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

Darth Vader | Star Wars (He is and he's not even sorry.)

[nouskaiananki]

Several of my. Shall we call them 'coworkers' and well as the Emperor had an idea for a new breed of "weapon". Such design was an affront to what I stand for, an incredible waste of resources, poorly designed, and even more poorly executed. It also contained numerous design flaws including one capable of destroying the entire device. Given I am excellent engineer I saw these flaws years ago and made multiple attempts to steer the weapons development away from this project to another, better suited to our goals. After being ignored and scolded for my suggestions I stepped back, gathered my evidence, and waited for the inevitable.

Including the Rebellion getting the plans. How terrible they slipped from my grasp.

The weapon was rightfully destroyed. Many of my men were killed as a result which is my only regret.

I have been told this makes me 'the asshole'. I don't believe I am.

[lotsoflaughs]

::Suddenly, there is music playing. Obnoxious music.::

::Enjoy the new soundtrack to your life.::

[nouskaiananki]

Vote noted.

[ Excuse him while he uses his helmet to filter that out of his hearing. Can anyone else hear it? That's their problem. ]

Re: Darth Vader | Star Wars (He is and he's not even sorry.)

[forcechanic]

I'm almost impressed.

You had so many options available and you managed to pick the one where you were an asshole to the absolute maximum number of people.

[nouskaiananki]

Which do you believe I should have further pursued?

[ He'll play asking for a bit. ]

[forcechanic]

The one where no planets explode comes to mind.

[faithfulson]

...really?

Of all the things to talk about, you picked that?

[nouskaiananki]

It's the event in question Luke.

[ Given he knows the answers to other events and refuses to accept any blame for still others. ]

[faithfulson]

That is? There are really no other events that might have made you look like an asshole?

What about the entire three year saga of you chasing me through the galaxy? My 'favorite' part of that was when you destroyed two squadrons of fighters by yourself, and probably would have destroyed more if I hadn't rammed my X-wing into your ship.

That's not even accounting for everything you did on the ground.

Or the fact that your pursuit of me ended with you cutting off my hand.

[ He maaaaaaay be a little salty about that last one still. ]

[jedied]

I'm not sure letting the Death Star fail is what made you the asshole.

[nouskaiananki]

But those are the actions I am asking about child.

here, have an Inquisitor!Jacob

[adarkergray]

The Imperial Navy's treatment of engineers is even more toxic than the rest of its workplace culture, my lord.

[He is definitely in a position to comment. Before the Grand Inquisitor identified him, he was a shipboard engineer on the Relentless - and even now, the nature of his work is so specialized compared to the rest of the Inquisitors that he actually maintains a primary duty posting as a Senior Engineer aboard the Chimaera. Of course, that could also have something to do with the Emperor wanting to keep his blade as close as possible to Thrawn's neck.]

Have I told you about the time I almost had to incite a galaxy-wide strike to force a version change on a set of critical Star Destroyer maintenance manuals that were six years out of date? Or the fact that I and several other engineers were nearly charged with sedition for creating the Imperial I knowledge base articles before the Navy abruptly decided to accept them as official? And those were just my two biggest victories among a sea of defeats. Sometimes, all one can do is cover one's ass and wait for it all to fall apart. You're NTA on this.

[Of course, loyalty to Vader and self-preservation instinct might also have something to do with that assessment.]

[nouskaiananki]

[ Finally some actually answers what he was asking about. ]

It is a shame Krennic and Tarkin were able to see their overreach fail. Or that others decided to recreate those mistakes in their entirety on a larger scale.

But thank you for answering rather than focusing on other events.

However, the fact you were about to survive both of those speaks to at least someone recognizing your value inside the Imperial Navy.

[adarkergray]

For the first one, it helped that I was far from the only engineer who was willing to accept death over being forced to keep working with the same out-of-date manuals - and that all the shipyards were ten months behind on their maintenance schedules, except for the one that was secretly using our draft revision. For the second one, perhaps someone remembered me. Or perhaps I used some... unconventional persuasive methods.

[In other words, he'd resorted to mind tricks. Vader also knew that Jacob had once been a Jedi healer, but after he'd had time to absorb the lessons of the war, he'd come to hold only disillusionment and scorn for the Order.]

And I'd like to believe that in their final moments, Krennic and Tarkin both realized the folly of their hubris. It's too bad those they left behind didn't share that lesson.

Re: Darth Vader | Star Wars (He is and he's not even sorry.)

[resoluteandunyielding]

~just e x i s t s~

[nouskaiananki]

[ EXIST AND COME TO HIM. HE'S BEYOND SORRY AND WILL GROVEL. ]

*cackles madly*

[resoluteandunyielding]

What do you believe you are now, then?

Re: Darth Vader | Star Wars (He is and he's not even sorry.)

[routemistress]

Enormously. What did you even think you were trying to achieve?

[nouskaiananki]

Proving them wrong.

[ Obviously. ]

[routemistress]

To whom exactly, you great muppet? To the sodding Emperor?

[forcecalls]

Even worse, they did it again. And then again.

[nouskaiananki]

Destroying Illum in the process. Such a waste.

Narrow-minded fools so forced on creating technological fear they were unable to understand what they had truly done and the profanity of it.

[forcecalls]

I'm sure most of the First Order still remembers Alderaan as a victory.

[artfultactics]

My lord, there are many who are incapable of comprehending the fact that necessity is sometimes an unspeakably ugly thing. Their judgment is not worth consideration.

[nouskaiananki]

Occasionally it is. Especially when the people in question are one's children or grandchildren.

[ It would be nice if they didn't all hate him. ]