#sw rant

“Verd ori’shya beskar’gam” translates to “a warrior is more than their armor.” Armor is an integral aspect of being Mandalorian, but it isn’t the only thing, certainly not the end all be all, and I think that… people… have lost sight of that. Being Mandalorian is about more than just wearing armor. You don’t stop being a Mandalorian once you take the armor off. Mandalorians throughout Star Wars history emphasized a level of hyper-competence both in and out of armor, on and off the battlefield. But even then, I don’t think this is solely about war or combat.

I don’t know that all Mandalorians are soldiers, mercenaries, or hunters. I can’t imagine all Mandalorians take up a trade in combat, although the ability to if the need arises has to be there, regardless of their profession. We know some Mandalorians are farmers, artisans, mechanics, engineers, business owners, cooks, metalsmiths, armorsmiths, I’m sure there are even Mandalorian artists and whatnot. But that doesn’t mean that martial capabilities are gone from their life. It’s an important part of being a Mandalorian, if not for active combat, then at least for preparedness, protection, and defense. They are a warrior culture, after all. Not to mention they have traditional rights of passage involving martial prowess. It’s not something that can be discarded from their lifestyle and culture, and still consider themselves Mandalorian.

It isn’t even just about that, though. Again, you don’t stop being a Mandalorian once you take the armor off. You need to hold close to heart the philosophies, ideals, morals and values, the cultural ethos of the Mandalorians. It’s a mindset and a way of life. It doesn’t start and end with a set of armor. That idea is something that has been heavily overlooked by both Lucasfilm/Disney (esp a certain someone) and fans alike, I think.

I think this is a really important thing to bring up, because the laws and ideas surrounding culture and identity is what separates Mandalorians from the rest of the galaxy, it’s what distinguishes a *Mandalorian* from someone who simply wears armor. This is one of the main reasons why I’m so adamantly against the Children of the Watch, or really any of Filoni’s/Favreau’s version of “Mandalorians.” Because it so blatantly either contradicts or discards major aspects of Mando lore that have been built up and established for decades. The tendency to “black and white, no nuance” and “basic, surface level” everything in Star Wars has got to stop. Filoni’s MO fr. Disney, too, yea. Disnify. Disney-ify. I don’t know.

Sith! Obi-Wan is such a fascinating concept to me, because it’s so unlikely. Like frankly it feels even less likely than Anakin’s redemption, and that redemption being so incredibly unlikely but still possible is literally the thing that makes the OT so powerful. Like it’s baked into the premise.

And Obi-Wan falling can’t be impossible, because that would take all the narrative power out of him always choosing good. But like, this man has literally had everything happen to him, and he doesn’t turn. He has moments where he has to recenter himself, but he always does it. He’s such a wonderful balance of “constantly looks like hot shit” with “but on the deepest level of his soul he’s untouchable.”

It should be impossible.

But I believe it at every turn.

People aren’t fucking around when they describe him as one of the best Jedi there ever was.

So I am fascinated by the idea of a Sith Obi-Wan, because what could possibly turn him?

Not torture, not loss, not grief, not losing his padawan, not having to fight his padawan, not beliving he’d killed his padawan, not finding out he didn’t kill his padawan, not watching over that padawan’s kid for twenty years, not death, not war, not walking away from Satine, not Satine dying in his arms, not losing Qui-Gon Jinn, not Dooku’s best efforts at temptation, not the genocide of his people, not being set on fire, not the existence of the Death Star, not twenty years of being a hermit, not Melida-Daan, not whatever Xanatos was doing, not every atrocity the Empire ever committed,

But it can’t be impossible, because he’s still a human, he’s not the Force itself.

I’ve read some Sith Obi-Wan fics, but they’re all either unconvincing on this point, or have to resort to saying, “Obi-Wan is a Sith but he’s not evil,” as though that isn’t the contradiction of all time (No shade to these fics, not everything needs to be perfectly convincing, and I’m not against writing a character in a certain way just cause of the aesthetic. I know how to use the back button; I kept reading cause I enjoyed them overall).

I just.

I don’t know. Do people have ideas? Theories? Fic recommendations?

At 25 Obi-Wan was a grown young adult when he started taking care of Anakin, in fact many people in real life marry and have children at that age, in light of that his hurt feelings and jealousy over Qui-Gon asking him to be knighted, which is supposed to be a good thing, a recognition of his skills, so he could take care of Anakin, show Qui-Gon was right in that Obi-Wan still had some maduration to go but that he was ready to be a Jedi Knight.

ObiWan defeating Maul sealed the deal for the council but it also presents a very problematic precedent, it wasn´t his emotional maturity and wiseness the thing that made Obi-Wan a knight but his dueling skills in his combat with Maul after his master was killed.

In Anakin´s case at 9 he was old to be introduced to the Jedi because he isn´t 4 or 5 but he is very young to be made a padawan, they usually start at 13 or 14 like Ahsoka did. So given Obi-Wan wish to train him to make a reality Qui-Gon´s dying wish, Anakin was made a padawan sooner than when he was supposed to be one, not because he was a kind child who worried about others and wanted to make a lasting change in the galaxy for the slaves, he was made a padawan because of his power potential and the Jedi Order didn´t try to make adecuations to the fact he was old enough to remember seeing slaves being blow up by their masters and the fact his mother was still a slave and in constant danger of this happening to her as well. Nothing of this was addressed with Anakin, he was told in no uncertain terms that his responsibility and compromise with the Jedi Order, which he made at 9, didn´t involve him thinking about his mother or seeing her ever again. Anakin obeyed this dictate until his mother was tortured killed and he had his first fall to the dark side by taking revenge on the tuskens for the murder of his mother.

Later at 19 he is made a Knight not because he had shown a grown in his control over the force or his own feelings but because he was an able soldier with leadership skills which served him well to survive a war in which the majority of the padawans of his generation were killed , at 20 he was made a Jedi master for Ahsoka during war time, he was responsible of teaching her how to be a Jedi while also making sure she didn´t die while also taking care of his troops and giving victories to the Republic all of which he did, even when his padawan was expelled, even when his men were killed for knowing too much like in Fives case and at 23 he was a general and one of the leading Jedi in the war, married to Padme with a child on the way, so Anakin was two years younger than Obi-Wan was when he was still a padawan and meet Anakin for the first time. Anakin fell to the darkside and became Vader when he was 23 years old, two years younger than padawan Obi-Wan.

So If I use the age argument it wasn´t Obi-Wan the one who got pushed into a situation he could not have managed on his own for his age but Anakin definitely was, because of his particular power and skills even if the popular take is that Obi-Wan was a baby at 25 taking care of an ungrateful, unstable almost teenager Anakin as a 9 year old, for many fans Anakin never was a child but he was, the fact he didn´t had an actual childhood is another thing.

But well if we take this in consideration then it makes all the sense in the world Yoda choose to let Anakin´s twins grow up with their families, train Luke when he was an adult and not make him a Knight at 23 if he didn´t deal with his inner conflict over his father but it was Luke´s choice of not wanting to fight or kill his father but rather ask him to come back to him, to the person he used to be, the thing that made the difference. Anakin came back to save his child from his master, himself and the Empire, he gave up his life to give Luke and Luke´s dreams a chance.

They didn't care about Naboo.

They didn't care about their minor planets.

They didn't care about the outer rim.

The planets that weren't part of the core were pushed to the back of the line because the Senate didn't have to care. And when these planets walked away from the unfairness of it all they were called Traitors and Separatists. They were branded as radicals and terrorists to be hunted by the Jedi and be brought to heel. The cruelty of the Galactic Republic wasn't that there weren't good people in in with good intentions. The cruelty was that those people were so constrained, there was little they could do.

Good intentions don't feed starving planets. A well-fed Jedi who has never known poverty, has nothing to say to a subsistence farmer.

In a system that had proven to be bloated with inefficiency and people who cared more for money and power than anything else, was it any wonder that Palpatine could play both factions off each other until people were sick of it? Until the only thing the people saw was the inherent cruelty of their government? Until they grew to resent the Jedi who got the best places, and lived in the highest levels off of their taxes but seemed to only show up when a core world stubbed their toe? Until Palpatine's declaration of an Empire was welcome with cheers because finally someone was putting the ailing beast down?

Right or wrong, how cruel does a Galactic Republic have to be, that the people would cheer a Sith Empire as their savior?

also i think this is the first time we ever really get to see/hear from anakin/vader post-rotj and it's so much more full circle to hear him speak and be at peace with both the dark and light sides of the force inside him. i always felt off about how quickly vader turned good/achieved enlightenment and became a force ghost but something about hearing his view of the force really closes that chapter from me. "live or die" might sound like absolutes but i think it's his own contribution to the legacy he was talking about. you have to have a reason to live, you have to have a reason to move on and be, otherwise, you are in a way, dead. something obi-wan learns in his series, and anakin learns once he lets go of the past and saves his son. you have to have an active part in shaping your life, in living.

You can’t have all these vicious negative emotions like anger, jealousy and hatred that you act on and let yourself be controlled by, lash out at any given moment and do as you please and desire while not completely falling to the dark side of the force. It’s just not possible. There’s no in between! Either you let yourself be corrupted and fall to the dark side or you stay within the light. It’s simple as that.

There is no grey area. Just because you love the idea of somebody being considered somewhat good, so that they do not have to face the consequences of being the evil villain, and still kill as they will and use dark side force abilities, doesn’t mean that that works in canon. Grey Jedi just don’t work.

And to be frank, I genuinely dislike whenever I read smth with a character like the one described above. Not only isn’t it possible considering how Star Wars and the Force work, but it’s also just boring and overdone. Like I get it, you want a character to be badass and dangerous and snappy but still have people sympathize with them, look up to them and not be considered evil, but I don’t know. It just lacks flavor.

Also the „Grey Jedi“ type of character that technically speaking does and acts exactly as the Jedi do but still criticizes and insults the Jedi ways, is completely irritating to read and see as well. Like it makes no sense at all.

And little side note, it is after all called light and dark, not black and white, where different shades are possible. So grey really doesn’t even work as a concept. The Force just doesn't work in shades. (I hope this makes somewhat sense. It does in my head lol)

But I’ve never seen someone seriously hating on Luke Skywalker .