Of course I do!
I tend to subscribe to the Dylan Moran interpretation of snarky. Not merely poking fun, but sometimes jabbing it repeatedly in a stabbing fashion…
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It may not make sense, but I’m given to understand that they have cookies, so…
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This is a big part of why I never understood the appeal of getting super deep into any fandom. Most of these fictional universes are riddled with inconsistencies, poor planning, and plot holes big enough to fly a star destroyer through. If writers were architects or city planners, we’d fire the lot of them.
I guess looking for holes in Swiss cheese is kind of a fun game?
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“Yes, yes, give in to your angst and become more powerful in the Force!”
Uh, that’s exactly what Anakin did, right?
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Luke and Kylo Ren too. In fact, the Sith master-apprentice system seem perfect for driving the power of angst.
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The river is a good metaphor for the Force: the Force practitioner is crossing the river: does he stomp through, creating eddies and turbulence in his wake, disrupting the flow but getting across, or does he first look at the currents and move with them, conserving his own energy and disturbing the river as little as possible?
(edited to add)
Another way to describe the Dark Side is the clenched usage. Applying pressure, tensing, squeezing. Make the Force do what you want The Yoda school of the Force is to relax, unclench, and to be in agreement with the Force.
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The idea as I understand it, is that the force is like the tao for the most part. It doesn’t have intention on its own, but it will amplify the intentions of those who use it.
The dark side of the force is often described in the EU as a wound in the force, or a twisting of the force’s power into uses it’s not good for. That’s why “bringing balance to the force” is all about eliminating the dark side, instead of making sure both the light and the dark have equal power. The dark side itself is destabilizing and a problem. Its presence makes the light side weaker. So healing the force and getting rid of the wounds caused by improper use for destructive ends is balancing the force.
The dark side is like using dynamite to shell walnuts. Sure it gets the shell off, but both the dynamite and the walnut are destroyed in the end. And possibly even the person using the dynamite.
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How. Dare. You. For posting anything from that abomination.
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Don’t forget this, from McSweeney’s:
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Well… aside from the whole "I’m right and you’re wrong. No I’m right and you’re wrong thing, the concepts of “good” and “evil” derive entirely from our desire to keep our own genetic line going at the expense of other genetic lines. For that matter, “rationality” is a subconstruct of the statistical laws of evolution.
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Isn’t the light side of the force almost entirely an EU only invention that is popular with fans? I know there are the children made of the force in Clone Wars, but I don’t remember if one was explicitly referred to as the light side. The Jedi always seems to be hammering home “remove attachments, become disciplined in the Force” which includes all strong feelings and attachments to people.
I mean, Ahsoka left the Jedi because she expressed too many “good” emotions and couldn’t detach herself from her sense of justice and right and wrong. Anakin’s desire for love, acceptance, and doing the right thing allowed Sheev to swoop in and corrupt him (the Jedi also gave him a pass because the prophecy and his power). Obi Wan’s terrible in-Jedi-like behavior is the only thing not explained at all.
The Jedi are only the true good guys in the NJO stuff featuring Luke’s leadership in the EU (and part of why the prequels are really dull), and the new canon that has been entirely stripped.
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This sounds more like competing doctrines on having the perfect poo.
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Furthermore, with the laser/blaster technology at their - ahem - disposal, why don’t they blast ejected materials into smithereens?
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This is the fundamental problem with the Star Wars conception of morality. It takes Buddhist non-attachment to “maya” (roughly, ephemeral and transient things) to a ludicrous extreme. In Ep 3, Padme is a hero for accepting her fate, in dying in childbirth rather than seeking anything remotely resembling medical treatment, and Vader is a villain for fighting fate in using medical technology to not die. And this is pretty much the morality of the entire Star Wars movie universe, Luke is a hero for accepting his fate, Han Solo is a reluctant hero for eventually accepting his fate, everyone in the Empire is a villain not just for the canonically (as it were) villainous things that they do, but for anything that thwarts or worse, seeks to control their fate.
The only character in any of the Star Wars storytelling that I’ve seen (and I don’t have much knowledge of the Extended Universe) that actually grapples with how ridiculous this all is is Jolee Bindo from the original Kotor. He gets that yes, the far end, galaxy dominating, mass murderous tendencies of the Sith are genuinely evil. But he also sees that the ivory tower detachment from all human concern of the Jedi Order is not only arrogant but absurdly unproductive in building a functional galaxy built on connection to the light side of the Force. So he says eff it and lives in the woods.
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Likes a bit of rough trade, the Universe, it does.
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Please understand, gentle reader, I am all for creating hassles and headaches for the Empire. I just doubt that the Empire would have created so many for itself. Q.E.D.
The only acceptable explanation is that Galen Erso’s sabotage encompassed the trash compacting system as well.
He was playing the very long game.
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KOTOR is a terrible example for Star Wars morality, but a good example of good characters making it not matter.
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Saw this and thought it was about the Stephen King book the Dark Half or the TV show Tales from the Darkside. Someday I should catch up on this Star Wars thing…
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