Diaphanous Gown, Jeremy Lipking

It tickles me that the empire is literally an ouroboros eating its own tail

The End of the Jedi & Republic vs The End of the Empire Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover | Aftermath: Empire's End by Chuck Wendig

These institutions were both dead from the beginning due to self-inflicted wounds of corruption and ignorance. Destruction will continue in a vicious cycle if its mistakes are not obliterated from its foundations. The end of the Jedi and Republic warns of this. It became the Empire, then the New Republic, which failed as it only reinstated what the previous Republic was without uprooting its flawed systems. The Empire transformed into the First Order, but both were already doomed being led by power-hungry figures who end up trying to kill each other and force the world into an order utterly unnatural. Fascism is unsustainable and will always devolve into consuming itself in pursuit of selfish individualistic power.

There's also an interesting contrast between both of these passages. When speaking about the Jedi and the Republic, the supposed Light-Side, there's this tone of hopelessness and utter despair. Their corruption consumed them and you can't stop it or save it. Anakin will always be the dragon that burns thousands of years of legacy to the ground. But when speaking about the Empire's end, there's an underlying tone of hope even as the story closes on it's successor rebuilding in the shadows. Because even when the galaxy continues to rebuild kingdoms of oppression, hope and resistance will always coexist against it simultaneously. The Empire is doomed, and The First Order too, because it dared to rebuild while those willing to fight for justice still exist.

Was the galaxy saved or doomed the moment Anakin stepped onto the scene. Both? Neither? It’s about how hope and perseverance exist even as institutions continually seek power.

STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH 2005, dir. George Lucas

Bonus:

Andor S02E03 "Harvest"

I love you. I know.

CARRIE FISHER & HARRISON FORD STAR WARS: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)

Padmé’s death is the most clear cut suicide in the franchise. She has no indication that her death will benefit anyone, nor has she been told by anyone that death is on the horizon; and yet, she wants to. The love of her life has become master of Hell, the father of her children has set the galaxy aflame, and the ruling body she gave her life to has gone obsolete—indeed, always was. How could we talk Padmé off the ledge at this moment? How could anyone? Ultimately, the film doesn’t ask us to. This is a tragedy. The point is not to berate our protagonists into healthier living choices, but to watch them fall into the abyss. At the end of every good tragedy, there’s nothing else left.

So Padmé falls neatly into the canon of self-annihilating tragic heroines. Her death is not inspiring, or productive, or well-adjusted, but it is her death. The means, the reasons, the aftermath, all belong to her. Padmé, the victim of multiple assassination attempts from the ages of fourteen to twenty-four, warrior on the frontlines of the battles of Naboo and Geonosis, survivor of Nexu claws, force choking, and a difficult trauma-informed birth, dies firmly and exclusively because she wanted to. If she wanted to live, she would’ve lived. This is not a weakening death, especially when compared to oft-cited “strong” deaths like having Anakin kill her. One wonders: how is Padmé choosing to die less empowering than having that choice taken from her?

-“The Skywalker Suicides Part I: The Case For Padme”

revenge of the sith rerelease means people are talking about padme’s death again so i’m promoting my essay

A Bonus Page

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Other Skywalker Comics

The way Biggs literally smacks Luke on the ass.

STAR WARS (1977)

by Todd Slater