#the jedi weren't wrong or “outdated”

[ripegreenfruit]

This is my Roman Empire. Fuck Disney forever.

        “It really has to do with learning.  Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally. Anakin can’t be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he’s caused. He doesn’t right the wrongs, but he stops the horror. The end of the Saga is simply Anakin saying, I care about this person, regardless of what it means to me. I will throw away everything that I have, everything that I have grown to love - primarily the Emperor - and throw away my life, to save this person. And I’m doing this because he has faith in me, loves me despite all the horrible things I’ve done. I broke his mother’s heart, but he still cares about me, and I can’t let that die. Anakin is very different in the end. The thing of it: The prophecy was right. Anakin was the Chosen One, and he does bring balance to the Force. He takes the ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son.” –George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of The Sith; page 221 “He takes the ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son.” I’M GONNA YELL ABOUT THIS BECAUSE IT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING. It’s easy to conflate the meanings of “attachment” and “compassion” for each other, because “attachment” has significantly different shades based on how we use it, that those definitions can make entire worlds of difference in whether or not they’re a good thing or a bad thing.  If we use the definition of “love” or “support” for “attachment”, then the Jedi saying, “Attachment is forbidden.” of course seems like it’s a terrible thing! But the way George Lucas talks about it, it’s always in the context of selfish, possessive feelings, of greed for that person, of the inability to let go when it’s time. “If he’d have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.”  –George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary “But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation.“   –George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary “Because he was unwilling to let go of his mother, because he was so attached to her, he committed this terrible revenge on the Tusken Raiders.“ –George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary “Jedi Knights aren’t celibate - the thing that is forbidden is attachments - and possessive relationships.”  –George Lucas, BBC News 2002 interview “He turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.” –George Lucas, Time Magazine 2002 interview This is the context of how George Lucas–and the Jedi, who frequently mirror in-universe what he says about how the Force works out-of-universe–talks about what attachment means, that it’s leading to greed, that it’s in the realm of possessive relationships, that it drives Anakin to be unable to let go (something that is narratively rewarded over and over in Star Wars), that it’s genuinely dangerous. Attachment is not the same thing as love–otherwise “he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them“ would be “he’d have been trained to love people but not to love them“ and that makes no sense–and that’s why the above quote about Luke and Vader in Return of the Jedi is so important, that George doesn’t describe it as attachment, but instead compassion. That what happens between Vader and Luke isn’t a rebuke of the idea of attachment is bad, but instead a confirmation of how the Jedi were on the right track, that this was about compassion for each other. “Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally.“ –George Lucas “Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi’s life, so you might say we’re encouraged to love.” –Anakin, Attack of the Clones Return of the Jedi isn’t just about the return of the Jedi to the galaxy through Luke, but also through Anakin.  Anakin returns to being a Jedi, he returns to compassion, he returns to selflessness, he returns to letting go.  That’s why the ending of him in white Jedi robes was so significant at the end of ROTJ.

Anakin has returned to being a Jedi and everything they taught him, including compassion over attachment, that that is what these things mean in Star Wars.