Deep Thoughts

[bloodyrosemccoy]

You know, I’ve had two different conversations recently that came up independently on the subject of the Jedi, and both conversations seem to have come to the same conclusion: that, Force-wielding smackdown abilities notwithstanding, Yoda was full of shit.

My brother has long complicated arguments for this involving the Jedi Council and backstory and centuries of interference, but me, I think I can boil it down to Yoda’s approach to that one all-important character-defining moment, the Scary Tree.

I mean, first he tells Luke that war and killing suck and also to never acknowledge his natural reactions and impulses because they’re the Dark Side. To prove his point he he sends Luke into the Scary Tree and is all, “Yes, full of evil this tree is, but also only what you bring with you will you find, so disregard the first part of this sentence you should” or something and Luke is like “Well, fine, then, what I’m bringin’ with me is mah lightsaber,” and then he meets his own inner Dark Side and is young and dumb and decides that he shouldn’t waste time considering that and just kills it dead. Then Yoda’s like, “Failed, you have” and Luke’s all “DUDE YOU JUST TOLD ME TO SQUASH MY NEGATIVE EMOTIONS.”

But then Luke decides that the lesson is that you should examine the Dark Side and find a way to own your darkness and becomes all wise and figures he’ll try it Yoda’s peacenik way and just reason with Darth Vader, and Yoda’s like “NO JUST STAB HIM YOU PROBABLY SHOULD.”

Not to mention the whole “Do, or do not. There is no try.” Kevin J Anderson tried his damndest to make this a useful lesson, but I don’t know that Yoda actually meant “You learn from failures too.” I honestly think the crazy little frog went senile some 500 years ago.

Anyway, this has no bearing on the fact that Luke is one of my heroes. But Yoda? He should probably go teach gym or something.

Comments

[sriti.livejournal.com]

Haha funny! I love it how you describe emotions...plus I'm now seeing Yoda in a new light altogether!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

Oh wow. You just made me laugh out loud right after I finished writing like the most depressing entry evar. I'm still snickering about it as I'm writing this. I can only wish I could have worded my reservations about him with half that eloquence. XD

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

And yeah, I think that Luke makes for a much better representative of the Light side still. I think that's why his name is "Luke", from Lux, "The Light", in the first place.

[beccastareyes]

I kind of noticed that in the new trilogy, where it seemed like Yoda was giving the worst advice ever to lovesick Anakin. I mean, already the Jedi love thing is complicated, but it always seemed to me that pretty much saying 'you have this duty to the galaxy, and most people can't deal with that and a romantic relationship (let alone a family) without letting one slide' is hard enough.

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

Stop being so damn quotable! I haven't gotten around to metaquoting your last bit of brilliance yet!

ALSO ROFLMAO. I can just see Yoda with a gym whistle and a clipboard. "Tubby you are! Do more push-ups you must! Farther you must run, mmm? When exercise you do, 400 pounds you won't be!"

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

"Put down the sandwich, you must!"

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

"When 900 pounds you reach, look as good you will not, hmm? HMM!"

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten around to metaquoting your last bit of brilliance yet!

And whose fault is that, hm? ;)

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

"Dodge ball you will all play today!"

[kitmf.livejournal.com]

He can't be all that inscrutable, as the thought was articulated by one of my kids at the age of four. We were watching The Last Starfighter - the scene where all the starfighters are chanting "Victory or Death" and this little voice says "No! Victory or Victory!" My father-in-law's reaction was "That's my girl!". He was a retired Navy Chief.

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

I think there's an intentional subtext in Star Wars that the Jedi don't really know what the hell they're talking about. It definitely comes through in the new trilogy. This is why the force needs balancing in the first place: it's represented by two groups of guys with clearly unhinged points of view. You have the Jedi, whose message boils down to "suppress all your emotions," which is definitely not healthy, and then you have the Sith, whose message is "KILL EVERYTHING", and that's not really healthy either.

[willowistari.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much the best comment on the subject ever. :B I talk to nerds all the time that are always "the light side is the best!1" But if it was, the force wouldn't need anyone to balance it in the first place.

[shadesofmauve]

Totally! JEDI SHOULD NOT BE ROLE-MODELS.

Unfortunatley, I've never got the impression that Lucas is aware of his own subtext, there.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon finds Anakin, "the one to bring balance to the Force", who does...by reducing the Jedi to the same numbers as the Sith: two on two. Oops! Nice one, Qui-Gon. But I guess the prophecy didn't say anything about it being permanent or even long-term because Luke gets the Jedi crash course and Anakin ends up eliminating the Sith completely as a result. Unless Luke's ignoring Yoda and acting emotionally is supposed to mean he's somehow in the middle (not really Light or Dark...the Dim Side of the Force?), that means there's a grand total of one Force user in the galaxy, and he's Light Side, which is as unbalanced as it gets.

[shadesofmauve]

Yeah, I always figured the Jedi must be really, truly bad at basic math, since they had all the power and yet seemed to think that bringing balance was a GOOD thing. Don't go into engineering or chemistry, guys...you'll never make those equations work.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I do agree that the prequels seem to go for that--the whole idea is that Anakin is frustrated with the Jedi making it impossible to really maneuver through life in a meaningful way. They've become a bureaucracy, really. That's part of my brother's longer arguments about why Yoda's full of it; I just stick with his basic mixed message from the first trilogy, where I don't think the subtext was intentional.

I also firmly believe that the way Anakin brought balance to the Force was to father Luke, who figured it out.

[shadesofmauve]

I totally agree -- Yoda is one screwed up little exercise gremlin. But then, Star Wars morality hasn't worked for me since I was a kid. The bad guys are certainly bad, but the good guys pretty much suck. No one has figured out that repression is bad.

A character in (totally unrelated fantasy RPG) Dragon Age tells the PC that she shouldn't have a fun relationship because she Has A Duty. Unfortunatley, "Don't give me any of this f'd up Jedi bullshit!" isn't a dialogue option, so I unleashed my tirade about Jedi psycohological naivete on my helpless room-mate, instead. I mean, come on -- I'm supposed to save the world, but I'm not allowed to cuddle every once in awhile?

[redbird57.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I'm so glad I'm not the only one! I've always wanted to march into that swamp, smack Yoda with his stick and scream, "You need dark to have light! You need evil to have good! Extremes do not a well rounded person make!"