Valentine Teal

Sorry for making you sick of tumblr… I really didn’t mean to criticize your post, I just had a thought because of it and wanted to share that thought and didn’t word it very well because I was sleepy. It sounds like I’m making excuses for being rude but I really am just trying to explain.

'the jedi order and anakin clashed' yes

'the jedi order couldn't help it uwu it wasn't their fault their rigid teaching methods were so incompatible with such a difficult child' uh, fuck that ableist ass argument actually (and also anakin was not a difficult child... we see in TPM and AOTC how desperately he strives for the jedi's approval and follows their rules even when they cause him suffering... but sure he was regularly getting into fistfights with the other padawans, SURE)

why is it ableist? an institution refusing to make accomodations for a vulnerable child in its care deeply parallels real world educational instutitions failing to accomodate disabled children... which is the argument people are using to defend the jedi order failing to accomodate anakin's needs and trauma (having psychological support/not have his mother in slavery/have a compliment once in a while)... YikesTM is what I'll say

anakin can get a little jealous from time to time, just like anyone. in aotc padme teases him with a story about a boy she had a crush on when she was 12, and it works. i don't think he'll be as jealous as he is in tcw2008, the jealous plot was ultimately removed from rots, so, you know, not unhealthily jealous

i don't think pre-fall anakin was possessive. anakin doesn't have as big a problem letting people go as the fandom thinks: this is evident from the fact that he left his mother to become a jedi and didn't visit her for 10 years, when padme turned him down despite the fact that feelings were mutual, he respected her decision and didn't insist, by the time of rots, he hadn't seen padme for 5 months and was okayish with it, ect.. anakin certainly has a problem with letting people go when it comes to matters of life and death, when someone he loves is in danger, but this is a different kind of problem than possesiveness, so

Check yourself, people. This is literally the reason why she became radicalised. People threatened her, an already traumatised woman who grew up in a toxic household.

Check yourself, people. This is literally the reason why she became radicalised. People threatened her, an already traumatised woman who grew up in a toxic household.

also the gall of people to act like the possibility of a person dying in childbirth is 0 and denying that is incredibly strenous on the body...

maybe someone poisoned padmé and she's dying whilst giving childbirth. who knows!

Human pregnancies are genuinely extremely difficult, painful, and dangerous, especially compared to other animals. There is a reason why misogynistic psychopaths want to eliminate birth control and it is because pregnancy makes women so vulnerable, not because they have any moral objection to “killing” unborn babies.

So many women underestimate how dangerous pregnancy is even if you’re healthy and happy and have really good doctors. And with Padmé’s status and job it would have been even riskier for her. She is the constant target of assassination plots and if she had an organic doctor there would be the threat that they might have political motives to harm her or that they could be bribed or threatened. Even with a droid, they could be sliced. And she overworked herself so much already which definitely would’ve put a lot of strain on the pregnancy. I know George wasn’t thinking about it like this but from the perspective of a woman or just someone educated in the dangers of pregnancy Anakin’s reaction makes perfect sense.

Maybe I’m a bit more aware of this because I was almost strangled by my umbilical cord and had to be cut out of my mom and have been aware of this fact for as long as I can remember, but yeah it’s really concerning when people downplay the risks. Oh, and not to mention how she was carrying TWINS and didn’t even know it, that complicates pregnancy a lot to. Anyway yeah women’s reproductive health is incredibly glossed over in schools and we don’t talk nearly enough about it. Like yeah, our bodies trick us into not seeing pregnancy as traumatic after it’s over, you literally forget all the pain and are flooded with happiness hormones, and women who’ve experienced pregnancy do perceive it differently because of that but the risks and dangers are still real. But the patriarchy doesn’t want us to know this because not knowing makes us more vulnerable.

And it’s all this knowledge that makes me love Sola so much and see her as a total badass and embodiment of female freedom. Because she had the rights, freedom, support, confidence, and courage to have children without a man. She made the decision that she wanted children for herself and went and got it and succeeded in having two wonderful and healthy babies without letting anyone have claim over any part of her body or her children. I hate the phrase about a woman carrying a man’s child as if the fetus inside her body belongs to the man, as if that gives him claim or control over her autonomy. Pregnancy is risky and dangerous and can be wielded as a weapon to hurt women, but it’s also beautiful and miraculous and something that makes life worth living. The freedom and ability to choose when and how you want children is one of, if not THE, most important rights a person can have. Both Padmé and Sola embody that, how important it is for women to be free to choose who their partner is and whether or not they even have one. Padmé died and wasn’t able to raise her children because others were trying so hard to control her and her husband’s freedom to love and start a family. No matter if it’s someone trying to force you to have children with someone you don’t love, or someone not allowing you to have children you want alone or with someone you love, it will end tragically.

Padmé met Anakin for the first time when she was 14 and he was 9. This Anakin had grown up in slavery and had literally no reason to help them, but chose to anyway, unaware that there was ANYTHING in it for him. He then helped save her planet. They were married for three years, during which time he definitely did some morally questionable things, but he was also definitely a good person for the most part. They had a PRIMARILY POSITIVE relationship. She met him post-Fall two times. The first time, he was. You know. She didn't know or suspect. So Mustafar was her only actually experience with an Evil Anakin. Also, at the time she said there was still good in him, he had done Objectively Fewer Murders. Like just by the numbers.

Luke, on the other hand, had never known Vader to do a good deed or be a good person at all. He had only known of their relationship for a year and in that time had clearly not actually interacted with him. They had never had any kind of positive interaction. Like Vader has, just off the top of my head, allowed Alderaan to be blown up, tortured Leia, tortured Han, had Han frozen in carbonite and given him a bounty hunter, cut off Luke's hand, and killed Obi-Wan. And that's just what I remember from the movies that Luke would be aware of!

But when Padmé says there's still good in him, she's stupid and naïve, and Luke isn't? Despite the fact that THEY WERE BOTH RIGHT. Like if anything Luke is the stupid and naïve one (he's not, but if we operate under the assumption that one of them must be labeled such for this belief it would be him and it's not even close) and I've never seen anyone say that.

I cannot emphasize enough that BOTH OF THEM WERE RIGHT. THERE WAS STILL GOOD IN VADER WHICH IS THE POINT OF RETURN OF THE JEDI. IT'S NOT EVEN SUBTEXT IT'S JUST STRAIGHT-UP THE PLOT. AND THIS WAS KNOWN TO THE AUDIENCE AT THE TIME REVENGE OF THE SITH WAS RELEASED.

I uh. I fear this may be sexism.