There may be a misunderstanding of Jedi as emotionless guardians. I don’t believe that this was the intention of George Lucas and instead think it may be viewers who have confirmation bias in their dark view of the Jedi. This would be like saying Spock is emotionless when we know he is the most emotional person. He just doesn’t put his emotions on display. Kirk put it best in Wrath of Khan (1982), “Of all of the souls I’ve encountered in my travels, his was the most…human.” On the trip to Naboo in Attack of the Clones (2002), Anakin Skywalker says to Padme Amidala, “Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi’s life.” Anakin’s true understanding of the Jedi is flawed since Jedi Knights may have friends, the Jedi Order can be in a sense family, but not to the point of clinging to them. After Order 66 and leaving the warning communication to Jedi to stay away from the Jedi Temple, Yoda and Obi-Wan go into exile, leaving everything in the past.
Anakin is also confused about compassion, the literal meaning is “to suffer together.” The definition in Oxford Languages is “It is sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others." Attachment, Luke offers the choice of Beskar armor or Yoda's lightsaber to Grogu in The Book of Boba Fett, "From The Desert Comes A Stranger." Luke explains about the armor, "However, you will be giving in to attachment to those that you love and forsaking the way of the Jedi." Let’s look closely at lil’ Anakin’s interview with the Jedi Council in Phantom Menace (1999). Ki-Adi Mundi says his thoughts are on his mother. Yoda says “fear of losing her” worries Anakin. This leads to his line “…fear leads to anger, etc.” This makes it clear that attachment of the kind where losing the attachment will cause a great emotional reaction will turn a Jedi to the Dark Side. Lucas described the Jedi as "warrior-monks who keep peace in the universe." This was from The Star Wars Archives: 1999 - 2005 (2020). Basically, they sacrifice what others may cherish to act as their guardians.
So even the loss of the Jedi and the order and even destruction of the Jedi Temple has Yoda and Obi-Wan sending the warning signal and going into exile. Similar to Yoda when Anakin goes to him to meditate on his problems. Yoda begins, “Fear of loss is a path to the dark side. Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not, miss them do not, attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is.” He then gives Anakin the advice, “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” The greatest danger for Anakin is the last part that he has to train to let go, but fails. Now, let’s look at Luke’s vision of his friends in pain, he is using the Force to lift objects while on an handstand. This is in Empire Strikes Back (1980). Then, all the levitated objects including R2 fall, Luke explains about seeing his friends in pain. Later, Luke says to Yoda while he is getting in his X-Wing, “No, I can’t keep the vision out of my head, they are my friends, I have to help them.” The emotional attachment.
Obi-Wan’s Force Ghost says, “Luke, I don’t want to lose you to the Emperor the way I lost Vader.” This is not shading the truth, Anakin became Darth Vader before he got his armor. Yoda says, “Only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the Force as his ally will conqueror Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.” Yoda and Obi-Wan had both lost Anakin. The consequences of attachments. The “quick and easy path” was when he became the apprentice to Darth Sidious in Revenge of Sith (2005). Mace Windu has kicked away his lightsaber and held back his Force Lightning. Sidious says to Anakin, “I have the power to save the one you love.” This temptation is something Anakin clings to in his desperation seeing Padme die in his vision. It is the classic tragedy, in his desperation to stop Padme's death, he helped cause her death.
He knows that Sith Lords will lie. Anakin later says, “I’ll do whatever you ask”, and then, “Just help me save Padme’s life. I can’t live without her.” This is the same as Luke’s choice to go to save his friends. On a deep level, Luke may sense that Leia is his sister, Vader senses in Return of the Jedi (1983), his feeling for her. She would not be able to resist her father luring her to Dark Side at that point. This unleashes Luke's rage, enough to defeat Darth Vader, he is falling to the Dark Side. We see this even in his all black uniform, but he was built the green lightsaber, the same green blade as Yoda's lightsaber. He may have found it after Yoda's death. Luke becomes a Jedi Consular after losing his blue lightsaber, the mark of the Jedi Guardian. Luke throws away his lightsaber saying, "Never. I will never turn to the dark side. You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me." My favorite line in all of Star Wars, it sums up everything.
Question: So why didn’t the Jedi, Anakin, someone?, help free Shmi Skywalker, Anakin’s mother?, I’m not certain about this one. Slavery was outlawed in the Republic. The Zygerrian slavers worked with the Separatists to continue their operations. Anakin, Ahsoka, his apprentice, and Obi-Wan were working to stop them in the 2011 three episode arc in The Clones Wars; “Kidnapped”, “Slaves of the Republic”, and "Escape from Kadavo.” So if slavery is suffering of people as it is obvious in these episodes, why not save Shmi and other slaves that are on Tatooine? Anakin was training and fighting as a Jedi Knight right through the Clone Wars and Obi-Wan was training him. I’m thinking that it is Palpatine’s manipulations, see below, that directed the Jedi Order from acting on freeing the slaves of Tatooine. This hasn’t been seen in any Legends or canon material so it’s just a guess. Palpatine knew that if Shmi were freed, then her death wouldn't set Anakin on the path to the Dark Side. Maybe he even caused tensions with the Sand People to go after Shmi!
In the novel, Queen’s Shadow (2019), it is revealed that after rebuilding Naboo, she wanted to help free Shmi, but Palpatine had convinced Queen Réillata to make Padme senator so she didn’t free any slaves. Palpatine has time and influence to delay Jedi Order investigation or action away from Tatooine slaves. She sent Sabe to buy Shmi from slavery, but couldn’t find her or Watto. Owen Lars had freed her and other slaves. So Shmi had a happy life until her capture a month before the Battle of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones. Let’s now turn to Jedi younglings. The best example is Ahsoka Tano, in “Rising Malevolence” (2008) she tells Anakin, “He’s one of my oldest friends. It was Master Plo Koon who found me and brought me to the temple where I belonged.” So from what Ahsoka has said, she's very honest when talking, going to the Jedi Temple voluntarily, it was the right choice. She is free to leave as we will see later. We also have the Lost Twelve, including Count Dooku, who have left the Jedi Order. We see their statues in Attack of the Clones.
We see this in “The Gathering”, Ahsoka is three years old on the planet Shili. They are surrounded by other Togruta, villagers, who may helped raise her. She is fourteen when Ahsoka becomes Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan apprentice. The younglings taken to the Jedi Temple are not forced or convinced to go there. We saw in Luke and Ahsoka that they can understand Grogu even though he is not able to speak Basic. They know his thoughts and feelings through the Force. So if a Jedi can find a Force sensitive youngling, the Jedi would be able to offer the choice to go the Jedi Temple and be understood by the youngling. Ahsoka was expelled from the Jedi Order in “The Wrong Jedi” (2013) after she was accused setting a bomb the Jedi Temple. Anakin found the actual culprit and frees Ahsoka, but she leaves the Jedi Order to work out her place in the galaxy. Sidious has tried to eliminate Ahsoka many times, but without her moderating influence on Anakin, Sidious could turn him to the Dark Side! Don’t turn to the Dark Side, the Jedi are compassionate, not just in Jedi Codes, but as persons and in action!
#Jedi, #ThePhantomMenace, #AttackOfTheClones, #TheCloneWars, RevengeOfTheSith, #EmpireStrikesBack, #ReturnOfTheJedi, #TheBookOfBobaFett, #QueensShadow, #AnakinSkywalker, #ObiWanKenobi, #Yoda, #AhsokaTano, #Grogu, #PadmeAmidala, #ShmiSkywalker
No comments:
Post a Comment