grows perhaps the greater

"this story happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. it is already over. nothing can be done to change it"

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) Jyn and Cassian departing for Scarif

ROGUE ONE (2016)

STAR WARS: REBELS ➤ 2.02 THE SIEGE OF LOTHAL: PART 2

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

Had Padmé been 20-30 years older than anakin instead of 2-3 it wouldve fixed a significant portion of the franchise, including padmé's own chracterization

he whole "'woah we're doing something we shouldn't this is going to ruin both of our lives" doesn't ring true in the original movies cause they're just two beautiful young people doing what they're supposed to do in a story. the cliché kills the dramatic tension. give me a 45 year old woman ruining her career life and reputation because a dumbass 19year old monk is pathetically throwing himself at her feet THAT'll give the audience something to be anxious about. It's not something people expect to happen.

Would also explain why all the authority figures are like "Sure, lets put this notoriously disobedient and hotheaded beautiful youth as the sole escort of an equally beautiful young woman who's had the entire world on her shoulders from childhood. no prophecy twins will result from this". i could see obiwan allowing it because he can't deny anakin anything, but what about the rest of the jedi council??? What about padmé's own people? The choice of anakin as bodyguard looks like bad optics even if nothing actually happens. What about her reputation??? It would've been satisfying if they'd actually leaned into it instead of vague hints. Like padmé says its improper but nothing in the surrounding world actually makes it seem that way. The prequels at least didn't do a good job establishing the jedi as sexless and chaste. They just seem like cool hot guys with swords of COURSE they fuck.

but if she's 45, even if she's beautiful, a lifetime of dutiful service to the republic would make most people go "ah she would never sleep with a teenage monk, doesn't matter if he asks". Plus the general social standards of star wars being actually identical to those of our own society they'll probably be like "well what would a 19year old even want with a middle aged woman?" the thought wouldn't even occur. She'd be desexualized by virtue of her age so of course give her a hot young bodyguard no one (including the audience) is gonna see potential for impropriety

AND NOW WE COME TO ROTS. Its not impossible for a 45 year old woman ti get pregnant (average menopause is 50 i assume also in space until proven otherwise) but it is rarer, and it would make sense of anidala not to have been expecting it. It would also underline, again, that this pregnancy is a genuine threat to their lives and careers, because two young people in love secretly married having a baby is literally fine. its normal. the audience will forgive and even applaud even if the wider society in the movie doesn't. but a 45 year old senator with a secret baby?? that she's KEEPING?? like already in the original she shouldn't have kept the baby but the movie is christian and the audience too the vibe is "noo pregnancy is beautiful its luke and leia awww". We should be SCARED about the pregnancy.

And then, anakin having nightmares about padmé dying in childbirth are no longer obvious prophecies. like young padmé is healthy and rich, she'll have the best medical care theres no reason to think her pregnancy will have complications. It's actually kind of stupid and dismissive for people to say anakin's nightmares are nothing to worry about, especially considering he's had them before! but if padmé is pregnant at 45 the risk of complications is very high even with good medical care, and it would make sense for anakin to just have regular nightmares about it. The pregnancy is not a good thing! its a big risk they're taking in a lot of ways!

It also complicates the "unavoidable fate" thing they did in rots. Like in the original had anakin not tried to do everything to prevent padmé dying in childbirth she actually wouldve been fine. She died of grief while fully healthy which i think everyone can agree was fucking stupid. But if anakin's descent into the dark side, 100% ensured padmé dying (strangling a 45 year old woman who's already endured a huge amount of stress and throwing her to the ground? narratively speaking, either she's not making it or the baby isn't), i think it would be good if we weren't told with absolute certainty "had anakin stayed a jedi she wouldn't have died". It would be more compelling if we didn't know for sure!!

Plus it would make anakin's freakout so much easier to empathize with. Like sure its scary to think of your loved ones dying but the whole movie she's presented as obviously not at risk. Anakin worries but we don't. We should worry! Are we so much better than him? Wouldn't we also be desperate in his position? Or alternatively we refuse to sympathize with his decision to fall in love with a middle aged woman which is uncomfortable and leads us into much more complicated moral questioning than "become evil or stay good?". It would add drama either way!

And it would make both padmé and anakin so much more 3 dimensional as characters. Now they're making strange, emotionally driven and unexpected decisions instead of following the script for romantic lead 1 and 2. Padmé has actual depth and complications! She makes decisions we can't necessarily appove of, keeping the baby becomes a genuine decision with genuine cost instead of "duh, what else is she gonna do?" Her falling in love with anakin actually adds depth to her character and tells us something about who she is instead of turning her into a cliché. Replaying the trilogy in my head with older padmé instead of young padmé she immediately feels like a character with agency instead of a cardboard cutout of the ideal dead wife.

Even in the delicious wonderful scenario where obiwan and padmé have an affair after anakin joins the dark side, if padmé is young it doesn't feel like a decision she's making so much as the circumstances acting upon her, it feels like obiwan is betraying anakin but it doesn't feel like she's actually betraying anything? she just doesn't have enough agency for that to be the case. Giving in to emotion is what a romantic heroine is supposed to do. But older padmé sleeping with obiwan after losing her extremely young husband to the dark side while at most 5 days away from giving birth is like...an actual decision. A complicated woman making unsympathetic choices, giving in to emotion when what's expected of her is dignity. For the THIRD time, she acts out of feeling instead of reason and seals her fate. Its kind of a misogynistic character arc but i don't care id watch the shit out of it. And she HAS a character arc now, instead of nothing.

STAR WARS REBELS APPRECIATION WEEK Day Seven | Favourite Dynamic - Ezra Bridger & Garazeb Orrelios

look, I’m just saying that it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility for Palpatine to have made Vader attend state dinners, and it’s also not completely out of the realm of possibility for Leia to have been brought to one of those state dinners, and since both Leia and Vader are possessed of the peculiar ability to engender absolute rage in anyone that talks to them, it is in fact more than possible that they ended up in the bitchiest, most useless of staring contests at least once

extremely poor artist’s rendition

STAR WARS REBELS APPRECIATION WEEK Day Four | Favourite Season - Season Two “I feel like because I can fight, I have to, for those who cannot. And I think you might be the same way.”

ALEXSANDR KALLUS and GARAZEB ORRELIOS 2.17 “The Honorable Ones”

trans obi-wan? you mean canon obi-wan, right?

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art tag | art log | links

Watching Star Wars was a mistake. For years I’ve derived so much pleasure from seeing discourse on my timeline that’s like “it’s actually a pretty good writing choice that Glimbo Knutts manipulated the imbledimbians in the force to make Darth Freeble his personal jedi froogler. It gives the original trilogy more depth” and not knowing what the fuck anybody is talking about. But now I do and it’s ruined. I understand what you freak ass dorks are saying and it isn’t fun anymore. Glimbo Knutts making Darth Freeble his jedi froogler DOES give the original trilogy more depth. This sucks man

I once had to explain to my then-gf that Star Wars is like "at the end of the day, even a single person can be a ripple in the movement to destroy fascism. the empire will crumble when confronted with the inherent goodness of the human spirit. to hope is not weak, our hope makes us strong. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, Admiral Beebo?" and then a little frog in a fighter jet goes "BEEBO WEEE-HOO!"

Obi-Wan in Star Wars media

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) dir. gareth edwards

STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002) dir. george lucas

STAR WARS REBELS APPRECIATION WEEK Day One | Favourite Character - Ezra Bridger “Stand up together. Because that’s when we’re strongest. As one.”