And He Was Right!

Just a casual day for Coruscant Guards

Anakin gets traumatized

Bonus:

I really do like looking at Anakin and Obi Wan because they’re so similar but also so vastly different from each other and I know I’m not the first person to point this out, but I do think the fandom has a habit of exploring a dynamic that’s really just divorced from canon. and I do think canon should go out the window more often than not, but also, I think with their particular dynamic, it’s so embedded into the storyline that you lose narrative value when you ignore that. 

I think one of the things that really ties them together is just how selfish they are but they way they are selfish is different from each other and that selfishness is also born out of different circumstances. 

In Anakin’s case, he’s selfish because he finally gets something/someone in a world where nothing belonged to him and nothing about his life was ever certain. He doesn’t know how to let go, nor does he want to let go, so when he has someone or something that he cherishes and loves, he holds them close to his chest and refuses to give them up. It’s why his love turns into possessive attachment and why he’s willing to throw other lives away (even if he doesn’t really register it) if that means the people he cares about live. The whole driving point of RoTS is that Anakin is selfish! He does selfish things, and I think, to an extent, he’s self aware enough to know he’s being selfish but that also doesn’t stop him which is why his fall makes so much sense. It’s in the text.

But on the other hand, Obi Wan’s selfishness is shown but not really explored. Obi Wan is selfish in the way that he’s willfully ignorant. He doesn’t want more but he doesn’t want things to change either. It’s why it’s easy for him to turn a blind eye to Anakin’s spiral, the corruption in the Republic, etc. etc. And he’s also selfish in the way that he views himself, because he is arrogant in a lot of ways, it’s the same way that the Jedi continue to call themselves peacekeepers when the clones are not afforded that title. He does mental gymnastics when looking at his actions in order to avoid confronting the fact that he’s actually breaking the moral framework he holds himself to, and it allows him to skirt around acknowledging the actual issue at hand (the clones’ enslavement, the fact that he benefits from his position in the Republic, etc.). 

And then when you boil it down to the basics, really, Anakin wants to change the galaxy whereas Obi Wan wants things to remain the same. And Anakin isn’t willing to let people go but Obi Wan is (unless said person is Anakin). So then you get this clash between them that Obi Wan refuses to acknowledge while Anakin doesn’t know how to bridge the gap. And I think they both know it’s there but they can’t communicate with each other about it, so it festers until it reaches the breaking point because even if they’re family and even if they love each other as brothers do, they can’t ever address the main issue of their relationship. 

i know that TCW depicts an easier-going anakin, but i'd really like more of him written as, like, a human grenade with the pin half-pulled, just unbelievably tense about nearly everything. having a conversation with him is like talking to an undersocialized german shepherd; he is anxious and that, in fact, will be YOUR problem. just an all-around testy individual, prone to snapping at people for asking questions or breathing wrong. but what i think would be really good is if there was such a visible difference when obi-wan's nearby that no one ever wants to give reports or make plans with general skywalker unless obi-wan's there to lighten the mood by saying some stupid joke, and the difference in anakin is pretty instant, it's like that chihuahua meme

female Anakin

. 𝓪𝓷𝓪𝓴𝓲𝓷 𝓼𝓴𝔂𝔀𝓪𝓵𝓴𝓮𝓻 

“…i have promises to keep and miles to go before i sleep” - robert frost. 1923. 

[ a painting study i made one of my forever favorite characters in star wars ] 

anakins a gamerrrr

Well, then the droid does belong to you.