I feel like, since Obi-Wan is such a beloved character, he kind of gets put on this pedestal by a lot of the fan base and, as a result, Anakin tends to get shafted. People don’t seem to understand how Anakin’s fall really works, there always seems to be just the most superficial understanding of how his Turn happened. No one seems to want to think about it, but Obi-Wan had a pretty big role in Anakin’s Fall, actually.
Because, here’s the thing, Obi-Wan is a good Jedi, and a good friend, it’s clear he loves Anakin, but he is not a good teacher. And Anakin suffered for it.
Anakin is exceptionally skilled at the physical aspects of using the Force and being a Jedi, but when it comes to understanding their core tenants and philosophies, he’s detached. Obi-Wan failed to make Anakin feel at home with the Jedi, likely imitating his own training and that of others with limited thought to how Anakin’s background as a slave might change his perspective on these teachings.
Of course, part of the problem is that the Jedi Code is terribly flawed but that just exacerbates the problem. Obi-Wan is a negative enforcement type of teacher, he critiques Anakin’s actions and scolds him far more than he gives positive feedback and validation that Anakin desperately needs. So Anakin has to get that validation elsewhere, namely from Palpatine. Who on top of the regular kind of grooming and gaslighting, also has probably been spreading a miasma of Darkness around him, encouraging Anakin’s worse thoughts and feelings.
Then, of course, there’s what happened with Shmi, I’m of the opinion that Anakin’s visions, both with Shmi and then Padme, were planted by Palpatine. He showed no other signs of having any kind of prophetic abilities outside those two situations. Actually Palpatine is probably behind Shmi’s death all together, it’s just a little too convenient.
But those machinations don’t change how Obi-Wan was completely dismissive of Anakin’s fears and that led to drastic consequences. Obi-Wan as Anakin’s teacher was a terrible idea, why the Council though a recently knighted and traumatized young man would be the perfect caretaker for a recently freed slave kid is beyond me. It’s like they were setting him up to fail.
As for the actual Fall itself, another headcannon of mine is that Anakin was probably exhausted, he’d been on nonstop campaigns in the war for who knows how long, had been having constant nightmares that left him unable to sleep through the night, had most of his support base taken away except the corrupt one and another who had her own issues keeping her busy, and on top of that was under a ton of stress from being torn between Palpatine and the Jedi Council, Palpatine timed the whole thing just right to get the results he wanted. Unsurprising seeing as he managed to play both sides of the War. By the end Anakin was probably clinging to the Light by his fingertips.
Okay, so I don’t even know why I care anymore because I’ve already decided that Harry Potter is overrated and I should be done with it but I can’t stop thinking about how JK Rowling messes up magic in North America. I’m not even going to bother getting into all the issues with what she said about Native American magic, that’s a whole different problem that I don’t have the knowledge to competently talk about. My biggest issue is with the political landscape of the magical community I. The United States. Does she not know anything about how Congress and our branches of government work? There is just not possible way for there to be a magical president before the United States as a country was formed. Also, there would be no magical president at all, is there a magical prime minister in her books? No, there isn’t, there is a Minister of Magic, so it should be the Secretary of Magic. Further, what the hell is with Ivermony somehow being the only school for magic between all of the United States and Canada, does she have any idea how big these two countries are? We aren’t little island Britain that can pull off having one school, we are a massive continent, it’s complete unfeasible even if we did have the same culture of boarding school as they do, which we don’t. If you aren’t going to bother doing any research about the country you’re writing about before you starts describing a secret society in their midsts, don’t write anything.
The idea is that I’ll talk about my day here plus whatever tangents I go off on as I do so. No idea how well I’ll keep up with it but I try.
So the thing about the BatCat wedding, of which there were so many mistakes but in this particular case my problem is with the wedding party, look, I love Alfred and his relationship with Bruce, but he would not be the best man, he would be his father and whatever role in the wedding that that that would have held. Bruce’s best man would also not have been Dick or any of the other Robins because they are his sons and that is a different relationship.
Bruce’s best man should be Clark with Diana as his second groomsmen, that’s just how it needs to be.
I’m going to completely ignore Zexal and on.
I really liked Yugioh 5Ds when I was younger, I don’t really know why considering it was kind of a blatant cash grab, but the English theme was really catchy and I really loved Yusei’s voice actor, I might have had a bit of a crush on Yusei in general. I guess I just totally fell for the cheap “edgy” gimmick, which is funny because it isn’t like DM and GX weren’t dark themselves, but whatever. Yusei is definitely the best protagonist of the three. Anyway, my problem.
DM anime happened in, like, the early 2000s, and GX was supposed to be 10 years later with 5Ds a couple decades after that in some nebulous future point. But all of the shows were produced in the mid to late 2000s, so all of the tech looks pretty much the same across the three shows, though 5Ds has some generic futuristic looking stuff that still manages to look out of date. This really doesn’t work with what we now understand of the progression of our tech, by the time of GX everyone should have migrated to touch screens and, like, holo decks and stuff, not still using the clunky duel disks. And who even know by 5Ds time, the digital age is making things pick up steam, fast. None of it makes sense, as driven home by Dark Side of Dimensions when Kaiba and Yugi has their ridiculous high tech VR duel, makes it look like VRAINS should be the series that comes in 10 years instead of old school GX. Whatever.
I’ve noticed something of a trend in BNHA fics that kind of group all of the adult characters into being in the same peer group. This isn’t the case, there’s some pretty drastic age gaps between them all. Most of the teachers, (Eraserhead, Midnight l, Present Mic and the like) are all in their early 30s, they really aren’t that far off from being young adults themselves. I don’t know about all of the various heroes but Endeavor is 45 and All Might is 10 years older than him. All Might did not attend UA with his rival or any of his colleagues, he’s too old. I’m pretty sure he’s actually been being All Might for longer than most of his teacher colleagues have been alive. It just seems weirdly common for people to make him younger so they can have some high school romance back story in shipping fics, or just because they don’t seem to realize it. The whole point of All Might is that he’s been around a really long time, you lose some impact if that isn’t the case.
So the Lucifer in Supernatural is just the worst, and so is their Michael, what with the whole trying to possess Sam and Dean and start the apocalypse and what not. But I’ve recently been inspired by this great crossover between Supernatural, Good Omens and Lucifer (TV) where that’s not always the case. Lucifer isn’t actually the epitome of all evil in every interpretation of the Bible anyway, I mean Satan and Lucifer weren’t even always the same person, and besides that, Satan as a term was originally, like, a title for Heaven’s prosecutor or something, back before the Christian concept of Hell was a thing. I’m getting off tract.
Anyway, I was thinking of a world (specifically like an AU of Good Omens because I love those characters) where Lucifer isn’t evil, he’s a prosecutor, and judge and jury of hell, which has more in common with the Underworld than it does with fire and brimstone worst place on Earth just because I don’t want him miserable. Anyway, he’s happily married to his Queen, Lilith, totally devoted and monogamous and has been for millennia. Meanwhile Michael is just kind of living it up on Earth, going around drinking, picking fights, flirting with people and eating pie. Sometimes he drags other angels with him because he thinks they need to chill out more, his favorite victim is a little guy named Castiel. Lucifer and Michael get along with their siblings no problem, they especially like each other a good deal, though they can get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Lucifer often considers Michael a jerk while Michael will say Lucifer can be a bitch.
Get where I’m going with this? I just keep picturing Sam and Dean in their bunker staring at these two alternate versions of beings who’ve given them so much trouble, and it’s just them. I think it’s a fun idea, especially if you threw in Crowley and Aziraphale, like they’re just there being themselves.
My extremely belated list of Fairy Tail ships:
Natsu x Lucy
Gray x Juvia
Erza x Jellal
Wendy x Chelia
Levy x Gajeel
Laxus x Mirajane
Elfman x Evergreen
Freed x Bickslow
Lisanna x Cana
Loke x Mama Pisces