan and Anakin loved each other but never truly understood each other.
