mojo wrote:Even if a Jedi falling to the Dark Side permanently after using Dark Side abilities is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, which seems to me to be what you're saying, it's probably still best they don't use them. Better to have the boring guy in the ivory tower, rather than another Sith running around killing at random and enslaving the galaxy, even if it's all in his head.
The Sith are people seeking power for the sake of it – typically Palpatine – or lying to themselves in thinking they do it for the greater good. Technically, Anakin fell prey to this lie for a greater part of his life and it's only the light brought by his son, the new life, fruit of a most complex union one would say, but who ultimately rejected power and promises thereof, that allowed the corrupted knight to get rid of the dark wizard's spell.
Much of the suffering results from emotionnal wounds too... and for all its faults in execution, at least the movies show that well. Either you repair them or they poison you.
The Jedi aren't
supposed to be that kind of wounded personnas, but they really do lie to themselves a lot too!
What doesn't work well with me is how they're living their boring, neutral monastic life.
No sex, no joy : a complete revulsion of the principles of life and the existence down there. Antithesis of it... to the letter.
One way, you could say that even if QGJ was largely flawed and unwittingly reflecting his Order, he at least did have a problem with the core tenets of this same decrepit Order.
I think that story-wise, the Jedi don't love the Force, they're afraid of it. They only attune to it in order to get the most neutered aspects of it. A kind of pale subsistance, like light coming from a very distant star.
The Force was able to manifest life through a miracle; the Jedi shun this creative principle by rejecting the basic needs for procreation. They're nothing more than Catholic warrior-priests and in all logic, the Jedi Order should have been a cesspool of pedophiles.
To them, the Force appears to be a burden, or a plague. See, in life, the basic rule is that you can only get a chance at feeling joy if you accept that you may also feel sadness if you do things wrong. It's all about the risks and the trill, ergo emotions. Now, those Jedi, by being cowards and too afraid of themselves – plus literally their own shadows – and their projected (and assumed) ability to cause damage, they reject both. They're full of guilt in advance of any error. It's sick.
Worse, I think they see their abilities as a curse; mentally, they're closet self-whipers. They don't look for balance, for it would require accepting both ends of the spectrum. Joy and sorrow, love and hatred. They're totally bland, anti-life. They crave a flatline'd existence. They're most certainly dead inside.
The Force couldn't have any of it!
They're demigods who reject the good life, secretly quaking in fear at the idea of what they may do once drunk, so they push away any chance of living like Olympians down on Earth.
They really should be seen as nothing more than boring, miraculously-not-pedos, sick and quasi-sociopathic pretentious monks in bathrobes.
As for hatred.
It is complex.
I see no problem, in certain cases, with summoning hatred with the utmost discipline, in due time and due quantity, to find the rage to kill (normal people can't kill) if you need to deshumanize what has to die, only to dispatch the hatred once the deed done.
However, it may be very interesting to read into the mindset of people who had to kill, depending on the context: cops, troopers, etc.
When you think of it, even killing in the name of self-defense, which may seem righteous, solely derives from a
fear of being hurt or killed.
Isn't fear a primary path to the Dark Side?
It requires insane logic and the weirdest discipline to kill just "because it has to be done". It's only achieved, then, by being mechanical and logical.
Hate may be the best way to bring your mind to the state of being ready to kill, for the occasion. As such, I prefer the path that allows you to remain fully human, not semi-dead or sociopathic.
Besides, what got Palpatine where he ended isn't the Force if I'm correct, but a specific twisted use of his intellect and his cunning ability to promise greatness through power to those he tempted, namely Count Dooku and Anakin Skywalker (plus all the other sycophantic politicians). All through talking, mostly.
I agree with you though, I've always thought grey Jedi were much more interesting, and that they make more sense. I even hoped that Qui-Con's status as a grey might have something to do with the whole "balance to the Force" hoopla in the prequels, especially after his "Anakin!" shout from beyond the grave in AotC made it obvious that he would be the first on-screen Jedi to make the jump to Force Ghost.
Seriously, George! You already said it 4,000 Times! BALANCE! Isn't balance achieved when both sides of the scales hold equal weight? How does 1 Light Side Jedi = 0 Dark Side Sith?
Absolutely!
And Luky Skywalker IS the epithome of that accomplishment.
Luke Skywalker is absolutely gray, far more than QGJ. His shell is literally dark, yet his mind is pure.
It is very interesting in fact. Luke is the son of Anakin, but could be considered the grandson of the Force. As such, he realizes great many things in the material world and brings considerable light right on the doorsteps of the foulest shadows. He corrected what a blinded Anakin did, i.e. destroying beauty and throwing an entire galaxy into darkness, because this same Anakin once let his hand be guided by an evil and wicked man. Anakin thought that his suffering was unfair and he too wanted to be able to enjoy a full, normal life, so essentially he thought why not? Why couldn't I?
Now, I won't start another rant on TFA because to me, it's a complete denial of anything achieved by Luke on a moral and metaphysical plane.
Mediocre minds – such as JarJarAbs' – couldn't understand what the ending of ROTJ represented. He just made a soulless commercial POS with pewpews and lightsabres, inserted between two KFC ads.