ChainsawAsh said:Okay, here's my reasoning behind why Yoda and the Emperor should never be seen with lightsabers. I'll focus on Yoda, but similar reasons apply to Palps:
Yoda is like the Buddha. He's someone who's been enlightened, who is perfectly in tune with the Force and nature, and uses his unique position to guide others toward this path. He's, for lack of a better way of putting it, better than using a lightsaber. Beyond it. He doesn't need one. He's the perfect Jedi, and showing him fighting just like any other Jedi - good at it though he may be - cheapens his status and makes him no different than any other Jedi. (This will bring me to another point later, but I'll tackle Palps first.)
Palpatine is similar, but on the other side. He doesn't fight, he's mastered the Dark Side so well that he doesn't need to - he manipulates others into doing his bidding. He has everyone around him wrapped tightly around his finger. All he cares about is controlling everything, and he's damned good at it. He's the perfect Dark Side master (I'm trying to avoid the term "Sith" here because I hate it), and, again, showing him fighting cheapens him and makes him no different than Vader or Maul or Dooku.
Now, back to the point I wanted to make from Yoda. The Force needs to be a religious thing again. The Jedi shouldn't be the Republic's fighting force like they're made out to be in the prequels - they work outside of the Republic. They're trying to become in tune with the Force, much like Buddhism's ultimate goal of reaching enlightenment. They should be highly-regarded, almost holy figures that try to keep the Force in balance, and only interfere with things outside of their own group when this balance is threatened. "The guardians of peace in the galaxy," and all. They practice lightsaber combat almost as a form of meditation, like martial arts. They only use it when they must, and they certainly DON'T flip around all over the place wasting precious energy the way they all seemed to do in the PT.
In other words, the Jedi use the Force to find spiritual enlightenment, and only fight when the Force is at an imbalance, to right it. The Sith use the Force for personal gain, which causes the Force to imbalance itself, kind of like a cosmic Karma. That's the only difference, that's what the "Light Side" and "Dark Side" are.
At least, that's how I feel it should be portrayed. It's in line with everything that's said about them in the OT, but completely shattered in the PT.
Unfortunately, I think the existing material in the PT prevents such a depiction, which is very, very sad.
I know this is a rather old post to be responding to, but it's something important enough that I felt compelled to respond to it. While this interpretation of the Jedi sounds all well and good, it is also a massive disservice to one of the Jedi's most important aspects-- they are the Jedi KNIGHTS, not Jedi MONKS. They are the guardians of peace and JUSTICE. Ultimately, Jedi prefer the olive branch to the lightsaber, but they are willing to use both depending on the situation. The Jedi are not soldiers, but they are chivalrous warriors just as much as they are enlightened religious students. If Yoda truly does consider himself above combat, then he can't really be considered a Jedi Knight, since he would essentially be filling the function of a monk.
Bingowings said:
While we are on the subject of things Sith, I'd have Anakin use force lightning on Padme ( I hear some hisses from the readers at this point).
At no point does Vader use this Sith skill in the OT but he chokes people left, right and centre (I've already voiced my hope that Adywan stops Luke from doing the choke move in ROTJ:R).
One of the more popular theories for why Vader doesn't use force lighting is because of his mechanical arms. If you think about it, using force lightning would likely fry the delicate electronics inside of Vader's arms since the lightning would be channeling out of his stumps, and having to have his arms replaced every time he kills a dude would probably not be a very fun ordeal. If it's possible to add the lightning effect without making it look cheesy, and it makes sense within context to the film, it may work.
And on a side note, I'd like to add that I don't want to see Mace Windo's iconic purple lightsaber messed with. Yeah, no-one else in the entire saga has one that isn't red, blue, or green, but that's exactly what makes it so cool. :(