aita?

[insertusername]

am i the asshole?

Life isn’t always black and white. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s really at fault, and no one wants to believe they’re the bad guy. Sometimes you need an outside opinion. Or several.

Tell your side of the story and crowdsource an honest answer to the age old question; Am I The Asshole?

Top Level

with your character explaining a situation where they might have been the asshole.

Comment

with your hot takes. Anon or IC.

Comments

Ezra Bridger | Star Wars | OTA

[merging]

So I(19M) led a planet-wide revolution against galactic fascism and in the process, got myself and my enemy villain guy(??M) stranded in the middle of nowhere. NOW he says he was actually trying to protect my world(and the galaxy) against a larger threat. But shouldn't he have just said that in the first place? AND NOT TURNED TO IMPERIALISM? Also got a bunch of his crew stuck with us too and probably killed a few hundred or more. Usual rebellion stuff, but AITA?

[seenitbefore]

Possibly, but you're also not wrong. Anyone who plays the "I was oppressing you for your own good" card deserves to deal with assholes.

[merging]

I know, right? I mean he's for sure an asshole himself. But I also think he didn't really see the big picture? But I guess neither did I.

[seenitbefore]

Nobody does. There's always a bigger picture. Empire and conquest don't belong in any of them.

There are worse things to be than an asshole.

[merging]

Yeah true. And it could've definitely gone worse. Like becoming a Sith worse. Or destroying all of time and reality worse. So this is probably the least destructive all things considered?

[knowledgeandshadow]

A threat, you say. Is it truly a real threat, or one that had been imagined or exaggerated?

[ She isn't making any judgements yet. For that, she felt she had to know more about this situation. ]

[merging]

I can only go off what he's claimed. Could be real, could be exaggerated. It feels like he's telling the truth, but he's sorta hard to get a read on, even for someone like me.

[knowledgeandshadow]

[ Some sort a psychic ability? Patchouli was intrigued. ]

I appears to me that you were doing what you felt was the right thing to do. Though, you say you 'feel' he's telling the truth?

[onemillionsubscribers]

NTA.

He's the asshole. Fascism has no excuse. Unfortunate you dragged others into it but also they're supporting a fascist reigm by siding with the establishment you're fighting against.

Again for the people in the back: NTA!

[merging]

Thanks. I'm still a little worried about everyone I got involved, but hey! This could be the time for them to turn things around! As soon as we get back to civilization, I guess.

[onemillionsubscribers]

NP.

I'd be chomping at the bit to get back home. How are you holding up? Being around the military you fought against can't be easy.

Sorry. My job requires questioning things.

[survivalthroughhate]

You're not wrong. But you're a fool for believing him.

[Look, Maul's experienced Ezra's opinion of villains before firsthand and figures whoever this may be is just manipulating the overly-trusting teen the same way he had.]

[merging]

I'd be a fool if I followed him. [Believing in people isn't wrong!!! It's his thing! After all,] I don't think I was a fool for believing you. Your life was destroyed by the Sith. I just... need to be more careful with what comes after the believing part.

[survivalthroughhate]

So you say. And just what does come after the part where you believe in him? After all, it worked out so well for you and me.

[artfultactics]

NTA. 

[He's not going to absolve himself of being the asshole when, among other things, this isn't the first time that holding his cards too close to the vest has backfired on him - not that he'd admit that part.] 

As for why I did not simply explain the reasoning behind my actions earlier: even if you would have believed me, I had no reason to place any trust in you, or anyone else connected with the Rebellion. Spectre cell was relatively insulated from the Rebellion as a whole, so you had no opportunity to witness the degree to which the best, and, above all else, the worst of the Republic was encapsulated in miniature in the Rebellion. Even when all their focus should have been on their common enemy, its leadership still could not control their infighting - no, perhaps backstabbing is a better word for some of their recent actions. Already, it is clear that their chances for long-term stability are nonexistent - and stability is the one thing the galaxy needs most, to prepare for the threats it will face. The Empire, for all its ugliness, provides that.

However, the Empire may not be enough. There are major deficits in its overall strategy that even I have been unable to correct, which prioritize its ability to deal with internal threats at the expense of its capacity to meet external ones. I already had a plan in motion to compensate for these shortcomings by taking part of the Seventh Fleet into the Unknown Regions on what would have nominally been a mapping expedition, but which would in fact have allowed me to build a largely autonomous defensive formation to screen the Empire's flank.

[In other words, finding himself unable to change the Empire from within, he'd been forced to devise an exit strategy - albeit one that wouldn't cut him off from the Empire's resources, so he'd have an easier time building up his own power base.] 

Of course, you couldn't have known that, in a few standard months, we would no longer have been one another's problem. 

[merging]

[He should be happy about the NTA bit, but there's too much he wants to argue against. The Rebellion isn't the worst of the Republic. That's the Empire. Of course his goal has never been to reinstate the Republic, and that is sort of in the Rebellion's full name. Which is maybe why he doesn't always agree with Mon Mothma, and okay, that's not the point!]

You're wrong. But you already knew I'd say that. Not about the me being- ... you know what I mean!

Let's say I didn't do anything. In a few standard months or whatever, you left Lothal. The Empire would still be there. Lothal would still be drained of its resources, its people would still be imprisoned, its temple would still be in Palpatine's control. And that, the result of your actions, would have still been my problem.

Besides, what were you gonna do about Palpatine? You know, Palpatine gaining control of all time and space and being able to manipulate the Force and reality as he wills? Your defense formation thing couldn't stop that.

[artfultactics]

((Btw I apologize, my Thrawn is super super rusty.))

The industrialisation of Lothal would have happened without me - likely without the Empire, even. Governor Pryce claimed [there's just the slightest flicker of satisfaction at being able to refer to her in the past tense,] she always had grand plans of putting her home world on the map, and if it hadn't been her, some other equally ambitious local would have noticed the economic conditions were ripe for such a move.

[However, he's not going to deny his share of the blame for the rest of what went on. And he knows that if they're actually going to work together, not just circle each other indefinitely, he's going to have to tip his hand a little. The easiest place to start, he supposes, is with the cards Ezra already knows he's holding.]

As for Palpatine, all of us have at various turns underestimated and been underestimated by him.This is one instance in which I'm operating at a particular disadvantage, as Force sensitivity manifests much differently and in a much more limited way among my people, the Chiss, than it does among humans, and I have only secondhand experience with it. As scrupulous as Palpatine has been about burying every piece of information he could find about the Jedi, there's still enough out there for me to gain some understanding of their history and their abilities - incomplete though it obviously is. [They wouldn't be stuck with each other otherwise.] Finding information about the Sith, particularly after the nominal establishment of the Rule of Two, is an entirely different challenge, because the Rule of Two also changed their attitude toward the preservation of knowledge. It was still coveted, still hoarded as much as possible, but its frequent destruction was also considered a tactical necessity - and, in turn, it was considered a greater source of glory for a Sith to build themselves up from nothing, to develop techniques and methods of using the Force that were uniquely their own. Because of that unpredictability, I've needed to rely on Palpatine's apprentice more, in some ways, than I am strictly comfortable with. However, as a Sith, it's his duty to kill his Master when the time comes, so he has a vested interest in keeping Palpatine's power from becoming functionally infinite.

[However, in the end, that had only gotten them what they'd seen on Lothal. And this next admission is going to sting.]

Knowing what Palpatine is capable of, as a person - not just what he's able to do with the Force - would have allowed me to maneuver him more effectively, had I not badly misjudged the manner in which his ego and his vanity operate. Originally, I was under the impression that he sought to found a ten-thousand-year empire of unsurpassed military might, but I only recently learned how wrong that impression had been. Palpatine does not believe that his Empire deserves to outlive him, and he has made preparations to ensure that it doesn't. 

[Which is why Thrawn and Vader can't simply kill him now, and why building a secondary locus of power outside the Empire is suddenly so important. No matter how many of those preparations the two of them manage to identify and dismantle, there's still bound to be something they'd miss, perhaps something critical - which means having intact forces elsewhere, in a position to swoop in and pick up the pieces of the Empire, is vital.]

Re: Ezra Bridger | Star Wars | OTA

[averyusefultray]

Imperials are by definition TA when taking over planets. He'd say all sorts of things now that he's stuck with you off somewhere else.

LIght YTA for not calling home though.

[merging]

Hey, I've been working on that! Honestly, I thought Sabine and Ahsoka would've found me by now too. Not- not that I'm complaining! Just. You know.

[averyusefultray]

Well. At least SpReddit works everywhere it seems.

Don't you dare let that man convince you it was something you did wrong.

[jedied]

Not the asshole.

Galactic fascism isn't the way to protect anything.

[merging]

Right? And if you did try it and it didn't work, least you can do is apologize, get over yourself, and join the Rebellion.

[persistentagent]

Thrawn was trying to protect the galaxy? From what??

And why'd you consider believing anything he says in the first place eludes me.

[merging]

Something huge, apparently.

And you know me. Although, I actually can't get a good read on him in the Force. But I'm still a pretty good judge of character without it so...

[He knows he's not. He knows this has been an issue several times before. Buuuuut it's also worked out a lot in his favor?]

[persistentagent]

[huge, huh? Force size huge? if so, Kallus can't really say anything to that.]

[but]

Ezra-

just don't get killed. Not by him. We just don't do that here, alright? I'd have to scold you.

And when the hell are you coming back home? Preferably without any Chiss.