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Being a diehard fanatic Star Wars fan in this day and age is the nerd equivalent to being a Creationist. If you accept that shit without question or criticism then you are either an idiot or you're just willfully not paying attention.
I get it: pissing on Star Wars in this day and age is like kicking a three legged dog: the poor little bastard had enough crap dumped on his head. Get two geeks together anywhere, fill 'em up with booze and wait long enough, and sooner or later you'll hear about how Star Wars let them down.
Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way: it's pretty clear to all of us now hat George Lucas didn't have any idea what the fuck he was doing. He'd waited too long, got too isolated by his own success, and got too rich and safe for the story he was trying to tell. He was a good ideas man and a lousy screenwriter, he lost characterization to spectacle, and he couldn't quite figure out if he was trying to reach a new generation that frankly ain't gonna give a fuck or if he was gonna keep pandering to the arrested development crackpots like myself. Somewhere inside the folds of these points are a million essays on the decline and fall of the Galactic Empire, but we'll get to those later.
Let's start with my number one problem with the new trilogy: it put the Jedi in center stage.
Being a Jedi wasn't a job title. Being a Jedi was a state of grace. It represented an abandonment of the self, a victory over base violence, and the ability to keep yourself centered and at peace when the everything around you slides into corruption and cruelty. It took Luke Skywalker three movies to get there and he didn't just do it by waving a lightsaber around: he did it by looking past the monster that his father became and saving the man inside.
Now look what a Jedi has become: a bunch of repressed, invincible eunuchs who wave swords around, fail to see the Sith forces EVEN AFTER THEY TAKE MEETINGS FROM HIM, and allow themselves get suckered into a devastating, morally compromising war.
Even Yoda came off looking like a schmuck. First off, that backwards talking bullshit worked just fine when he was on Dagobah dispensing Shaolin monk fortune cookie advice, but he came off sounding like that Pharoah guy from Mystery Men. Also, narrowing your eyes and looking suspiciously at Anakin or at Chancellor Palpatine as they wander off doesn't actually count for shit if you FAIL TO STOP THEM.
Let's talk about the crux of the story: Anakin's damnation. He falls to the dark side because he has a seeeecret love affair with Queen Flat Delivery, which is forbidden by the Jedi order for ill-defined, nebulous reasons. We're never told exactly WHY the Jedi order condemn romantic connections and in truth there really isn't any reason other than it's a source of cheap conflict.
It's probably my core problem with the Jedi code: too much of it is built around repression of emotion. The Jedi code . It's the difference between spirituality and religion: the isolated Jedi leaders were teachers, but get a bunch together and they become as corrupt and unwieldy as the Catholic church.
Put bluntly, Jedi aren't very interesting characters. They lack fire, they lack emotion, they lack everything that makes good drama. Blog help me for defending Anakin Fucking Skywalker, but he came alive when he learned Amidala was going to die.
When Anakin discovers that the person he loves is about to die, he wants to save her. The Jedi stuff him full of the same bullshit platitudes about acceptance and passivity you hear from every benumbed, doe-eyed spiritual leader. Chancellor Palpatine offers him a way to fight back. That's not corrupt, that's plain old fallable humanity. Don't go gentle into that good night, as better men have said.
Call me crazy, but I was on the Sith's side during the new trilogy. Sure, they were meglomaniacal tyrants but they were human. Give me Han Solo to Qui-Gon Jinn any day.
I get it: pissing on Star Wars in this day and age is like kicking a three legged dog: the poor little bastard had enough crap dumped on his head. Get two geeks together anywhere, fill 'em up with booze and wait long enough, and sooner or later you'll hear about how Star Wars let them down.
Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way: it's pretty clear to all of us now hat George Lucas didn't have any idea what the fuck he was doing. He'd waited too long, got too isolated by his own success, and got too rich and safe for the story he was trying to tell. He was a good ideas man and a lousy screenwriter, he lost characterization to spectacle, and he couldn't quite figure out if he was trying to reach a new generation that frankly ain't gonna give a fuck or if he was gonna keep pandering to the arrested development crackpots like myself. Somewhere inside the folds of these points are a million essays on the decline and fall of the Galactic Empire, but we'll get to those later.
Let's start with my number one problem with the new trilogy: it put the Jedi in center stage.
Being a Jedi wasn't a job title. Being a Jedi was a state of grace. It represented an abandonment of the self, a victory over base violence, and the ability to keep yourself centered and at peace when the everything around you slides into corruption and cruelty. It took Luke Skywalker three movies to get there and he didn't just do it by waving a lightsaber around: he did it by looking past the monster that his father became and saving the man inside.
Now look what a Jedi has become: a bunch of repressed, invincible eunuchs who wave swords around, fail to see the Sith forces EVEN AFTER THEY TAKE MEETINGS FROM HIM, and allow themselves get suckered into a devastating, morally compromising war.
Even Yoda came off looking like a schmuck. First off, that backwards talking bullshit worked just fine when he was on Dagobah dispensing Shaolin monk fortune cookie advice, but he came off sounding like that Pharoah guy from Mystery Men. Also, narrowing your eyes and looking suspiciously at Anakin or at Chancellor Palpatine as they wander off doesn't actually count for shit if you FAIL TO STOP THEM.
Let's talk about the crux of the story: Anakin's damnation. He falls to the dark side because he has a seeeecret love affair with Queen Flat Delivery, which is forbidden by the Jedi order for ill-defined, nebulous reasons. We're never told exactly WHY the Jedi order condemn romantic connections and in truth there really isn't any reason other than it's a source of cheap conflict.
It's probably my core problem with the Jedi code: too much of it is built around repression of emotion. The Jedi code . It's the difference between spirituality and religion: the isolated Jedi leaders were teachers, but get a bunch together and they become as corrupt and unwieldy as the Catholic church.
Put bluntly, Jedi aren't very interesting characters. They lack fire, they lack emotion, they lack everything that makes good drama. Blog help me for defending Anakin Fucking Skywalker, but he came alive when he learned Amidala was going to die.
When Anakin discovers that the person he loves is about to die, he wants to save her. The Jedi stuff him full of the same bullshit platitudes about acceptance and passivity you hear from every benumbed, doe-eyed spiritual leader. Chancellor Palpatine offers him a way to fight back. That's not corrupt, that's plain old fallable humanity. Don't go gentle into that good night, as better men have said.
Call me crazy, but I was on the Sith's side during the new trilogy. Sure, they were meglomaniacal tyrants but they were human. Give me Han Solo to Qui-Gon Jinn any day.
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