Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/30/the-dark-side-doesnt-make-se.html
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I predict men on the internet to handle this video in an appropriate manner (they won’t).
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Well I will have to watch later, but the Sith aren’t the only Dark Side users. I agree the rule of two and other methods of the Sith are stupid. Although the Sith of the Old Republic era, IIRC, didn’t use this rule at all and were more of a massive cult like the Jedi.
I think the way the Emperor ran things was more of an insurance that no one would be able to over power him.
As re: cloning, the Emperor actually used this technique in the Dark Empire comic series. The Dark Side takes a physical toll on the user, physically degrading them. One is able to channel their consciousness into a cloned body. He did this after his “death” in RotJ and supposedly had done it many times in the past.
Finally, there are many more things, especially in the prequels, that makes less sense once you think about it.
ETA:
Point 1) True for the viewer, but it alludes to a master plan in the background.
Point 2) Hazards of the job, as the Dark Side consumes one physically. Though my ex-GF would drink Kylo Ren’s bath water.
Point 3) The Sith were their own race a long time ago, IIRC. The Empire is very racists - er speciest. Their ranks are almost exclusively human, especially in positions of power. Thrawn is an notable exception.
Point 4) True, but I think it is used as a means of manipulation
Point 5) See above. Also you don’t want to do that too much or they might over power you.
Why? Not watched it yet, but the synopsis doesn’t have anything against men. Or was it the use of powerpoint?
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I’ve not watched it yet either, but it is a woman on YouTube giving an opinion “against” a popular fandom that based on her the write-up her doesn’t cut deep into the entire universe of media surrounding Star Wars. I cannot think of a time this did go well.
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Well…“make sense” is not a quality I’ve come to expect from Star Wars.
…I’ll leave now.
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She’s a good YouTuber and her nerdy cuts are deep, so she knows whereof she speaks. She’s not like “Star Wars is for dumb babies,” she’s thinking like a character in the Star Wars universe.
The Dark Side in original concept seemed to be something akin to a hedonistic attachment to life (vs. the Jedi’s Buddhist detachment and seeking of enlightenment), but the expanded 'verse doesn’t bear that out very well, opting for clear “bad guy” signalling. The new official 'verse hasn’t had a whole ton of Sith in it, either, and they’ve all been Very Mysterious, so it’s hard to say whether or not the new Dark Side makes any more sense.
At the very least, Kylo Ren seems to indicate that the new trilogy will play up the appeal of the intense emotion angle (which the OG Sith are frankly pretty lousy at representing - Darth Vader and the Emperor and Dooku are free of most emotions that aren’t “I feel eeeeevuhl.”)
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She’s very funny.
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Thanks for poking holes in the seamless alternate reality Lucas created!
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What about Darth Maul?
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I was talking about the Empire. All the admirals, generals, Moffs, etc.
There are many examples of non human Sith Lords.
OK - I watched it. They were mostly good points. The rule of 2 doesn’t make sense, nor the structure. You end up with several small groups of Sith running around, vs one large force. Palpatine is the first one to secure an empire since the Sith of the Old Republic (IIRC, I don’t know all the EU stuff, and its been awhile.)
I think it all boils down to the fact that they are all power hungry and thus manipulate people as a means for more power. They take apprentices to do their leg work, hoping they get killed before they get too powerful. But yes, the motivations and ways of thinking are too similar accross the board. She has a point where why is it only anger and hatred is powerful. What about lust or gluttony? Like a Sith who keeps a huge harem or one who hoards kyber crystals or some other valuable objects.
I’ve long said there also needs to be more force users that aren’t Jedi or Sith. There should be dozens of large organizations, and thousands of smaller ones, and millions of hobbyist groups.
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The Sith have always had some pretty dorky rules that often seem to work against them.
From what the filmmakers have said, that’s the reason Kylo Ren threw away all of their rules for his own group of baddies, the Knights of Ren, who we’ll likely see a lot more of in the next movie. No “only two” rule, no white-British-human racism, no emotionless BS, just ruthless destruction.
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Are you writing punk songs now?
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Simplistic stories of good and evil are rarely realistic. But that’s why they make dramatic STORIES. Indeed one of the things that made the original Star Wars so popular was a return to the sort of simplistic story of good and evil that has gone out of fashion with the complications of the Vietnam War. That’s part of why almost everybody (myself included) hated the whole midi-cholorians explanation from the prequels. That’s part of why Buffy the Vampire Slayer was uneven. Are the vampires simply evil so that killing them is simply good? Or are they persons capable of good and evil so that we should make an effort to judge them?
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The thing is, the Dark Side doesn’t need to make more sense than, say, fundamentalism. It offers a simple path to power unlike the long slog that the Jedi preach. I like to think of it as tapping into the raw power of the Force, but doing so comes at a price and leaves the practitioner falling even deeper into self-loathing and bitterness. The Force itself is not moral, but the sum of all living energy, and the practitioner works either to tap the firehose of the Force, or learn how to control ones self and ride the Force.
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Verily, a video documenting things that make sense in Star Wars would be fresh and unexpected at this point.
ETA: Found this just now.
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The universe would be better off without the lot of them. Flood each planet with antibiotics then administer the midi-chlorian vaccine to every one.
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I like it. She’s funny and nerdy - a rare combination.
The key error in this thesis is to suppose that evil is rational. It isn’t.
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“We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” ~
Orwell in 1984
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