[quote=xhonzi]
danaan said:
So, in your interpretation of the OT, regardless of the PT, Luke could have killed his father and still walked away the good guy?
What? No! Did you read the links I posted? You seem to have grossly misunderstood what I was trying to say.
Maybe I wasn't clear.
What I'm saying is that Luke could have killed Vader and the Emperor and walked away thinking he was still the good guy. But that would have put him on the path that Yoda said would FOREVER dominate him.
Oh, ok. Sorry, my bad. I read it very quickly. Yes, he might indeed have thought himself to be the good guy. The way the scene is set up, though, the movie is pretty much telling us that if Luke kills the bad guys, the end result will be that he'll either become the Emperor's new apprentice, or the new Emperor (if he has the power to kill the Emperor, which the movie tells us is very unlikely). Either way, the good guys lose.
xhonzi said:
Edit: Also,- whaddaya mean "short"? Working himself up to the level of rage so that he KILLS HIS OWN FATHER! How is that short?
I mean one action taken in a 10 minute fit of rage would not immediately overthrow his sense of right and wrong once he calmed down. How many people do you know completely change their personalities in a single day?
I'm saying Luke would have taken his first step down the path of the Dark Side. And that there would have been many more. But he wouldn't have already arrived.
But that's not what the movie says. 10 minutes of rage might not be consequential to you or me....even if those 10 minutes end with us killing someone, though I would think that such a situation would still be profoundly traumatic for someone who started those 10 minutes as someone with a great deal of ethical integrity. But then, this is SW, and Luke isn't anyone. He's a Force user, and a Force user of great power, and when *he* lets loose he invites the Dark side. Indeed, he "gives himself" to the Dark side. The Dark side has agency, and a power of its own. Note how everyone is talking about how the Dark side is "seductive", and how Vader is an emotional slave of the Emperor. The Dark side is, clearly, kinda like crack for a Jedi. Once you get that powerful first rush - when you kill someone in rage, fuelling yourself with the Dark side...you're stuck and you're a junkie. And Luke, in that moment, is but a saberthrust away from crossing that point of no return and becoming a servant of evil.