#rush clovis

I know it's often said that Anakin was always extremely jealous and possessive, but the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that most of the examples we have occur in very specific and rather manipulated situations.

For example, in Episode II, when Padmé mentions Palo as her first love, Anakin clearly gets a little jealous. But… he also ends up laughing. A normal reaction for any 19-year-old with no romantic experience.

Then there's Clovis. Well… we all know how that ended 😅. But Clovis had a history with Padmé, he was overly friendly, and he was too persistent…

In Episode III, with Obi-Wan, things don't seem as simple as "Anakin was irrationally jealous" either. According to the novelization, he hadn't slept for WEEKS (do you know how that affects the human psyche?) nightmares about Padmé's death, Palpatine whispering in her ear… even whispering that Obi-Wan and Padmé were seeing each other in secret.

(Logistics! Obi-Wan and Anakin were the duo. Ahsoka was Anakin's Padawan. When they weren't on missions, Anakin was between Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Padmé. Obi-Wan had his Jedi Council meetings. And Padmé? Between politics, committees, meetings… her schedule barely had room for ONE secret relationship, much less TWO. Yes, in real life people lead double lives, have two families, and all that, but the schedules just don't add up here.)

Another detail that's almost never mentioned… Padmé had male friends. Allies. Coworkers. The main one was Bail Organa. Yes, he was married, but for someone with irrational jealousy, that wouldn't matter. Padmé and Bail got along well; they were friends and talked often.

Let's get to the extended material. As I understand it, both Sabé and Gregar Typo were in love with Padmé. Typo was Padmé's head of security, and obviously, he also spent time with her. I doubt Anakin didn't know or suspect this.

At no point do we see him lose his temper in these situations. And yes, you might say that not seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

But the opposite can also be applied. We can't automatically assume that Anakin was equally irrationally jealous of everyone close to Padmé, not when we have three examples: one mentioned in passing, one where he had reasons to be upset by a man who kept overstepping boundaries, and the last where he was sleepless, starving, and being manipulated.

mentioning disagreements, fights, or arguments, as this is something ALL married couples experience. Having an argument or disagreement is not TOXIC.

mentioning the Clovis incident, because yeah Anakin shouldn't have beaten him half to death but also last time Padmé was alone with Clovis she almost died. Anakin knew Clovis was very into her, and the dude was literally working with the Separatists--who also had tried to have Padmé assassinated on many occasions–not to mention, in the Revenge of the Sith novelization Palpatine LITERALLY ADMITS that he knew about Anakin and Padmé's secret ceremony on Naboo, he admits he knew they were married to Anakin's face, and he intentionally assigned Padmé to Clovis in that second TCW Clovis arc because he wanted to drive a wedge between them which ended up failing in the long run. "The Clovis Incident" is literally part of a manipulation and not a natural progression of their relationship.

mentioning the "choking incident" on Mustafar because at that point, he was Vader. Yes, he's still Anakin Skywalker, but he's been so corrupted by the Dark Side that this doesn't exactly count toward Anakin– him doing this and turning to the Dark Side is literally so out of character, so UNLIKE Anakin that Padmé loses the will to live because she feels like she's lost Anakin because Anakin would NEVER do this. (In the Legends EU, so many characters act EXTREMELY out of character once they give in to the Dark Side. Take Ulic Qel-Droma, or Exar Kun, both Jedi who wanted to forward the cause of the Jedi and then inexplicably support the Sith after experimenting with the Dark Side.)

RUSH CLOVIS??

Strongest plot armor in the Star Wars franchise, the TCW Clovis arc is INSANE

This chud picked a fistfight with ANAKIN??

The man has BUILT IN BRASS KNUCKLES.

And the animation realizes this for half a beat where he punches the metal prosthetic arm and reels back in pain, but the story pulls back considerably on the damage where Anakin is actively crashing out on his FACE and he just has A BRUISE and a puffy lip

You have ...

A Jedi Knight in his physical prime ...

Mid dark side crash out ...

Throwing his entire bodyweight ...

Into his DURASTEEL FIST ...

At the nasal cavity of a white collar banker whose primary exercise is ledgers and spreadsheets

Clovis’s head should have looked like a dropped watermelon.

At the very least, his jaw should be unhinged, his nose shattered into his brain cavity, and his orbital bones turned to dust.

Instead, Clovis took a durasteel piston to the forehead six times and walked away needing an ice pack.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (3/?)