Going against the Jedi way

Knight Joined: 18 Nov 2011 Posts: 442

Heres an interesting thought on the OT and EU.

Looking at the movies again I realised that in many ways Luke goes against the traditional Jedi ways to save the galaxy. The Jedi dont agree with emotional attachment. Yet Luke goes against these teachings by showing compassion and love for his father believing he could be saved and there was good in him. In turn Vaders love for his son saved not only Luke but Vaders soul even if he died in the process.

Love and compassion saved the galaxy something Jedi are not supposed to feel, certainly not have any emotional attachments. Yet this proved to be the Jedis downfall. So narrowminded were they that they couldnt see the bigger picture.

When Anakin faces the Jedi Council for the first time he is criticised for missing his mother. An eight year old child is scared facing Yoda and Co. They cant possibly understand how this child is feeling.

Obi-Wan trains Anakin not knowing what it means to know a parent. He never knew his parents so how could he know how Anakin felt about his mother? He couldnt empathize with Anakin. This doesnt help their relationship. Anakin has to hide his relationship with Padme from everyone because if he was found out he would be thrown out of the Order. Why? For loving someone?

Anakin loses his mother and reacts the way he does because he cant keep his feelings in check the way the jedi are supposed to. He slaughters the sandpeople. He loses Padme. Hes not about to lose a son too and that helps save Luke.

When Luke set up his own academy his approach is different. Relationships are encouraged. He of course marries Mara. Corran and Mirax are married and have jedi children as do Luke and Mara, his own sister too gets married and has three kids. Its a new era and the old Jedi way is abolished.

So to sum up Luke saves the galaxy by going against the jedi way.

Thoughts. Opinions.

Am I wrong in thinking this way?
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"You see that I was right, now, dont you?. The truth is written in blood"

That does seem to be the over-arching theme of the Saga.
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Yeah, that about sums it up. Luke reinvented the Jedi Order, and his methods are certainly easier for outsiders to emphasize with. Of course Luke is really the best leader though. In the NJO the authors really played up on that. Regardless, the Old Jedi Order definitely had some flaws.
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Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1850

What I liked about the New Jedi Order was that it took the lesson of Return of the Jedi, which isn't really spelled at all that well (which is shocking considering that Lucas felt the need to add Vader's verbalizing as he chucks Palpatine down the reactor shaft), and focused Jacen's hero's journey and the series around that lesson only applied on a much larger scale.

I think Stover put it best in Traitor through Vergere:

"You need not like someone to love him. Love is nothing more than the recognition that two are one. That all is one... That knowledge is the seed of greatness."

And that really goes to what Reep posted.

As for the old Jedi order, I think their largest problem is that they were overly dogmatic, their dogma was contradictory and self-defeating, and it made them ill-equipped to deal with people outside their ivory tower. The Jedi were pretty much making themselves extinct through declining numbers due to the age limit that they put on training and their prohibition on relationships (and presumably procreation, and if not, that rule alone limits procreation of FS). Consequently they were only 10,000 strong at the time of Episode I.

Since they're raised from childhood in the Jedi temple and don't interact with anyone but other Jedi I think it seriously compromises their notion of empathy, and through that their compassion -- universal, unconditional love.
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"Trust not the words of a poet, as he is born to seduce. Yet for poetry to seize the heart, it must ring with the chimes of truth.”

“The world is understood through metaphors. Language is a metaphor-system. Mathematics is a metaphor-system. All real-world schools of magic and religion revolve around the understanding of vast metaphor-systems, symbols as they relate to concepts."

"See, the thing is, everything everyone tells you is a lie. The truth is always bigger than the words we use to describe it."

Knight Joined: 18 Nov 2011 Posts: 442

I have posted this elsewhere but essentially a fear of loss (which leads to the darkside) ultimately saved the galaxy. Vader had already lost Padme and his mother he wasnt about to lose a son.

Its also worth to point out that in The Rise Of Darth Vader by James Luceno we learn that Vader hated Sidious for tricking him and was ultimately waiting for an opportunity to gain revenge. Hence his training of his own apprentices and the attempt to turn his son to overthrow the Emperor the man responsible for who Vader became.
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"You see that I was right, now, dont you?. The truth is written in blood"