gffa:There’s a lot of small details that I’m going to yell about that are amazing in this issue, mos
gffa:There’s a lot of small details that I’m going to yell about that are amazing in this issue, most especially how much Yoda loves his grandkid and encourages him to question things, but first I’m going to get right to the heart of what’s going on here: Qui-Gon is questioning the Jedi’s path, about them being situated on Coruscant instead of some distant world where they’d be even further away from interacting with other people, questioning about how they work for the Senate, questioning how they fight battles.And, honestly, pretty much all of this lines up with exactly how I see things. Ultimately, being part of the Republic is what dooms the Jedi. Ultimately, being under the jurisdiction of the Senate is what dooms the Jedi. Ultimately, fighting in the clone wars is what dooms the Jedi. Do I think these were missteps? Yeah, of course. But I think this issue also does a solid job of illustrating why those missteps were taken.We see in the Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu comic that people don’t understand and fear the Jedi. We see that all throughout The Clone Wars, people fear and misunderstand the Jedi. We see it mentioned several times when the Jedi come up in Star Wars Propaganda. And Yoda himself says it right here:People fear what they don’t understand. And Qui-Gon’s solution is basically to distance themselves even further from those people? I think it’s pretty safe to say that wouldn’t have worked, either.And that’s why Qui-Gon can’t find answers by the end of the issue. He goes on his Force-woo journey, he has a bunch of scary visions, and ultimately says, “Violence sows the seeds of the dark side. Unchecked, the Jedi could become that which we fight against.” And the very next page is him going to the Priestess of Wood and telling her that she should go talk to people on Coruscant, should reach out to them and create more allies. To be more connected to this planet of metal.The page immediately after his Force-woo vision has him saying:“You may see it as a city of metal, but there is wisome to be found here. And allies.”And then the final page with him going back to talk with Yoda, saying, yes, he found some answers (which are apparently, “Coruscant’s not so bad, I guess”) and they talk of how they have to find balance between not bending to the dark side, but still being flexible in how they approach things.You cannot clip any one piece of conversation out of this issue and take it out of context, because it’s a single story that’s meant to have themes, which means the ending is just as important as the middle (if not more so in some ways) and the ending is that: this is a quandary that doesn’t really have a good answer.THAT’S THE WHOLE IDEA. THIS IS A QUANDARY THAT DOESN’T HAVE AN ANSWER. There’s no simple, easy answer, no matter how much Force-woo shenanigans Qui-Gon has or how many conversations he has with Yoda. Even in hindsight, knowing how the story goes, we don’t have an answer for how the Jedi could have avoided this.Leave Coruscant? They’d have been fucked twice as hard, because people feared and mistrusted and misunderstood them even when they were already at the hart of the Republic.Leave being part of the Republic/the jurisdiction of the Senate? They would be able to help no one, they would have no allies, they would be allies to no one in return.Stop fighting battles? And instead just let people suffer and die?This is the conclusion Qui-Gon reaches when he goes on his Force Walk: He ends up with more questions than answers. He has some answers, but not enough to see things clearly. Not enough to clear a path forward.That’s it, that’s the whole thing. It’s not that the Jedi didn’t think about this stuff, they clearly did. Obi-Wan questions it fairly often in The Clone Wars, about their greater path. Yoda has several big speeches about it. But there were no other answers. Even when I look back with full hindsight and go, “What should they have done differently?” I can’t really come up with an answer, because every option I come up with, there’s another counter-move Palpatine could have made. Not fight in the Clone Wars? They’d have been ripped to shreds by the Republic for not helping, as well as they’d have had to stand by and let people die. Etc.Ultimately, this comic just further illustrates to me that, no, the Jedi aren’t perfect, but every time we see them (and it’d have been fascinating to get the perspective of the Council, we don’t actually hear anything from them or their side of things) they care deeply and are trying to figure out the best thing to do and are encouraging people to learn and question and do their best. GOD, THEY WERE SO GOOD, THERE WAS SO MUCH LIGHT WITHIN THEM, THEY CARED SO MUCH AND WANTED TO HELP SO MANY PEOPLE AND I’M JUST GONNA CRY ABOUT THEIR LOSS, THAT THIS IS WHY THEY WERE THE BIG THREAT TO PALPATINE, THIS IS WHY HE ABSOLUTELY HAD TO EXTINGUISH THEIR LIGHT FROM THE GALAXY. -- source link
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