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Post #1424894

Author
jedi_bendu
Parent topic
Did G. Lucas ever intend to portray the Jedi as a flawed institution in the prequels? Or was it added later in the EU?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1424894/action/topic#1424894
Date created
19-Apr-2021, 3:27 PM

VegetableMan said:

Thanks for your answers they’re all very interesting and made me realise I should rewatch the movies to better see the clues.

One thing that has always bothered me though, ever since I was a kid, is that even if the Jedi were deliberately portrayed as flawed it seems the movies prove them right in some of their ambiguous teachings. For exemple, concerning the « no-attachements » rule, watching AOTC as a kid I remember thinking the Jedi were assholes for banning relationships but then ROTS seemed to validate them because it was like : « see they were right, because a romantic relationship led Anakin to the dark side ». I know it’s not that simple, but as a 12 year-old that’s how I and I’m sure a lot of other kids my age understood it.

I just wish there was a line from Yoda or Obi-Wan at the end of ROTS that acknowleges the Jedi’s errors to make it clear.

I remember touching on this point myself before, maybe in the Ahsoka Tano thread. I think it is a big problem that this Jedi doctrine of no attachments allowed (which is really quite inhuman, and a mistaken decision only made out of fear, I think) has been repeatedly ‘proved’ in Star Wars content. Anakin’s love for Padmé leads to his crippling fear of her loss, which causes his turn to evil; Luke’s attachment to Leia and Han means that, when he sees Ben Solo bringing about their end in a vision, he acts impulsively and inadvertently causes BEN’S final turn to evil. For me, this would all have been resolved in Colin Trevorrow’s Duel of the Fates, where the central theme is Rey learning to be the perfect balance of love and anger, darkness and light, but alas. As it is, I’m very grateful to spinoff content such as books, comics, and series, which explore this theme arguably far deeper than the films. Ezra and Kanan from Rebels (and arguably Ahsoka too),for example, are Jedi who are not afraid to love others and yet are able to ‘let go’ of them when it’s absolutely necessary to move on.