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Post #1565502

Author
Spartacus01
Parent topic
What do you think of The Prequel Trilogy? A general discussion.
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1565502/action/topic#1565502
Date created
19-Nov-2023, 2:21 PM

JadedSkywalker said:

If not for Anakin being a greedy dumbass, i’d blame his fall completely on the prequel Jedi. They did everything they could to make him bottle up his feelings and be afraid of them, separate him from his only family and teach him that human bonds of compassion and affection were abnormal.

The Jedi were like a weird cult.

Had he been freed as a slave on Tatooine, he either would have been a pilot on a freighter making grain or water shipments, or a moisture farmer if not conscripted into the Imperial Navy. And probably not become Darth Vader, though its hard to say.

At the end of the day, I think that Anakin’s fall can’t be entirely blamed on the Jedi, but it can’t be entirely blamed on Anakin either. I think that Anakin, Palpatine and the Jedi are all equally responsible for what happened. Trying to blame only one of them is too simplistic, in my opinion.

On the one hand, what happened is obviously Anakin’s fault, because he acted selfishly and recklessly. Nobody forced him to do what he did. He chose to do all those terrible things, despite knowing that they were wrong. So, of course he is to blame for what happened. On the other hand, though, I think that it is also fault of the Jedi Order. Yes, their teachings about letting go are fundamentally correct. You can love a person, but you can’t possess that person, it is unhealthy to think that you can be in control of everything. All of this is correct, of course. But, forbidding romantic relationships was a mistake, because having a romantic relationship doesn’t automatically mean being overly-attached to someone. You can be in love with a person without being obsessive, and you can be able to handle your emotions properly. The Jedi took the “no attachment” rule too literally. They tried to help Anakin, they were fundamentally good people. But they had a limited understanding of romantic relationships, precisely because they didn’t allow them. They were so blinded by their dogma, that they didn’t realize that Anakin was not like the other younglings, he needed more than traditional Jedi teachings. And I’m more than sure that, if the Jedi didn’t forbid romantic relationships, they could have taught Anakin how to handle his relationship with Padmé in a healthy way from the very beginning, thus preventing what happened. And well, of course it’s also Palpatine’s fault, because he manipulated Anakin for a whole decade, making him become a very proudful person, making him think he should always be in control of everything, and thus making him want to have more and more power.

So, I think that what happened is kind of everyone’s fault. As I said, I think that trying to blame only a single person (or a single group of people) is too simplistic.