#so basically what this means is Luke is a true Jedi #the lightsaber is not what defines him as a Jedi nor does it control his destiny and his life #a lightsaber is only a tool #what makes Luke a Jedi is his compassion and empathy which he makes most clear in this moment #this very moment when he throws away his lightsaber and puts himself at the mercy of love and of the Force #you might say that Luke is perhaps the first Jedi in this sense
#someone finally made this gifset #i’m so glad#this is all i’ve ever wanted #luke skywalker #the only true jedi #the jedi who did come here to free slaves #‘this weapon is your life’ anakin is told #anakin who spends his whole life being a weapon #until there’s luke #luke who throws away his lightsaber #luke who insists that a life is always more important than a weapon #and that no person can be reduced to a weapon #luke who refuses to kill his father even though all of his teachers tell him he must #luke who places such absolute value on his father’s agency that he’d literally rather die than deny it #luke who identifies himself wholly and completely with his father #in the very moment that he throws his weapon away #and rejects the most fundamental teaching of the old jedi order #luke who chooses to embody the unconditional love that his father so long ago claimed was the true calling of a jed i#(but no other jedi has ever lived up to it) #luke skywalker who is a jedi #like his father before him #like his father after him (via @fialleril)
and see i think this is what a lot of people miss about the original trilogy Vader isn’t redeemed so much as he is saved and he’s saved because Luke gives him back his agency by being empathetic and appealing to the good he knows is still inside his father and leaving his own fate in his admittedly monstrous father’s hands God I love this movie I love these characters
(via flaminganakin)
Good Thoughts. That post about the Dark Side being “the deep end” of The Force is interesting as a jumping off point, but I’ve always felt this is closer to it’s real nature, and it gets at what was wrong with The Order as well.
Like, it’s the Light Side that involves Trusting in the Force, putting yourself in Its hands, getting yourself out of its way, and letting It do Its thing through you. And it works, for the most part, passively. It brings things to you, it gets you places, It helps you to know how other people feel, it helps you to resolve situations without conflict, it helps you to protect yourself when conflict is unavoidable, and it helps you to do pretty much anything by “just knowing” how to do it. You don’t have to actually “do” anything for this to happen, which was the point of Yoda’s training; what you have to learn is how not to Do, how to get out of the way and listen, as The Force works through you to take care of things. Luke listened to The Force and himself(because he’s part of the Universe and thus part of The Force), he knew Vader could(and wanted to) be saved, he knew Vader could choose a different path, and he helped Vader to do that by refusing the fight; by, at the moment when he could kill him, choosing to forego his anger, get out of the way of his Feelings and what the Force was telling him, express those Feelings, and stop “fighting” physically, which was itself a spiritual victory over Palpatine’s corruption. That’s what following “The Light” really means; trusting in The Force completely, letting it lead you, listening to it, and not trying to force your will on it, and if you do that then events fall into place and everything works out, eventually. A “True” Jedi isn’t a weapon, and doesn’t need a weapon; they’re plugged into the will of the Universe itself.
The Dark Side is the flip of that. The Dark Side does not Trust in the Force, it seeks to Use it. Dark Jedi force their Will on the Force, twisting it, and through it reality, into the shape they want it to be, in pursuit of their own goals. But that, in itself, is a mistake because of course Jedi are as much a part of the universe as anything else, and their Feelings and desires are already factored in to the Will of the Force, along with everything else. The actions which most set Dark Jedi apart are the deeply unnatural ones; their desire to bring the dead back to life, or prolong their own lives, or twisting reality out of shape for the sake of ending the lives of others. And, unlike with the Light, Effort is a constant company to Dark Jedi “abilities”; they are constantly straining and pushing themselves, trying to grow “stronger in The Force” whereas effortlessness is the mark of the Light.
How this relates to the problem of the Order the folks above have already said. They saw themselves as warriors and weapons -as the role they played for secular society and the organization they had made rather than as conduits of The Force- and so they forced this Will to BE warriors and weapons upon The Force. That blinded them to non-immediate, non-combative dangers, to how far they had drifted from there true calling in favor of greater military strength and political clout, and finally to problems -like injustice, fear, inequality, and political corruption- which violence could not solve.
Monsters' Queen 