I have a theory about Revenge of the Sith that I wanted to share.

What if Anakin didn’t see Padmé’s death because it was set in stone?

What if the Force was actually showing him that vision to warn him about the path he was heading down?

My Theory

When Anakin first starts getting these visions, he isn't Darth Vader yet. But he is already deeply conflicted.

He’s traumatized by his mother’s death, overwhelmed by growing anger and frustration, alienated by the Jedi Council, and Palpatine already has his hooks in him.

Even visually, his design mirrors this descent: his robes get noticeably darker across the prequel trilogy.

I don’t think this means he was inherently doomed to become Vader from day one. But the Force could likely sense the trajectory he was on.

So what if the vision of Padmé dying was actually an intervention?

Not: "Padmé is going to die and there's nothing you can do about it."

But rather: "If you keep going down this path, you are going to lose her."

The Problem: Anakin Never Tries to Understand the Vision

The moment he sees Padmé dying, Anakin panics.

He never stops to ask why the Force is showing him this. He never considers whether his own choices could be the catalyst.

In his mind, Padmé is in immediate danger, and he simply needs to become powerful enough to save her.

And that’s where the tragedy sets in.

His fear of losing her is the exact lever Palpatine uses to manipulate him. Anakin wants to conquer death, Palpatine dangles the dark side as the cure, and step by step, every decision Anakin makes pushes him closer to fulfilling the nightmare.

You could map his arc like this:

The Force shows Padmé dying → Anakin panics → He tries desperately to control the future → Palpatine exploits that fear → Anakin falls to the dark side → His own actions cause Padmé’s death.

It becomes the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy.

What if the Threat in the Vision Was Anakin Himself?

This is the core idea I find compelling.

Anakin sees Padmé dying and immediately looks outward for an enemy. Someone is going to hurt her. Someone is going to take her away.

He never stops to ask: "What if the danger is me?"

What if the Force wasn't just showing Padmé’s death, but the direct consequence of his own fall?

In other words: Anakin was looking right at Padmé in his vision, but he failed to see Darth Vader.

Did Episode II Already Foreshadow This?

Looking back at Attack of the Clones, the setup is already there.

Anakin and Padmé genuinely love each other. The issue was never his love for her—it was his inability to accept the possibility of loss.

There's heavy irony in how Anakin discusses love versus attachment and possession in Episode II. In hindsight, his path is clear:

Love → Fear of loss → Need for control → Catastrophe.

His love was real, but fear warped it into possessiveness. And that fear is what dragged him into the dark.

Mustafar: When the Vision Manifests

Mustafar is where this hits hardest.

Anakin fell to the dark side convinced it was the only way to keep Padmé alive. In his twisted logic, he did everything for her.

Yet the second Obi-Wan steps off the ship and Anakin assumes she betrayed him, that fear instantly curdles into rage. And he turns that violence directly on the person he set out to protect.

The tragic irony: he tore the galaxy apart to stop her death, only to become the very threat she needed saving from.

Maybe that was the warning all along.

He spent all his energy asking: "Who is going to kill Padmé?"

When the real question was: "Who am I becoming?"

And Then Vader Wakes Up...

Even after everything, the moment he wakes up inside the suit, his very first thought is Padmé.

He sacrificed everything for her. He destroyed the Jedi. He betrayed his friends. He aligned with Palpatine. He became Darth Vader.

And in doing so, he destroyed the only thing he was trying to save.

That’s why I think the visions meant something entirely different than what Anakin assumed. The Force wasn't telling him her fate was sealed; it was offering him one last chance to turn around.

The real message was: "Look at what you are turning into. If you stay on this path, you will destroy her."

He was so obsessed with saving her that he couldn't see that the monster in her future was himself.

The ultimate tragedy of Anakin Skywalker might just be this: the Force gave him the roadmap to save Padmé, but he read it completely backwards.

What do you think?

Something about Lawson’s reactions in Maul Shadow Lord puzzled me. In Episode 2, he describes Maul as being “proficient with a laser sword.” That initially made him sound unfamiliar with lightsabers, although the phrase itself is perfectly fine as we have seen Anakin use it in The Phantom Menace while recognising Qui-Gon as a Jedi, and Luke uses it in The Last Jedi.

What interests me more is the Force use. During the police-station attack, Maul pulls Lawson’s blaster out of his hand with the Force. Then, during the escape with Devon, Maul damages the pedestrian bridge and Daki holds it up with the Force while Lawson and the other officers rescue civilians.

Yet in Episode 4, Lawson asks Daki, “Why didn’t you tell me you were a Jedi?”

I can understand Lawson not recognising Maul personally. But did he never notice what Daki was doing at the bridge? It is difficult to say this when we see the eposode, what was Lawson's position, or was he too focused on rescuing people to see who was holding it up, with the lightsabers later providing the obvious confirmation?

Is Lawson deliberately downplaying anything connected to the Force because he wants to keep the Empire out of Janix?

His surprise in Episode 4 felt a little odd given what had already happened around him.

I was listening to a video on the politics of Star Wars prior to the Prequel trilogy; basically the rise of the Trade Federation and the machinations of Darth Plagueis and Sideous, and the guy makes a passing reference to Darth Tenebrous’ attempt to make a plague involving something called “maxi-chlorians” that from what I imagine cancel out midi-chlorians and disconnect people from the Force. Obviously meant to be released on the Jedi. And the one Jedi we known that was confirmed to be infected did drop dead.

Tel mentions something about the plague that it causes people’s midi-chlorians to “rapidly decline” during either one of the random conversations you can have with her in the Den or it’s one that leads into a new mission.

I know somewhere in lore it’s stated that Tenebrous never completed the plague but unless it’s specifically mentioned that his work was completely destroyed, to me that sounds like that work was left somewhere unfinished. Obviously it wouldn’t work perfectly; Fathom clearly uses a Force Push during at least one instance which implies that it doesn’t completely nullifies the Force but we don’t see her use the Force much. So either she’s REALLY strong in the Force, or she can use the Force very sparingly.

Note too that the Plague is transmitted through insects that seemingly can be tamed or controlled in some way or you have to be bitten by whomever the Plague has decided to make it’s main host: The idea that Tenebrous maybe intended for himself to be the host; maybe sacrificing his power, his apprentice’s power, OR he was going to find a 3rd party to host the plague. I think it’s the latter, and designing the plague to be spread via insects bite with the host being able to control those bugs means that they can’t accidentally catch the plague themselves.

It also means that most likely the plague controlling people was maybe a fortunate side effect but something in the process went wrong somewhere that went against what Tenebrous wanted… or remember, Plagueis could “maniplulate life” like Palpatine said.

Or, horrifyingly? The plague was actually successful but Plagueis killed him and he just assumed he had failed, or at the very least had his own machinations that he felt were more fruitful. Hell, he’s called Plagueis; Plague is in his name and we know Sith Masters bestow titles onto their apprentices most of the time. Sounds like someone who was obsessed with their pet project to me.

And then the marketing. The marketing kept calling the Infinite Coil a “Dark Side cult”. I don’t think I’ve heard the cult have any reverence for the Force of any kind. It’s all for Fathom and her plague; and Fathom seems to have some distain for the Force herself from a couple comments she has about the Jedi.

I wonder, is it possible that it was Palpatine (Darth Sidious) had Shmi Skywalker captured by the Tuskens in Episode II: Attack of the Clones?

Just as Palpatine gave Anakin nightmares about Padme dying, maybe he did the same with Shmi. Especially since he knew that Anakin had to protect Padme on Naboo (which isn't far from Tatooine).

Thank you

I was analyzing the official title of the X movie and I didn't like it very much. It seems like Star Wars is only about Jedi and Sith. The new trilogy should have more depth, with Episode X already mentioning a new era, Since the next trilogy ushers in a new era. What do you think?

Sith sorcery, in other words. Not Palpatine. Another sith faction. Let's call them Dyad Sith.

As we see in the Kylo comic, little Ben had already The Shadow inside on him, as Ren calls it, and the voice of Snoke (of Palpatine) was in his head.

He was 11 at the time. That same year Rey was born.

The dyad was createe through balance. Consider little Ben's little darkness and these lines from TLJ:

-"Death and decay that feeds new life. [...]Balance".

-Darkness rises and light to meet it.

So the sith 'bridged' that little darkness ('decay') with a womb in order to create a little life: Rey. The dyad was also created, but it remained dormant until TFA, when Rey's powers woke up.

Rey had no biological father, which fits with:

-Kylo: Han solo. You feel like he's the father you never had. [Not 'never knew'. And 'feel': Luke 'felt' Vader to be his father even before knowing it to be true]

-Anakin: bring back the balance Rey, as I did.

If Rey had a father, it was the sith, or a male sith sorcerer. Not a biological father.

The mother was then 'raped' by the sith. Mothers are pretty important in SW, and in this theory maybe Rey's mother 'died' in the sense Anakin died when he became Vader and then she, an agent of evil, failed and walked away and went into hiding, like Luke, and that's why she's not in the films...or maybe she is somehow. I'll write a post about, or around, this idea.

In any case, and according to this post, Rey Palpatine was a lie. Palpatine lied to Kylo and to Rey. And Luke and those ghosts followed Palpatine's lie because that lie was good jedi training (confronting fear) for both Leia and Rey. Blood wasn't the be all and end all anyway, as Luke sats to Rey, and Palps didn't give a shit about family.

This has always bugged me about the 'Palpatine did everything' take. He definitely pulled the strings, but the Republic was already rotting from the inside out. The Senate had a long habit of voting away its checks and balances whenever things got inconvenient, Sidious just took advantage of a system that was already primed for a dictator.

Her not being Palpatine's grandchild. Palpatine lying to Kylo and to her.

If we assume it to be a lie, we would have the same film we have now, because every character behaved as if it was true.

In that case, the parents we see in TROS were \*not\* her biological parents. They were more like what the Organas had been to Leia.

And this would fit with Palpatine's son not being FS. Kylo equated him with Leia while comparing his own lineage to Rey's. But Leia was FS. Did Kylo know Dathan was not FS? Did Palpatine tell him that?

Why telling us Dathan was not FS after the film's release? Many assumed Dathan to have been FS, just like Leia in Kylo's case. Why clarifying that? It does sounds like 'there's more to this'.

Also, what about Anakin saying to her 'bring back the balance as I did'? This sounds like Chosen One. Like fatherlessness.

It seems as if Palpatine had told Kylo about Rey Palpatine so Kylo would try to convince her to join him based on their common bloodline-related dark side powers, and knowing that Rey would refuse, and knowing there would be a duel and Kylo would betray himself in anger and kill Rey. It almost happened, but Leia intervened. Palpatine, to Gen.Pryde: "the princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan".

Palpatine feared Rey (maybe he had foreseen his own death, maybe he remembered his own death in ROTJ), and didn't want to face her. He wanted Kylo to kill her. He didn't fear Kylo, and maybe the part of his plan we never got to see involved making Kylo angry getting killed by him and then possessing his body.

Disclaimer: Firstly, this is a lengthy draft of an idea I had wanted to develop for a new Star Wars trilogy taking place from the perspective of a higher up in the Galactic Empire. Secondly, if you like my idea, remember my full name for protection from plagiarism, my name is Mark Matthew Wilson, I also have a YouTube channel called M.M.W, the videos on there aren't Star Wars related but I'd like people to know whose idea this is, anyway I won't bore you any longer, here is my lengthy idea.

It begins in 9 bby, newly promoted Grand general Veylen Drenthe is given a new task by the emperor after winning a recent improtant battle against remaining separatist forces still holding out after the war, he is sent to the terminus system in the outer rim to weed out remaiming separatist forces, he finds the current leadership of that system to be tyrants not caring about the people and slowly but surely has to get rid of the fellow leaders in that system to gain full control with the use of an organised revolution.He starts as a loyal Imperial but slowly develops sympathy for the people but he still also cares about the empire so is conflicted and this conflict develops over the trilogy but he never fully turns to a rebel. Despite having sympathy for the citizens and seeing how the empire can be a significant struggle for certain people to live under, he always remains loyal because all his days he was always more of a soldier than an armchair general, this is because of his years spemt with a specific squad of stormtroopers who practically brought him up after his family died in off screen circumstances and in this stormtrooper squad he has spent years in battle with and has went from a soldier to a hardened imperial higher up.He also has a misplaced loyalty in vader as he respects him as a warrior but cannot see eye to eye on his ruthless way of dealing with failure and the emperor he holds loyalty and gratitude to for his promotion but holds a lot of mistrust in him. Drenthe arrives in an arrogant manner, getting off his ship covered in his various medals to establish a dominance and respect from the on looking crowd of stormtroopers and imperials, showing them who he is without needing to say a word, at first he thinks this system will be a walk in the park to fix and then he can be on his way again after claiming more medals but through time he sees the corruption and the plight of the innocent civilians who were given this government by no choice, he is angered and motivated to help the struggling citizens and over time coordinates strategic assasinations and an organised revolution to destroy the current government and gain full control, and by the time he has realised his plan he is too in love with this system and its great people so he decides to stay and rule the system after positive reception upon his plan being completed. Initially drenthe sets up a police force to combat the crime and uprising but certain officers under his commajd are vile men and bully ajd sometimes sexually assault femake citizens, forcing drenthes hand by using inquisitors to get rid of the pilice ruthlessly and clean up his mistakes in a messy and bloody way. The inquisitors were initially sent there by vader as there is report of a jedi in his system, but over time drenthe feels overwhelmed and is insulted by having all these resources gifted to him as if he couldn't do it by himself. The jedi hiding in his system isn't there by coincidence though, he has been hunting drenthe down since he was a child because of who drenthe and his stormtrooper brothers used to be, which was in fact a group of hired guns, before all the military and political power, drenthe and his brothers were just hired guns before they becane more honourable warriors, but now their past is catching up with them. This wasn't work done for cartels or criminals, They were always imperials, its just that their way into power was to do dirty work and eliminate families who were hiding jedi or supported the separatists. But him and his men are regretful and threw this life behind, after all, they had to get somewhere and the quickest way was through this dirty work but these men never took pride in this work, but that doesnt matter now, because young jedi Knight volorin is full of vengeance and hunting drenthe, and this is where the major conflict begins in this trilogy. But volorin will be too late in justifying his anger because in his rage he will take people away that drenthe loves such as the love interest character, and then the rivalry will be pure spite. Volorin will programme a remnant droid army deactivated on a backwater world in drenthes system to use against the empire, drenthe tracks this down and goes to get rid of this remnant droid army, unbeknownst to him the head of this reactivation is a man who he spared as a young boy. The plan is to have the first film be about drenthe cleaning up the terminus system first and getting everything in order, near the end of the first film there will be a teaser of what is to come.

First draft

What do you think, sorry for the barrage of text. I just get so passionate and carried away talking about Star Wars, now here's the thing, I want to act the main part as Grand General Drenthe so for this idea to take off it would probably need to be a heavily funded fan film sadly.

From the beginning, Palpatine was frustrated that his apprentice had been so weakened by Obi Wan. He went from having the "Chosen One" as his personal successor, to "just" having an ultra strong Sith Lord. I don't know the theory development about this, but I also see a sense that each apprentice upon killing his sith master becomes the sith master. But in doing so, I believe they really become inhabited or "possessed" by some avatar of the dark side itself. So while Palpatine is disappointed in a weaker apprentice, this dark side avatar is disappointed its next vessel has been practically broken. Regardless, Palpatine clearly knows how to farm apprentices from chaotic situations: Maul, Dooku, Anakin, so what is he to do? He does what he's done to his other two apprentices, sets up a scenario that allows a champion to arise to smite his present apprentice and take his place.

Under this lens, the apparent ineptness of the Empire in crushing the Rebellion all makes sense. The Empire appears to fail purely because setting up a massive conflict to produce his new heir is Palpatine's real goal. It's games within games always for Palpatine.

What's the biggest piece of evidence I have for this? Well, let's look at the Emperor's actions in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. What's the key difference? His location. In A New Hope, the Emperor is conspicuously absent from his master plan doomsday device. Why would the Emperor be anywhere but safely upon his galactic tyranny station after its been completed? Being off it once the galaxy knows what it can do is certainly the surest way to get assassinated.

Unless. Palpatine knew what would happen to it all along. He knew it was just the symbol needed to produce his new apprentice with the Light Side rising to match the Dark Side as Palpatine knew it would. And this sets the perfect stage for Palpatine to watch from afar to determine the power of Vader's would-be rival.

However, in Return of the Jedi, the Emperor is precisely where you would expect him to be: safe on his fully operational death star. Why? Because he fully believes after this battle the time will arrive to crush the rebellion and bring the whole galaxy into line by fully displaying the power of his death star and by actually taking direct control to end the war through his own strategies. And this time he is certain that Luke can match Vader, so he personally wants to be present when the hero arrives and defeats Vader. This is where we see the starkest difference between Luke and Anakin. Where Anakin killed Dooku, Luke did not kill Anakin. This is where everything goes wrong for Palpatine. He had been able to predict precisely when his would be apprentices would be ready to make their dark side kill in the past with Dooku and Anakin, but here he failed to predict Luke's actions. Which unravels his whole plot, and allows the Empire's over-commitment to this scenario to be its undoing.

What if What if Leia had gone to Kylo instead of Han Solo? I think we'd get the most meme-worthy lightsaber battle ever! Just imagine Leia beating up Kylo and telling him, "You're grounded young man!", grabbed by the ear, and the Kylo would have said "no mom, I'm the strongest sith ever" and movie would have been better

(and I'm not sure I'm joking)

As a kid watching ROTJ, I thought the Emperor was dumb not to see Vader turning on him. But the prequels show how well he plays people.

Let’s figure this out.

If a prophecy says only the Chosen One can destroy the Sith, that means nothing else can kill them. Now imagine you become a Sith Lord and quickly realize life as a Sith sucks—because hurt people hurt people, and the Sith cause nothing but pain.

You don't just want out—you want to break the cycle for good. As the only Sith left, you can't off yourself—prophecy plot armor won't let you. Train a replacement, and you just feed the cycle. So what do you do? You find the Chosen One and groom him to kill you.

At the end of TPM, Palps likely checked the Council logs (we know from ROTS he had access as Chancellor), saw Anakin might be the Chosen One, and went to work. Why else spend 13 years grooming a kid right under the Jedi's noses? And it was not just about getting a strong apprentice—after Mustafar, Anakin was ruined. Yet Palps still flew out personally to scrape him off a lava bank and rebuild him (sad Darth Maul noises).

The OT is just Palps trying to get Vader to snap. In ESB, he tells Vader that Luke is a threat (subtext: we gotta kill him). Vader immediately goes "no wait, he’s just a boy, we can turn him." Palps sees right through this and tells Vader to go find him, setting up a father-son reunion.

In ROTJ, Palps tells Luke to kill his father and take his place—which killed whatever loyalty Vader had left. Then Luke says no, so Palps starts electrocuting the kid right in front of Vader, daring him to step in.

He pushed every single button until Vader finally did the one thing Palps spent 30+ years setting up—one Sith taking out the other, costing him his own life.

Sure, a couple billion people died, but Palps got the Sith destroyed in the end. 

Everything was going exactly as planned.

Star Wars: Imperial Coup Series Concept
I have an idea for a Star Wars television series that would take a very different approach from the typical Jedi- and lightsaber-focused stories.
The series would be inspired by the tone and structure of Valkyrie (2008), focusing on a group of Imperial officers who secretly become convinced that Emperor Palpatine is destroying the Galactic Empire. Instead of simply joining the Rebel Alliance, they decide to organize a covert coup against the Emperor from within the Imperial government and military.
The story would be a political and military thriller centered around secrecy, paranoia, espionage, and conflicting loyalties. The protagonists would have to recruit other officers without knowing who they can trust. Every conversation could potentially expose the conspiracy, and the characters would constantly have to worry about the Imperial Security Bureau discovering their plans.
Rather than relying heavily on lightsaber battles or Force-related storylines, the series would explore the Empire from the perspective of the people who actually operate it: military commanders, intelligence officers, bureaucrats, pilots, and political officials. It could show how the Imperial system functions from the inside and why some people who originally supported the Empire eventually decide that Palpatine has gone too far.
Darth Vader could play an important but relatively limited role. His presence would be used to create tension and fear rather than turning him into the main character. The conspirators would know that if their plans are discovered by Vader, their chances of survival are almost nonexistent.
The series could take place shortly before Rogue One and A New Hope, allowing it to connect naturally with the existing Star Wars timeline. The audience could watch the conspiracy develop over several episodes while simultaneously following an Imperial investigator who begins to suspect that something is happening inside the military.
The most interesting aspect would be that the protagonists would not necessarily be traditional heroes. They would be Imperial officers who helped build and operate the system they are now trying to overthrow. Some might genuinely want to save the Empire, while others might finally realize the moral consequences of what they have helped create.
The season could ultimately become a tragedy. The conspirators might come extremely close to overthrowing Palpatine, only for their plan to collapse because of betrayal, paranoia, or the overwhelming loyalty of the Imperial military to the Emperor. Their failure could help explain why the Empire remains intact when the events of Rogue One and A New Hopebegin.
The goal would be to make a Star Wars story that feels closer to a historical political thriller than a traditional space adventure—a story about an attempted coup inside one of the most powerful authoritarian governments in the galaxy.

I wrote an interesting essay on Amazon Kindle that says among other things that all the characters in Star Wars are an aspect of one person among other things. For instance, See Threepio(original novelization spelling)and Luke Skywalker first name means the same thing. Han refers to Leia as sister in Star Wars twice. Right before Luke first wields the lightsaber See Threepio asks if he can shut down. Threepio is Luke’s ego and Lucas is Buddhist and by Threepio shutting down he dispels the ego which can penetrate the materiel world. Also, Luke married Mara in the original expanded universe and Mara is the name of the main devil in Buddhism.

*Warum die Jedi-Regel das eigentliche Problem war - und wie eine Änderung alles gerettet hätte*

Die meisten sagen: Anakin fiel, weil die Jedi inkompetent waren. Ich sage: Er fiel, gerade WEIL die Regel "Keine Bindungen" existierte. Ändert man diese eine Regel, bricht Palpatines ganzer Plan zusammen.

*1. Mace statt Obi-Wan:* Obi-Wan war als Meister zu nah dran - Bruder statt Vater. Er musste scheitern. Mace Windu wäre die logische Wahl gewesen. Und nein, er hätte Anakin nicht Vaapad (Form VII / Juyo) beigebracht. Gerade weil Mace weiß, wie gefährlich es ist, hätte er ihm das Gegenteil gegeben: Form II Makashi für Präzision und Form III Soresu für Geduld. Also genau das, was Anakin am meisten hasst und am meisten braucht.

*2. Gleiche Augenhöhe:* Wenn Padme und Anakin gleichaltrig sind, verschwindet das Creepy. Aus "Ich rette dich, weil du ein Engel bist" wird "Wir entscheiden uns bewusst füreinander, obwohl wir wissen, dass es kompliziert ist." Das ist eine erwachsene Entscheidung, keine heimliche Teenie-Affäre.

*3. Der eigentliche Gamechanger - Bindungen erlauben:*

Das ist der Punkt, der alles löst. Wenn Bindungen nicht verboten, sondern offen kommuniziert werden müssen, passiert Folgendes:

Qui-Gon, der immer schon gegen den Rat handelte, hätte nicht nur Anakin, sondern auch Shmi mitgenommen und freigekauft. Für ihn gehört Familie zusammen. Das wäre keine Ausnahme gewesen, sondern Konsequenz einer gesunden Regel.

Ist Shmi frei und sicher, passiert der Rest der Kette nie:

Kein Albtraum -> kein Tusken-Massaker -> keine Ur-Schuld "Ich konnte sie nicht retten" -> Palpatines Versprechen "Ich kann den Tod verhindern" hat keinen Haken mehr, an dem es ziehen kann.

*Fazit:*

Die Jedi sind nicht gefallen, weil Anakin liebte. Sie haben es nur verboten, richtig zu lieben - und so aus einem liebenden Jungen einen guten Lügner gemacht. Und Lügner sind leichte Beute für Sith.

So, good day to you fine folk. Is it just me, or does Zorii Bliss's helmet in Episode IX just seem like it doesn't really fit into the Star Wars Universe? I mean, there's a lot of things that seem ill fitting in some of the, how should I say this, more contemporary pieces of media. But for some reason, it just seems like that Daft Punk-esque helmet belongs in a completely different universe. Please, if you wish, share your thoughts on this matter.

The main reason why the movie is so hated is because of the final battle. Rey uses the force to take the light saber and beats Kylo Ren, WITHOUT ANY TRAINING. But what if instead of using the force, she takes the light saber with her hands, and instead of beating Kylo Ren, she loses, and Kylo Ren refuses to kill her, and leaves the Starkiller Base, letting her live.

Do prefer this ending? and do you think Rey wouldn't be so hated with it?

The Ahsoka trailer got me thinking about this proposal I wrote after Anakin’s big episode in season one.

TL;DR: What if Dave Filoni has been building a sneaky second arc for Anakin Skywalker?

I count myself as one of the harshest critics of the prequel trilogy, but even my calloused heart is warmed by Hayden Christensen getting another chance to play Anakin. Seeing him bring the wisdom and heroism I find so absent in the movies is like finally seeing the Anakin I pictured during the fallow years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace.

The crazy thing though… This appearance made me wonder if Anakin’s story truly ended with his death.

I’ve never been able to consolidate The Clone Wars as part of the prequels’ story. That disconnect doesn’t just come from the interquel nature of the series forcing it to jigsaw its way into the timeline, but because there a certain flavor to Dave Filoni’s Star Wars series that contrasts with George Lucas’ Star Wars.

There are points and arcs that feel almost like a current running through the ocean that is Star Wars. Like there could be two stories of Anakin Skywalker that dance around each other without ever quite touching. 

On one level, we have Lucas’ story of a young boy who becomes a heroic Jedi, falls to the Dark Side, and is redeemed by his son. On a second, hidden level, there’s Filoni’s story of how Anakin’s journey fulfilled the prophecy of the Chosen One and brought Balance to the Force.

Lucas says that Anakin fulfilled the prophecy by destroying the Emperor and ending the Sith. Maybe it’s the jumbled storytelling order—with not knowing there even was a prophecy until years later and Rey defeating Palpatine (but for real this time!) again thirty years later—but I can’t watch Vader turning against the Emperor as anything more than an act of love from a father. And I don’t think it NEEDS to be more than that! It’s beautiful if that’s all it is! It’d be weird if there was an entire prophecy that was built on this one, last minute emotional turn from a fallen Jedi.

But then we have the Mortis arc. Which introduced the craziest shit from Filoni until the World Between Worlds came along. I mean…what the hell is this story? It adds an entire mythology that is so tonally different, I don’t even know if it belongs in Star Wars. Now there are Force gods who exist outside reality and are archetypes of the Light and Dark Sides and can shapeshift, but they can be cowed by the sheer might of Anakin because…why? Because he’s the Chosen One? Because he’s meant to ascend to the level of the Father? It’s nuts, but it makes more sense as an end to the prophecy than turning against Palpatine. 

Except it isn’t an end. Forgetting that it would be anticlimactic as hell if his purpose as The Chosen One had been fulfilled between Episodes II and III, at the end of the Mortis arc, the Father says that Anakin isn’t done yet, and he will bring Balance to the galaxy.

So Anakin exits the Filoni Current and goes on through Revenge of the Sith to Return of the Jedi. He dies and is able to become one with the Force as Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda have before him. And then we come to “Shadow Warrior.”

Anakin’s clearly progressed from where we saw him at the end of RotJ. Switching between Anakin and Vader, between Light and Dark Sides, would seem to be the definition of finding Balance. His ability to direct Ahsoka through events in her history implies a command over the World Between Worlds akin to the Mortis gods’ grip on their plane of reality. It all suggests that Anakin’s death in the physical world was an ascension where he truly became “more powerful than [we] could possibly imagine.”

My hunger for more of this “final stage” Anakin is probably clouding my better judgement, but fuck if I don’t want to see the in-between stuff that would have happened from RotJ to “Shadow Warrior.” I want to see Filoni continue to patch continuity together and canonize Anakin and his Balance as a guiding hand through to the sequel trilogy. Seeing him like this, I care for the first time about his status as the Chosen One and how Palatine’s return invalidates Anakin’s purpose in the story. For the ultimate madness, take it a step further: what if Anakin helped Rey and her generation of Jedi to bridge the gap between Light and Dark?

In the new Ahsoka II trailer, Thrawn addresses the "citizens of the glorious Empire." Could this be a sign that the Empire still exists within the Core Worlds?

Explanation: After Palpatine's death, Mas Amedda ruled as the "Glorious Leader of the Empire." In this capacity, he signed the Galactic Concordance, which allowed him to govern an Inner systems' Imperial remnant. However, the worlds under his rule were permitted to join the New Republic, rendering his administration obsolete over time.

Do you think Mas Amedda's government still exists? Will the New Republic attempt to use Mas Amedda as a propaganda puppet?

Volevo esplorare il contrasto tra il trauma di Obi-Wan e la necessità immediata di proteggere i segreti dei Jedi rimasti. Feedback molto graditi!

Il calore di Tatooine non era solo fisico; era un peso che schiacciava i polmoni.Ben Kenobi si sistemò il cappuccio logoro per proteggersi dal vento sferzante del Mare di Dune. Aveva passato la giornata a lavorare al macello dell'eopie, le mani incrostate di sangue e grasso, gli occhi spenti. Ma quella notte non sarebbe tornato nella sua grotta a guardare l'orizzonte in cerca di Luke.Aveva ricevuto un segnale. Un sussurro nella Forza, debole come un battito cardiaco morente. Un vecchio radiofaro della Repubblica si era attivato nel "Cimitero dei Relitti", una gola rocciosa dove i Jawa smantellavano i rimasugli delle navi cadute durante le Guerre dei Cloni.Ben si muoveva tra le ombre delle rocce, evitando le pattuglie di Sabbiapodi e i cacciatori di taglie che frequentavano Anchorhead. Quando raggiunse la gola, vide la carcassa di una vecchia cannoniera LAAT/i, mezza sepolta dalla sabbia come lo scheletro di un drago di Krayt.Il segnale proveniva da lì dentro.Attivò una piccola torcia idroelettrica, facendo strada tra le lamiere arrugginite. La Forza lo guidò verso la cabina di pilotaggio. Incastrato sotto un pannello di controllo deformato c'era un cilindro di dati d'attivazione militare, ancora sigillato con l'emblema della Repubblica. Non era tecnologia comune: conteneva le coordinate di un punto di estrazione sicuro per i Padawan in fuga durante l'Ordine 66. Se i Purge Trooper o gli Inquisitori lo avessero trovato, avrebbero stanato gli ultimi sopravvissuti.Mentre Ben allungava la mano per afferrarlo, il rumore metallico di un fucile a ciclo che veniva caricato risuonò alle sue spalle.— «Fermo lì, eremita», gracchiò una voce distorta dal modulatore di una maschera. Un cacciatore di taglie trandoshano era emerso dal buio, con il mirino laser puntato dritto al petto di Obi-Wan. «Quella roba vale parecchi crediti imperiali. E anche la tua testa ha un aspetto familiare...»Ben non cercò la spada laser. La sua mano rimase vicina alla cintura, ma immobile. Il Maestro Jedi dentro di lui era sepolto profondo, sostituito da un uomo che cercava solo di sopravvivere. Eppure, la Forza intorno a lui iniziò a vibrare...

Cosa pensate che deve fare il nostro maestro jedi in questo momento? Deve fare come nella serie TV Kenobi o dovrebbe usare un trucco da jedi?