Kolby Jack said:
KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
Kolby Jack said:
The Bucket said:
Kolby Jack said:
silver wolf009 said:
The Jedi don't actually practice absolutism. It's NOT "the Jedi way or the highway." They do believe the Jedi way is best, but only in the same way any real religion thinks their way is the correct faith. They don't force anyone into their order. They're fine with Jedi leaving the order as well, as seen with Ahsoka. The only problem they have is with force-sensitives who use the dark side, because, historically, the dark side does nothing but conquer and destroy. Obi-Wan and Yoda only insisted that Luke must FACE Vader, I don't recall them ever saying he must kill him. They were staunchly against Luke going to save his friends because Luke wasn't READY to save his friends. Even then, once his mind was made up they allowed him to go. Of note: he got his ass handed to him by Vader, and his friends escaped on their own.
The Jedi were never shown to be absolutely correct, but that doesn't mean you throw out everything they teach. Yoda and Obi-Wan taught Luke the Jedi way, and then passed on, leaving him to decide the fate of the Order. They clearly approved of his actions at the end of Return of the Jedi, otherwise they wouldn't have been smiling or they may not have shown up at all.
I agree with most of what you say, but then not forcing anyone into their order is kind of debatable. They dont physically strongarm anyone in, but they convince parents to give up their children and indoctrinate them in the orders teaching from an extremely young age, before they can have any say in it. They were so reluctant to take Anakin because 10 was so old by their standards and they wouldn't be able to exactly mold his values in a closed environment.
It's not all about whether a person is "moldable," it's that taking them in at a young age ensures they don't have any real attachments to their former life. The concern wasn't that Anakin would be rebellious, but that he grew up with and was deeply attached to his mother. That sort of strong attachment can (and in Anakin's case, did) lead to the dark side. Even Luke had attachments that made training him in the Force dangerous. In Empire he let those attachments get in the way of his better judgement, and almost got himself killed for it.
That particular theory gets shot down, as padawans often form attachments to their masters as parental figures. Qui-Gon's death caused Obi-Wan to go against his better judgment and commit to a fight with Darth Maul. If Sidious had been present, he could have at that point easily pushed Obi-Wan to the dark side with the anger over Qui-Gon's death.
JEDI FEEL EMOTIONS. They always have, and they do form bonds. Obi-Wan was upset by Qui-Gon's death but he didn't lash out like Luke did in
Jedi, he focused. He still almost lost, too, but he was able to collect himself and deliver the killing blow. Contrast Anakin, who in his anger slaughtered an entire village. There's a HUGE difference between focusing when the chips are down and the stakes are high and lashing out in rage.
And Obi-Wan was already committed to the fight long before Qui-Gon was killed, so I don't get why you even mentioned that. They were fighting for several minutes by that point and running away was not really an option.
Obi-Wan would have been wise to retreat from a fight that killed his much more skilled and experienced mentor. He only won the fight because he had his anger to fuel his resolve at that point, the force field room opened the the exit way first. Again, the smart choice would have been to retreat, that's something padawans are taught. Remember, Maul killed Qui-Gon, a Jedi
Master, not a Knight, a freaking Jedi Master. By all reasonable standards Obi-Wan, a Padawan, should have taken any chance to escape the fight, or at the very least orchestrate an advantage.
There was basically no justification for Obi-Wan continuing the fight except for the rage he felt over Qui-Gon's death. Is it understandable? Absolutely! Still, the action he took by all rights should have gotten him killed, that's beside the fact that giving into rage, by becoming determined to fight a demonstrably superior foe, that was a dangerously close brush with the dark side. Obi-Wan was fortunate enough to at least learn a lesson in self control and determination from that, not every Jedi has that kind of fortune.
While Anakin went berserk with rage and Luke went head long into a losing situation through sheer bullheadedness, Anakin was setup for a fall, where Luke was destined to make that confrontation. Regardless they both had some growth from their mistakes too. Anakin was shattered by how he let his rage control him, while Luke valiantly resisted the allure of the dark side.
The whole point, is that no Jedi is free of attachment, even those that are removed from their family before they can form strong attachments to their family. Hell Luke basically had no true familial attachment. The people he was working with were all strangers to him in A New Hope, that he'd only known for 3 years at best. He lost his only known family and Obi-Wan the only other life long attachment at the start of his adventure. To be honest, Obi-Wan's attachment to Qui-Gon was probably far stronger than Luke's to Han, Leia, and Chewie, along with Anakin's attachment to his mother. One was working with people he really didn't know as any better than friends and accomplices, the other was estranged from his only family. Anakin's comparable attachments were to Obi-Wan and Padme, both of whom Sidious used against him to turn him to the dark side.