Sign this guy up to be a writer for film theory, but seriously, does Anakin have a point here or is he just blowin smoke?
Blowin smoke apparently but not in the way that I anticipated. Hello Internet
Welcome to film Theory the show that tries to find the dark cloud in every silver lining
Or in this case the dark side and every light side of the force if I'm being honest
I wish the world could be as black and white as the Star Wars universe makes it out to be where you can tell the
Good guys are good guys, because they we're all white and the bad guys are bad guys because they're literally dressed all in black
but with the advent of the new trilogy and the new millennium a lot of emphasis has been placed on the grey that exists between
These two extremes because rarely is reality. So cut-and-dry, but in today's episode I want to do something different
I want to look back at those older movies and show that things have always been this way in the series that despite George Lucas's
Not-so-subtle costume choices from the original movies and the blatant good versus evil
storylines that all of these films purport to have the heroes aren't always the heroes the stories frame amount to be
Specifically, I'm calling into question the actions of the Jedi now, obviously, I'm not the first person to speculate about this
In fact, we've already heard it straight from the mouth of a Skywalker himself
But maybe Anakin here is on to something maybe when you actually
look at their own Jedi Order their 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 actually hold up the order of the Jedi to objective scrutiny
I guarantee that you'll start seeing Anakin's way of looking at things. I don't like sand
It's coarse and
rough and irritating
not on that particular issue
I started thinking about this topic after another famous Skywalker commented back in Episode eight now that they're extinct the Jedi are
romanticize deified
If you strip away the myth and look at their deeds
And legacy the Jedi his failure
hypocrisy hubris
well this kind of tea spill coming from Luke was considered pretty
Sacrilegious both by other characters in the movie as well as the audience
Watching Luke here has a point if you examine the movies with a little bit more scrutiny, his criticisms aren't exactly unfounded
well
There are certainly examples of the Jedi doing some pretty
Unsportsmanlike things to innocent victims throughout old movies like manipulating of these aren't the droids you're looking for
Stealing spaceships and crashing them or just outright lying about their own powers think it is time
we informed the Senate that our ability to use the force is diminished if informed the Senate is
multiply our adversaries
Will the worst thing about the Jedi is their recruitment tactics and this is foundational for the whole order
the entire Jedi
Institution is built on years long training
Programs that initiate new members if there's something wrong at that base 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
Let's start at the beginning with the recruit that we're all familiar with Anakin Skywalker
He's nine years old when obi-wan and qui-gon jinn meet him yet
Obi-wan remarks that Anakin Skywalker is too old to be raised as a Jedi. No
It will not be trained. No
He's too old
Meaning that the Jedi typically recruit at ages younger than nine
In fact as early as three years old the Jedi identify force-sensitive children and start training them
Watch out mace windu capo be coming for you
well
this might seem a little weird you might also be thinking to yourself that a lot of child athletes or
Children entertainers start young to child models gymnasts martial artists dancers all typically start as young as preschool
That said being a Jedi. He is far from an after-school program
the Jedi
Organized these pre initiate two clans who stay together both night and day learning eating and sleeping
Together like a good old getaway camp except it's away from their parents unlike a permanent basis. Can you imagine a world?
where a parent willingly ceases all contact with their
Three-year-old and sends them away to a compound full of adult men who spend all day waggling their lightsabers
I don't think so
Also, unlike karate or tap dancing or any of the other things parents obsessively videotaped back in the 90s
once you're in the Jedi program
You don't get to opt out ever
The only way a recruit can be dismissed is with the approval of the Jedi Order which obi-wan tells Anakin in Episode two
Be mindful of your thoughts Anakin
They betray you you've made a commitment to the Jedi Order a commitment not easily broken
Until he completes his 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're forced to do things like blind
Combat with droids 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 standpoint
The Jedi Order is an irrevocable cult that lands somewhere between an involuntary boot camp and human trafficking
so Anakin has a
19 year old has a commitment that can't be broken one that he isn't allowed to leave because when he was nine years old he
Decided 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 gonna turn that down 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 that they're about to make. Hey little kid want to join our cult for the rest of your life
You'll get a lollipop and a laser sword. Okay, mr. Jedi
There's a reason that in our real-world legal system a nine-year-old isn't allowed to enter a legally binding contract
They're not mentally ready
and remember most of the Jedi are recruited younger than we see in Anakin Skywalker and this
commitment along with the complete separation from these kids parents
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 damaging to separate young children from their parents at least according to licensed clinical social worker and child developmental
Specialist Mary Wallace quote 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 becomes disorganized and
Terrifying end quote. This is true
Not only in cases of abandonment or death of a parent but also true in cases of voluntary separation
this is because children learn to trust the world through their parental figures who provide a
Stable base for young developing minds between the ages of 0 and 7
severing that connection at the age of three or even the ripe old age of nine years old sets children on a path to be
emotionally unstable
Let's go figure is pretty darn ironic since the Jedi aren't supposed to act on emotions
But I can't imagine how cutting a child's lifeline and psychologically scarring them for existence could possibly backfire
Master Skywalker
There are too many of them. What are we going to do?
Truly wonderful the mind of a child
If you really believe that one Yoda
You'd be more concerned with taking care of those children's mental health making sure they don't wind up permanently
Traumatized for life and slaughtering a bunch of younglings. In fact Jedi care
So little about the relationship between parent and child 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
We're told that they take Anakin but not his mother because they don't have the money to buy her freedom from Watteau
Is she free to I tried to free your mother?
What I wouldn't do it
But that a decade goes by without him ever following up at no point during the 10-year period did anyone bother to think?
Hey, maybe we should you know
Go check on 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 buyer
Freedom since we have the money to do it and we've won the war and her son happens to be the most powerful force
user in history
Anakin is only able to return to her a decade later an attack of the clones against the wishes of his
Masters only to find out that she's been in danger for over a month kidnapped by the sandpeople. She's been gone a month
There's little hope she's laughs
Like what makes the death of Anakin's mother all the more tragic is that all of it could have been prevented?
He reaches her just as she's in her dying breaths
How do you arrive days or even hours?
Earlier his journey at Tatooine might not have ended with him having to bury her
The only reason that Anakin even knew about her is because he could sense her suffering. She's suffering a pattern. She is in pain
Hmm didn't Yoda once say something about suffering angry to hate hate leads to suffering in this case
It was ignorance that led to suffering and suffering that led to hate
I hate them and I don't know about you
But it seems to me that if the Jedi had bothered to take even the smallest
modicum of effort to keep the family of their Padawan intact the entire descent of Darth Vader
From light side to dark side because of his hate pain
Suffering all of that could have been pretty easily
Avoided the story of Anakin's recruitment also
Illustrates a larger point about how troubling the recruitment tactics of the Jedi really are aside from the obvious
Problems of taking very young kids and signing him up for decades-long obligations
It'll be very difficult for them to opt out of in the future
They're even
dishonest in the way that they signed these kids up in the first place going back to that example of Anakin when qui gonn is
Deciding whether or not to take him on as a recruit
One of the things that he needs to do is collect a blood sample so they can measure his midi-chlorian count
Now in the real world if you want a blood sample from a child first of all
You don't get it because it's an incredible invasion of privacy. Like if you thought Coppa was worried about child privacy
Well, then you haven't met HIPPA cappas much more powerful cousin in the healthcare world that protects patients from you know
Random coldly collecting and analyzing their blood samples. So dis qui gonn asked his mom for a sample
Does he explain what he's doing to Anakin? Does he even sterilize the needle let's watch what are you doing?
Checking your blood for infections. That's it
No permission slip not even verbal consent and then on top of all of it
He lies about the purpose of the test in the first place. You need an analysis of this blood symbol
I'm sending you they need a midi-chlorian count. I guess you could try to argue that Anakin is literally living in slavery
and so he and his mother are probably desperate to get out of the
Situation and maybe that makes it better, but no you are so wrong
in fact the idea that qui gonn is preying on people who have no rights and no way to advocate for themselves makes it that
much worse
You can even make a case that the Jedi barely think of their recruits as human has even the venerable old obi-wan Kenobi
Everyone's favorite Jedi describes Anakin like this. Why do I sense? We've picked up another pathetic life-form
That's pretty darn cold there mister Kenobi old Ben. I mean I can understand calling Jar Jar Binks a pathetic life-form
But Anakin he's a boy who's incredible podracing abilities. One of the ship parts. You needed to get off the desert planet
You got yourself stranded on I'd expect a little bit more gratitude ya bum
We all grew up watching these movies thinking that the Jedi were the heroes the movies outright frame them to be the heroes
but if you actually look at how the Jedi become the Jedi in the first place their
Legacy isn't one of freedom and doing the right thing
It's about putting toddlers into slavery deceiving their parents and then brainwashing those little kids so they become
Unquestioning members of their little cult sure
We might be a little sad in episode eight that there aren't any Jedi left
But believe me the children of the galaxy should be thanking their lucky stars that the likes of qui gong Yoda and obi-wan
Aren't coming up and knocking on their doors stealing them away from the loving arms of their families
And this is just the tip of the iceberg all of this
all of this is without even mentioning the lies of the Jedi that
Happened throughout the entirety of the series how their actions their hubris their hypocrisy their outright refusal to give up control
Results in the dark side surging to power and the downfall of the Galactic Republic sure
the Jedi are
framed as
Heroes and these stories if we turn off our brains and just look at the wushi woosh laser swords and cool magical powers
but if you stop and actually
Analyze the plots of these movies what is actually happening between these characters? And what causes galaxy wide changes to take place?
You start to see that it all boils down to the actions of one group the Jedi and ensure that you get that bail ripped
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