Film Theory: The Uncomfortable Truth about the Jedi Order (Star Wars: Jedi are Evil)

Sign this guy up to be a

film

theory

writer, but seriously, is Anakin right here or is he just blowing smoke? He apparently blows smoke, but not in the way he expected. Hello Internet Welcome to Film Theory, the show that tries to find the dark cloud in every ray of light Or in this case the dark side and every light side of the force, if I'm honest I wish the world was so black and white like The Star Wars universe seems to be a place where you can say that the good guys are good, because we are all white, and the bad guys are bad because they are literally all dressed in black, but with the arrival of the new.

Trilogy and the new millennium Much emphasis has been placed on the gray that exists between these two extremes because it is rarely reality. Very simple, but in today's episode I want to do something different. I want to look back at those older

film

s and show that things have always been this way in the series, despite George Lucas's not-so-subtle costume choices. the original movies and the blatant good versus

evil

stories that all these movies pretend to be, the heroes are not always the heroes the stories frame them as. Specifically, I'm now questioning the actions of the Jedi, obviously, I'm not the first person to speculate on this.

In fact, we've already heard it directly from the mouth of a Skywalker. But maybe Anakin is right about something, maybe when you look at his own Jedi Order, his customs and especially the way they train and recruit new Jedi, things don't look so good for the light side. In fact, when you really subject the Jedi

order

to objective scrutiny, I guarantee you'll

star

t to see Anakin's way of seeing things. I don't like sand. She's harsh, abrasive and irritating, not on that particular topic. I

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ted thinking about this topic after another famous Skywalker commented in episode eight that now that they are extinct, the Jedi are romanticized and deified.

If you strip away the myth and look at his actions and bequeath to the Jedi their failure hypocrisy arrogance well, this kind of spilling of tea coming from Luke was considered quite sacrilegious by both other characters in the film and the audience. Seeing Luke here makes sense if you examine the films with a little more scrutiny, the criticisms of him aren't exactly unfounded. There are certainly examples of Jedi doing some pretty unsportsmanlike things to innocent victims in old movies, like manipulating these aren't the droids you're looking for. Steal spaceships and crash them. or simply lying openly about their own powers think it is time for us to inform the Senate that our ability to use force is diminished if we inform the Senate that our adversaries will multiply.

The worst thing about the Jedi is their recruitment tactics and this is fundamental to the entire

order

, the entire Jedi Institution is based on years long training programs that initiate new members, if there is something wrong at that basic level, It's safe to say that the entire Jedi Order is built on a rotten core and oh how disturbingly rotten it is, my friends. Start at the beginning with the recruit we're all familiar with, Anakin Skywalker. He is nine years old when Obi-wan and Qui-gon Jinn meet him, but Obi-wan comments that Anakin Skywalker is too old to be raised as a Jedi.

No, he will not be trained. No, he's too old. Which means that Jedi typically recruit at ages younger than nine. In fact, as early as three years of age, Jedi identify Force-sensitive children and begin training them. Watch out, Mace Windu Capo is coming for you, this may seem a little strange. You might also be thinking that many child athletes or children's entertainers start at a young age, child models, gymnasts, martial artists, dancers all tend to start in preschool. That being said, being a Jedi. It is far from an after-school program. The Jedi organized these two pre-initiated clans that stay together day and night learning to eat and sleep together like a good getaway camp, except they are away from their parents, unlike a permanent base.

Can you imagine a world? where a father voluntarily ceases all contact with his three-year-old son and sends him to a compound full of grown men who spend all day brandishing their lightsabers. I don't believe it. Also, unlike karate or tap dancing or any of the others. things parents obsessively videotaped in the '90s, once you're in the Jedi program. You can never opt out. The only way a recruit can be dismissed is with the approval of the Jedi Order, which Obi-wan tells Anakin in episode two. Consider your thoughts Anakin. They betray you. You have made a commitment to the Jedi Order, a commitment that is not easy to break.

Until you complete your training. Anakin is, in every sense of the word, an indentured servant to the Jedi Order and a literal prisoner of his. training where we know they are forced to do things like blind combat with droids that actually hurt people, as well as initiation tests that canonically see children fighting and simulated life or death scenarios to test their Force abilities from a functional point of view. The Jedi Order is an irrevocable cult that lands somewhere between an involuntary training camp and human trafficking, so Anakin has a 19-year-old boy who has a commitment that can't be broken and he's not allowed to leave. because when he was nine years old he decided that he wanted to. be a space wizard.

Did he realize what he was giving up? No, of course not, he just saw really cool force powers and laser swords. What child is going to reject? Can a nine year old really be expected to commit to what basically amounts to an entire childhood of indentured servitude and fully understand the commitment they are about to make. Hey, little one, you want to join our cult for the rest of your life. You will receive a paddle and a lightsaber. It's okay, mr. Jedi There is a reason why in our real-world legal system a nine-year-old child is not allowed to sign a legally binding contract.

They are not mentally prepared and remember that most Jedi are recruited younger than what we see in Anakin Skywalker and this commitment along with the complete separation of the parents of these children. It matters a lot if the Jedi cared at all about the children under their tutelage. They would know that scientifically it can be incredibly harmful to separate young children from their parents, at least according to one authoritative clinical study. Social worker and child development specialist Mary Wallace cites that studies have shown that if a child suddenly loses a parent, the child experiences intense fear, panic, grief, a combination of sadness and loss, depression, helplessness and hopelessness, the child has lost his lifeline and often his sense of self.

The world and life become disorganized and scary. Final quote. This is true not only in cases of abandonment or death of a parent, but also in cases of voluntary separation. This is because children learn to trust the world through their parental figures, who provide a stable foundation for developing young minds between the ages of 0 and 10. 7 Cutting off that connection at the age of three or even the ripe old age of nine sets children on a path toward emotional instability. Let's imagine it's pretty ironic since Jedi aren't supposed to act on emotions, but I can. I can't imagine how severing a child's lifeline and psychologically scarring his existence could backfire on Master Skywalker.

There are too many. What are we going to do? The mind of a child is truly wonderful. If you really believe in that Yoda, you'd be more concerned about taking care of the mental health of those children, making sure they don't end up permanently traumatized for life and slaughtering a bunch of young people. In fact, the Jedi care so little about the relationship between parents and children that in the prequel trilogy Qui-gon and Obi-wan literally leave Anakin's mother on Tatooine to continue living in slavery in episode one. They tell us that they are taking Anakin but not him. mother because they do not have the money to buy Watteau's freedom.

Is she free? Did I try to free your mother? That I wouldn't do it But that a decade goes by without him following up, at no point during the 10 year period did anyone bother to think? Hey, maybe we should know. Go see Anakin's mother to make sure she's alive to see her son become a Jedi or I don't know. Maybe go back to the Freedom buyer since we have the money to do it and we won the war and his son turns out to be the most powerful force user in history. Anakin is only able to return to her a decade later, an attack by the clones against the wishes of the Masters on her, only to discover that she has been in danger for over a month kidnapped. by the sand people.

She's been away a month. There is little hope that she will laugh. What makes Anakin's mother's death even more tragic is that it all could have been avoided? He reaches her just as she is in her last breath. How do you arrive days or even hours? Previously, her trip to Tatooine might not have ended with him having to bury her. The only reason Anakin knew about her is because he could feel her suffering. She is suffering from a pattern. She's suffering Hmm, didn't Yoda once say something about suffering in anger for hating? Hatred leads to suffering in this case.

It was ignorance that led to suffering and suffering that led to hatred. I hate them and I don't know about you. But it seems to me that if the Jedi had bothered to make the slightest effort to keep their Padawan's family intact, Darth Vader's entire descent from the light side to the dark side due to his pain of hatred, he could suffer all that. have been nice Anakin's Easily Averted Recruitment Story also illustrates a broader point about how troubling the Jedi's recruitment tactics really are, aside from the obvious problems of taking very young children and signing them up for decades-long obligations.

It will be very difficult for them. to opt out in the future. They're even dishonest in how they signed up these kids in the first place, going back to that Anakin example when who gonn is deciding whether or not to accept him as a recruit. One of the things you need to do is collect a blood sample so they can measure your midichlorian count. Now, in the real world, if you want a blood sample from a child first, you don't get it because it's an incredible invasion of privacy. . As if you thought Coppa was concerned about the children's privacy.

Well, then you haven't met HIPPA cappas, a much more powerful cousin in the world of healthcare who protects patients from, you know, Random by coldly collecting and analyzing blood samples from him. So dis qui gonn asked his mother for a sample. Does she explain what she's doing to Anakin? Does she even sterilize the needle? Let's see what you're doing. Check his blood for infections. That's it, there is no permission, not even verbal consent, and on top of that, he lies about the purpose of the test in the first place. You need an analysis of this blood symbol that I am sending you.

They need a midichlorian count. I suppose you could try to argue that Anakin is literally living in slavery and that he and his mother are probably desperate to get out of the situation and maybe that will make things better, but no, you are so wrong, in fact, the idea that qui gonn is taking advantage of people who have no rights or way to defend themselves makes it much worse. It can even be argued that the Jedi barely consider their recruits as humans, even the venerable old Obi-wan Kenobi. Everyone's favorite Jedi describes Anakin as this. Because I feel?

We have picked up another pathetic way of life. That's pretty cold, Mr. Kenobi, old Ben. I mean, I can understand calling Jar Jar Binks a pathetic lifeform, but Anakin is a guy who has incredible podrunning skills. One of the pieces of the ship. You needed to get off the desert planet You were stranded I'd expect a little more gratitude, hobo We all grew up watching these movies thinking the Jedi were the heroes, the movies straight up frame them as heroes, but if you actually watch how the Jedi become Jedi first of all. His legacy is not one of freedom and doing the right thing.

It's about putting little children into slavery, deceiving their parents, and then brainwashing those little children into becoming hardcore members of their little cult. Sure, we may be a little sad in episode eight that there are no Jedi left, but believe me, the children of the galaxy should thank their lucky stars that people like Qui Gong, Yoda, and Obi-Wan aren't coming to ring the bell. door. at their doors, stealing them from the loving arms of their families. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, all of this, all of this without even mentioning the lies of the Jedi that happened throughout the entire series, how their actions, their arrogance.

Their hypocrisy, their total refusal to relinquish control results in the rise of the dark side to power and the fall of the Galactic Republic, sure the Jedi are framed as heroes and thesestories if we turn off our brains and just look at lightsabers wushi woosh and cool magic powers, but if you stop and analyze the plots of these movies, what is really happening between these characters? And what causes changes to occur throughout the galaxy? You start to see that it all comes down to the actions of one group, the Jedi, and making sure you get the bail out of all things Jedi, hit the subscribe button.

I know for a fact that 50% of you are not. subscribed but still seeing these theories. So let's change it. Help me get closer to that diamond play button and help yourself by making sure you get a weekly dose of film

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. Smash that subscribe button, cut it in half with the force of your lightsaber, strangle it if you have to, but Always remember, especially today, that I call a beloved fictional order of space wizards

evil

, that it's all just a theory, a film theory.