Star Wars: Light and Dark

Hey everyone, I'm still in Prague, but I just finished up a huge project (and I'm recovering from celebrating the end of it), so I thought I'd lounge a bit and finish my series on Star Wars. Watching Return of the Jedi on Independence Day is what planted the idea for a post series in my mind, but I think what ultimately made me realize I wanted to talk about some of the themes was a line in Revenge of the Sith. After seeing Return and talking about the series as a whole with some of my friends, I decided to rewatch a few scenes of Revenge on YouTube. I really want to enjoy that movie because the overall story, the fall of Anakin Skywalker, is intriguing and it has some amazing duel scenes. Sadly, Anakin's fall is handled so poorly and the dialogue is so clunky that I can't will myself to like it. But as I was watching the build-up to Anakin and Obi-Wan's duel, one thing Obi-Wan said to Anakin really hit me. When Anakin said that Obi-Wan was either his friend or his enemy, Obi-Wan responded that only Sith deal in absolutes. Which is total bullshit. (Note: I just went on YouTube to see if I could get a short video of this exchange for the post, and someone pointed out that the line is an oxymoron.)

All the way back in A New Hope, Obi-Wan was telling Luke about the difference between the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force; there isn't a bigger absolutist position than that. Jedi are trained to discern the Light Side from the Dark Side and to NEVER dabble in the darkness. In The Phantom Menace itself and the marketing for Attack of the Clones, this was further expanded upon; one somewhat famous scene from Phantom (it was in the first trailers... and was later alluded to in Buffy) has Yoda warning young Anakin that he was full of fear and that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Dark Side. Then, there was a poster for Clones that featured Anakin and Padme back to back with a caption reading "A Jedi shall not know anger, nor hatred, nor love."

This way of life presents multiple problems in my opinion. The Jedi learn to control (read: suppress) their emotions and in effect become less than human. Or at least, that is how they should be if they truly eradicate their ability to feel basic human emotions like anger, fear, hatred, and love. Fear can even be a healthy emotion; it can inform us of when we should flee instead of fight, and people who claim to feel no fear usually are either arrogant or fooling themselves. And to deny oneself anger is pretty dangerous. I have no doubt that plenty of organizations in the Star Wars universe have done things to piss off the Jedi, whether it be the Senate, the Sith, or smugglers, and although the Jedi may be good at controlling their anger, there are probably some things that are unforgivable, even to the most enlightened and calm. The fact that the Jedi are "peace-keeping" agents requires them to be in a position that will earn them a lot of enemies, and there will likely be some animosity between the Jedi and the Sith. Obi-Wan was probably upset with Anakin for his descent into darkness, and I can't imagine not hating the man partly responsible for destroying your way of life and everything you hold sacred.

Even the fact that the distinction of the Force is based upon lightness and darkness is absolutist. Is every Jedi who follows the path of the Light Side morally clean? Is every Sith morally bankrupt? George Lucas continually tries to point out Darth Vader, a Sith lord, as a tragic figure with redeeming characteristics. And come on, there has to be at least one Jedi who is a total dick. You can probably tell from this that I am a moral relativist, and I think that if a character in the Star Wars universe were to find a way to walk a middle path between lightness and darkness, that character would become more powerful than any other Jedi or Sith (maybe that happened; Palpatine told Anakin that he could foresee him becoming the most powerful Jedi ever, and Anakin was a "tragic" Sith). To use the incredible powers of the Dark Side for righteous and moral means and still be able to become "one with the Force" (become a Force Ghost) would have its advantages.

That's it for Star Wars for now. Law school is starting up again soon, so my posts won't be frequent for a while. I will try and keep up with TV (Mad Men, Dollhouse, and Dexter are starting up soon), but I don't have an idea for a post series right now.

Up next: Television tracking...