The Hermit's Journey. To arms, prequel defenders, to arms!

[Robovski]

I certainly don't hate Lucas himself. He was fundamental to some of my favorite movies and I have never met the man. It saddens me that some feel genuine hatred for a man because he may not have made the movies others wanted him to make or for the decisions he made in executing his movies or managing his property. IMO Chuck's series was informative of trying to understand Lucas's mindset, and I am glad to have watched it.

[Karha of Honor]

It was difficult, and in retrospect I probably should've made it one part longer. The tricky part of it was that there is so much baggage connected to the perception of Lucas during this period that I felt any fair comparison demanded seeing things from his point of view, that it was the only way to remove the common, monolithic viewpoint for a moment and see the larger issue in how and why Lucas approached things as he did. This effort seems to give the impression that I'm excusing Lucas his mistakes rather than making clear that these were the reasons he made them, that in his mind at the time they were the right ones. I had hoped to make more clear that the same obsessiveness that allowed Star Wars to become what it was also was the reason for the issues you speak of. His experimental film desires overlapped with Star Wars so that he would focus his attention in the wrong places, and insist on personal involvement to a degree that overtaxed his abilities due to time. With the exception of Jedi, each of the films was an experiment for Lucas (Jedi's was only "can I get a puppet to direct for me" and learned "no" the hard way), and so that meant where he wasn't personally engaged wasn't given the attention it needed. Lucas had sound plans, but he stumbled sometimes because he was too often fascinated with what he could do rather than focus on what he needed to do.

Give it time, imo. The public's view of George Lukas is still fairly vitriolic and your piece might be a spark that starts a reevalution of the person, away from the current public perception.

I hope so, George Lucas is a awesome person and doesn't deserve all the hate he's getting. I've actually met Lucas, I had a chance to really talk with him and while I have my issues with the Prequels I do still enjoy them and over the years, while they're still flawed, they have aged fairly well and I still watch them whenever I get the chance. I personally like them more then the Disney Era films, though there still good, and without the Prequels we would never have gotten The Clone Wars 2D and 3D animated series and given that KotOR started off as a Clone Wars game until it was changed then we might never have gotten KotOR which means we might never have gotten Mass Effect or Dragon Age.

Does Lucas have his faults, yes. But I am in complete agreement with Chuck that when you weigh all the good he has done when compared to the bad, its clear to see that the former outweighs the latter.

He might want to appoint a king to rule over you...

[Yukaphile]

If you like the prequels, then like me, please defer to the novels. And I'm mostly speaking about Matt Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith here. It is just so amazingly written that it fixes I'd say 95 to 98% of the film's problems, like dialogue, and character motivations making far more sense. Then again, you do have more freedom to explore internal thoughts and feelings in a book, so I guess that's not surprising. But seriously, if you want an example, then look at this.

Palpatine, motherflipping SIDIOUS himself, is sounding reasonable. How scary, eh?

Palpatine gazed distractedly down at the graceful undulations of the Mon Calamari principal soloist for a long moment, frowning as though there was so much he wanted to say, he was unsure where to begin. Finally he sighed heavily and leaned close to Anakin.

"Anakin, I think you know by now that I cannot rely upon the Jedi Council. That is why I put you on it. If they have not yet tried to use you in their plot, they soon will."

Anakin kept his face carefully blank. "I'm not sure I understand."

"You must sense what I have come to suspect," Palpatine said grimly. "The Jedi Council is after more than independence from Senate oversight; I believe they intend to control the Republic itself."

"Chancellor—"

"I believe they are planning treason. They hope to overthrow my government, and replace me with someone weak enough that Jedi mind tricks can control his every word."

"I can't believe the Council—"

"Anakin, search your feelings. You do know, don't you?"

Anakin looked away. "I know they don't trust you . . ."

"Or the Senate. Or the Republic. Or democracy itself, for that matter. The Jedi Council is not elected. It selects its own members according to its own rules—a less generous man than I might say whim—and gives them authority backed by power. They rule the Jedi as they hope to rule the Republic: by fiat."

"I admit . . ." Anakin looked down at his hands. ". . . my faith in them has been . . . shaken."

"How? Have they approached you already? Have they ordered you to do something dishonest?" Palpatine's frown cleared into a gently wise smile that was oddly reminiscent of Yoda's. "They want you to spy on me, don't they?"

"I—"

"It's all right, Anakin. I have nothing to hide."

"I—don't know what to say . . ."

"Do you remember," Palpatine said, drawing away from Anakin so that he could lean back comfortably in his seat, "how as a young boy, when you first came to this planet, I tried to teach you the ins and outs of politics?"

Anakin smiled faintly. "I remember that I didn't much care for the lessons."

"For any lessons, as I recall. But it's a pity; you should have paid more attention. To understand politics is to understand the fundamental nature of thinking beings. Right now, you should remember one of my first teachings: all those who gain power are afraid to lose it."

"The Jedi use their power for good," Anakin said, a little too firmly.

"Good is a point of view, Anakin. And the Jedi concept of good is not the only valid one. Take your Dark Lords of the Sith, for example. From my reading, I have gathered that the Sith believed in justice and security every bit as much as the Jedi—"

"Jedi believe in justice and peace."

"In these troubled times, is there a difference?" Palpatine asked mildly. "The Jedi have not done a stellar job of bringing peace to the galaxy, you must agree. Who's to say the Sith might not have done better?"

"This is another of those arguments you probably shouldn't bring up in front of the Council, if you know what I mean," Anakin replied with a disbelieving smile.

"Oh, yes. Because the Sith would be a threat to the Jedi Order's power. Lesson one."

Anakin shook his head. "Because the Sith are evil."

"From a Jedi's point of view," Palpatine allowed. "Evil is a label we all put on those who threaten us, isn't it? Yet the Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way, including their quest for greater power."

"The Jedi's quest is for greater understanding," Anakin countered. "For greater knowledge of the Force—"

"Which brings with it greater power, does it not?"

"Well . . . yes." Anakin had to laugh. "I should know better than to argue with a politician."

"We're not arguing, Anakin. We're just talking." Palpatine shifted his weight, settling in comfortably. "Perhaps the real difference between the Jedi and the Sith lies only in their orientation; a Jedi gains power through understanding, and a Sith gains understanding through power. This is the true reason the Sith have always been more powerful than the Jedi. The Jedi fear the dark side so much they cut themselves off from the most important aspect of life: passion. Of any kind. They don't even allow themselves to love."

Except for me, Anakin thought. But then, I've never been exactly the perfect Jedi.

"The Sith do not fear the dark side. The Sith have no fear. They embrace the whole spectrum of experience, from the heights of transcendent joy to the depths of hatred and despair. Beings have these emotions for a reason, Anakin. That is why the Sith are more powerful: they are not afraid to feel."

"The Sith rely on passion for strength," Anakin said, "but when that passion runs dry, what's left?"

"Perhaps nothing. Perhaps a great deal. Perhaps it never runs dry at all. Who can say?"

"They think inward, only about themselves."

"And the Jedi don't?"

"The Jedi are selfless—we erase the self, to join with the flow of the Force. We care only about others . . ."

Palpatine again gave him that smile of gentle wisdom. "Or so you've been trained to believe. I hear the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in your answers, Anakin. What do you really think?"

Anakin suddenly found the ballet a great deal more interesting than Palpatine's face. "I . . . don't know anymore."

"It is said that if one could ever entirely comprehend a single grain of sand—really, truly understand everything about it—one would, at the same time, entirely comprehend the universe. Who's to say that a Sith, by looking inward, sees less than a Jedi does by looking out?"

"The Jedi—Jedi are good. That's the difference. I don't care who sees what."

"What the Jedi are," Palpatine said gently, "is a group of very powerful beings you consider to be your comrades. And you are loyal to your friends; I have known that for as long as I have known you, and I admire you for it. But are your friends loyal to you?"

Anakin shot him a sudden frown. "What do you mean?"

"Would a true friend ask you to do something that's wrong?"

"I'm not sure it's wrong," Anakin said. Obi-Wan might have been telling the truth. It was possible. They might only want to catch Sidious. They might really be trying to protect Palpatine.

They might.

Maybe.

"Have they asked you to break the Jedi Code? To violate the Constitution? To betray a friendship? To betray your own values?"

"Chancellor—"

"Think, Anakin! I have always tried to teach you to think—yes, yes, Jedi do not think, they know, but those stale answers aren't good enough now, in these changing times. Consider their motives. Keep your mind clear of assumptions. The fear of losing power is a weakness of both the Jedi and the Sith."

Anakin sank lower in his seat. Too much had happened in too short a time. Everything jumbled together in his head, and none of it seemed to make complete sense.

Except for what Palpatine said.

That made too much sense.

Now do you see why I defend the Legends EU so much, all of which is non-canon now?

Or this:

The fog inside Anakin's head seemed to solidify into a long, dark tunnel. The point of light at the end was Palpatine's face. "I don't—I don't understand . . ."

"Oh yes, that's very clear." The Chancellor's voice seemed to be coming from very far away. "Please sit, my boy. You're looking rather unwell. May I offer you something to drink?"

"I—no. No, I'm all right." Anakin sank gratefully into a dangerously comfortable chair. "I'm just—a little tired, that's all."

"Not sleeping well?"

"No." Anakin offered an exhausted chuckle. "I haven't been sleeping well for a few years, now."

"I quite understand, my boy. Quite." Palpatine rose and rounded his desk, sitting casually on its front edge. "Anakin, we must stop pretending. The final crisis is approaching, and our only hope to survive it is to be completely, absolutely, ruthlessly honest with each other. And with ourselves. You must understand that what is at stake here is nothing less than the fate of the galaxy."

"I don't know—"

"Don't be afraid, Anakin. What is said between us here need never pass beyond these walls. Anakin, think: think how hard it has been to hold all your secrets inside. Have you ever needed to keep a secret from me?"

He ticked his fingers one by one. "I have kept the secret of your marriage all these years. The slaughter at the Tusken camp, you shared with me. I was there when you executed Count Dooku. And I know where you got the power to defeat him. You see? You have never needed to pretend with me, the way you must with your Jedi comrades. Do you understand that you need never hide anything from me? That I accept you exactly as you are?"

He spread his hands as though offering a hug. "Share with me the truth. Your absolute truth. Let yourself out, Anakin."

"I—" Anakin shook his head. How many times had he dreamed of not having to pretend to be the perfect Jedi? But what else could he be? "I wouldn't even know how to begin."

"It's quite simple, in the end: tell me what you want."

Anakin squinted up at him. "I don't understand."

"Of course you don't." The last of the sunset haloed his ice-white hair and threw his face into shadow. "You've been trained to never think about that. The Jedi never ask what you want. They simply tell you what you're supposed to want. They never give you a choice at all. That's why they take their students—their victims—at an age so young that choice is meaningless. By the time a Padawan is old enough to choose, he has been so indoctrinated—so brainwashed—that he is incapable of even considering the question. But you're different, Anakin. You had a real life, outside the Jedi Temple. You can break through the fog of lies the Jedi have pumped into your brain. I ask you again: what do you want?"

"I still don't understand."

"I am offering you . . . anything," Palpatine said. "Ask, and it is yours. A glass of water? It's yours. A bag full of Corusca gems? Yours. Look out the window behind me, Anakin. Pick something, and it's yours."

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"The time for jokes is past, Anakin. I have never been more serious." Within the shadow that cloaked Palpatine's face, Anakin could only just see the twin gleams of the Chancellor's eyes. "Pick something. Anything."

"All right . . ." Shrugging, frowning, still not understanding, Anakin looked out the window, looking for the most ridiculously expensive thing he could spot. "How about one of those new SoroSuub custom speeders—"

"Done."

"Are you serious? You know how much one of those costs? You could practically outfit a battle cruiser—"

"Would you prefer a battle cruiser?"

Anakin went still. A cold void opened in his chest. In a small, cautious voice, he said, "How about the Senatorial Apartments?"

"A private apartment?"

Anakin shook his head, staring up at the twin gleams in the darkness on Palpatine's face. "The whole building."

Palpatine did not so much as blink. "Done."

"It's privately owned—"

"Not anymore."

"You can't just—"

"Yes, I can. It's yours. Is there anything else? Name it."

Anakin gazed blankly out into the gathering darkness. Stars began to shimmer through the haze of twilight. A constellation he recognized hung above the spires of the Jedi Temple.

"All right," Anakin said softly. "Corellia. I'll take Corellia."

"The planet, or the whole system?"

Anakin stared.

"Anakin?"

"I just—" He shook his head blankly. "I can't figure out if you're kidding, or completely insane."

"I am neither, Anakin. I am trying to impress upon you a fundamental truth of our relationship. A fundamental truth of yourself."

"What if I really wanted the Corellian system? The whole Five Brothers—all of it?"

"Then it would be yours. You can have the whole sector, if you like." The twin gleams within the shadow sharpened. "Do you understand, now? I will give you anything you want."

The concept left him dizzy. "What if I wanted—what if I went along with Padmé and her friends? What if I want the war to end?"

"Would tomorrow be too soon?"

"How—" Anakin couldn't seem to get his breath. "How can you do that?"

"Right now, we are only discussing what. How is a different issue; we'll come to that presently."

Wonderfully written. This is where my primary criticism towards the Jedi comes from, by the way. Again, it's a scary universe when Sidious is the one making the most sense.

I haven't even seen The Last Jedi, but from what I've heard, I think it's pretty stupid. What I LOVED about Luke during the original trilogy was his growth from whiny teenager in A New Hope to conflicted hero in The Empire Strikes Back to finally self-assured man in Return of the Jedi. It's a journey of growth through all three movies that show him gradually maturing and taking on new challenges to become a Jedi Knight like he's always wanted, coming to terms with the truth about his paternal origins, and still retaining all the noblest qualities he had even as he was complaining to his Uncle Owen. Now, again, while I haven't seen the movie, it sounds like The Last Jedi just chucks that into the trash bin for the sake of being "dark." I just CANNOT see Luke trying to murder an unarmed boy in his sleep in cold blood simply because he has a vision that he might turn evil. To me, this just sounds very poorly done. If you want to criticize the Jedi or call them out for their past actions, then my mind goes more to what Palpatine said up above, or like what Kreia told the Exile in KOTOR 2. That should be the bench-mark for portraying the Jedi as ultimately as dogmatic and absolute and in their own way, flawed as the Sith are.

[RobbyB1982]

Luke DOESN'T try to murder anyone in their sleep.

Its the "If you could stop Hitler as a child, would you?" question. Here, he's seeing someone showing every single sign of becoming the next Vader, in spite of having been raised by a loving family his entire life and years of training from Luke. Not someone found wild in the streets with darkness... but his own Nephew who he has watched for years, who in spite of everything was clearly, wantingly, going super Dark, who has already been corrupted by Emperor 2.0, and Luke thinks about stopping him before he starts raising armies, destroying worlds and killing billions.

He THINKS about it.

For half a second.

And then goes "oh shit what am I doing" and stops. He didn't try and fail, he didn't miss, he didn't make an elaborate plan and then have those plans leaked, he just *thought* about it and immediately realized it was wrong and that wasn't the way to go. (And he had plenty of such moments of impulsive action in the original trilogy.)

But he was witnessed in that moment of weakness, and that's when everything goes wrong.

[TGLS]

There's a difference between a man with a time machine thinking about killing young Hitler and deciding it's morally wrong, and the same man thinking about killing young Hitler, going back in time with a sniper rifle, and only deciding not to do it when when he has him dead in his sights. Admittedly, it's possible both can have the same effect, but the two men have significantly different character.

[Fianna]

But Luke's situation was much more similar to that first guy than the second one. Going back in time to kill young Hitler, but deciding not to go through with it only once he's in your sniper sights, that requires a lot of prep work; to get to that point, you had to have been thinking that killing young Hitler was the right thing to do for a fair bit of time. Luke only thought about killing Ben for a very brief moment; that brief moment just happened to occur while he was standing over a sleeping Ben and had a weapon on his person.

[RobbyB1982]

There's a difference between a man with a time machine thinking about killing young Hitler and deciding it's morally wrong, and the same man thinking about killing young Hitler, going back in time with a sniper rifle, and only deciding not to do it when when he has him dead in his sights. Admittedly, it's possible both can have the same effect, but the two men have significantly different character.

The first thing is an impulse, a thought, something you consider doing when the opportunity is right in front of you.

The second is planned, premeditated choice you work towards doing at length with a long term goal.

Luke absolutely falls into the first group.

From the context we are given it is a thought he has one night, one time, for a second, after seeing some really disturbing dark side signs, that he immediately recoiled from even having thought about it.

He didn't take a swing and miss, he didn't contemplate it every night for weeks until he built up the courage, it was a momentary slip when confronted with the next Vader. And it turns out, that guy actually HAS turned into the next Vader and destroyed planets and killed billions. So, Luke would have been absolutely right to have done it, even if Luke would have felt like a monster himself.

[RobbyB1982]

Palpatine, motherflipping SIDIOUS himself, is sounding reasonable. How scary, eh?.

Now do you see why I defend the Legends EU so much, all of which is non-canon now?

That's still pretty much exactly what happened in the movies, just better fleshed out and with lengthier dialogue more appropriate for a novel's length. Someone doing a rewrite over Lucas' dialogue to make it sound better.

That still happened just in a slightly different form. That at least isn't erased in anyway.

[GandALF]

Jedi can sense possible futures and they end up loosing limbs if they react to them out fear.

Also, we do have a spoiler thread in SFF, just saying.

[Yukaphile]

I will use that in the future.