The Jedi Suck
Don’t get me wrong. I like the Jedi. But the more I’ve casually watched the movies as my son regularly absorbs their mythology, the clearer it’s become to me that Lucas exposes their philosophy as fundamentally inadequate to overcome the most important trials of life. For all their supposed wisdom, the Jedi practice a way of life that’s about as holistic as the pulled-off ears of a gundark. Even with all their ancient traditions and stores of knowledge, they’re utterly unprepared for the rise of Sidious and for the interior turmoil of their Chosen One.
It’s Luke Skywalker, who’s given only a taste of Jedi training, who sees the path to defeating Vader. Sensing lingering goodness in his father, Luke learns that both Yoda’s warning that the Dark Side will forever dominate one’s destiny and Kenobi’s association of killing Vader with the return of the Jedi are just plain wrong. Luke’s quest to save his father by guiding him back to the good side is a course of action inconceivable to the wise Jedi; it never would have occurred to them. When Luke raises the possibility, Kenobi talks about Vader being more machine than man, as if that’s relevant.
When the Jedi specters of Kenobi and Yoda appeared to Luke at the end of the series, he should have mouthed “I told you so, losers” before rejoining the celebration with Leia.
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Good point. I noticed that over the course of watching the three prequels. As you say, the Jedi, supposed fonts of wisdom and power, seem incapable of seeing what goes on under their own noses. Moreover, there’s all this talk about “loyalty to the Republic”. Very nice, but the Jedi, according to the mythos, began as a more or less religious group, which later decided to fight for truth, justice, and all that. One wonders if what we see is the last gasp of a failed experiment, along the lines of the Knights Templar or (even worse) the Teutonic Knights, in which it is discovered that religion and politics really don’t mix. Darth Vader is evil and all, but maybe the Jedi needed to be wiped out. Provocative thought, anyway.
No understanding of the deeper levels of Jedi philosophy, you clearly have. Insight far beyond yours, they have, and foreseen by them, Luke’s response to the situation was. Hmmmmmm.
(With special thanks to the English to Yoda translator at http://www.yodaspeak.co.uk/index.php)
Evil has a way of residing in even the most purest of people. To blame the Jedi for not seeing the Sith rising is easy to say in hindsight.
Luke was the only one that could sense good in his father, but what orphan wouldn’t? Luke’s actions seem a bit naive especially if you read any Sith mythology.
I never got too deeply into the Star Wars background story, but my (perhaps naive) interpretation of the movies was that “restoring the balance of the Force” referred to in the prophecy actually meant wiping out the current crop of both Jedi and Sith, both of which had become either too lax or too corrupt to stay in power. Leaving Luke — the innocent one — as the last Jedi was how the balance was meant to be restored.
I can never watch the prequels without wondering (at some point after I wonder why the Jedi Temple is so architecturally atrocious) if Yoda shouldn’t have resigned several hundred years before; under his leadership, the Jedi became complacent and vulnerable, were blindsided by their enemies, failed to preserve the Republic, and were nearly annihilated. And every step that preserves any hope for the future comes despite Yoda, not because of him.That’s about as complete a proof of incompetent leadership as one can imagine. He should have stuck with teaching.