PieHeda

Like I get it y’all, she’s not acting like most famous people and I guess people want her to just act nice and charismatic like all the rest of them (however lots of “the nice ones” are in the Epstein files, sooooooo???).

“You know, managing projects isn’t even my job.

And it is not economics, which is a common misconception.

My job…

These videos function as a form of citizen or indie journalism, which traditionally means that the writer is free from the restrictions of a publication owned by a wealthy individual who doesn’t like it when truth is spoken to power. In the past, this has been media that pays less at the expense of saying more. Because being able to say more IS THE ENTIRE POINT.

On these platforms, people want a comfortable career that is entirely video essays or quippy response videos, and they bow down to the restrictions of the wealthy in order to keep that money coming. The benefits of indie journalism are lost if you have to willing comply with what is essentially censorship by algorithm. That just IS mainstream journalism with a facade of indie splashed on it.

“You should do that. Open a bookshop with a cat.”

“Like, just for the shop cat?”

“Definitely.”

Symmetrical because, um. Bail and Organa are politicians? This thesis is not perfect.

Mothma’s speech is politics at its best. She is a passionate and charismatic speaker. When everyone else is clearly clinging to an anti-Ghorman narrative out of fear, she cuts through the bullshit and tells it like it is. The timing is perfect, she knows this speech can’t wait a week or a month, it needs to go out on newsfeeds now, while the shock of the story is still fresh.

And of course Bail Organa helps to coordinate this moment for her. This is also politics working correctly; deals made, alliances called upon, plans finally coming together for this moment.

But the thing is, politics do not move fast. Mon Mothma had to wait ACTUAL YEARS making lots of other speeches that basically got ignored to build up to this moment. If government is working right, it’s usually better for politics to be a little slow. If our systems prioritize people, we want the machine to move slowly enough that no one gets caught in the gears. Trouble is that it’s not a very agile vehicle when someone uses power against people. And because it’s slow, it also takes a very long time for that vehicle to swing around and get pointed at the enemy. People have to - very slowly - be convinced something is wrong. Mothma could only make that speech AFTER a genocide.

In 2x12 Organa makes a speech of his own. Immediately after learning of Luthen’s death, he uses the power of political speech to convince a much smaller room full of leaders to slow down, both dismissing Luthen’s sacrifice to the rebellion and running the risk of costing them valuable time to act on fresh intelligence. This is why Kleya resisted coming to Yavin even though she knew the Imperials were coming for her. This is politics at its worst: saying all the right things, walking the line of what will make everyone in this room look upstanding, and caring more about that than the urgency of the situation.

Mothma and Dedra both had to lie to those they loved, and we see how that’s going for each of them here.

Mothma lying to Perrin was strategic (Perrin definitely did not need to know Rebel secrets) but it was also a kindness. Seeing a glimpse of him made me realize that Mothma probably has not spoken to him or her daughter at all since her rescue after the speech, and that’s a sacrifice that was also a kindness to them. They can very honestly say they have no idea why she did that or where she is. They get to go on with their lives, Perrin having an affair and her daughter probably being a Real Trad Wife of Chandrila, complete with all the luxury and misery that implies. It doesn’t feel good, but I suspect Mothma is glad that she no longer has to live half a life in secret, and that secret life is no longer directly interfering with the lives of her husband and child.

Dedra lied to Syril to follow orders. Even when she made him part of the plan, he never really knew the plan. His anger is understandable, his death predictable. She probably really could have told him the plan. Syril probably would have locked-step with her. But the Empire really does not care who it destroys along the way, whether its an entire planet or one of its own loyalists.

And what did following orders get her? Alone in prison with literally no one in the entire galaxy who cares or wonders where she is.