If the recent release of Star Wars: The Old Republican is any indication, we will be dealing with lightsaber slinging in that galaxy far, far away for the foreseeable duration. Star Wars has become a part of our popular culture and is still a staple of many in the geek community. It probably helps that it is everywhere. Since 1999 the Star Wars franchise has released four major motion pictures, been sold in box sets twice, enjoyed a successful cartoon miniseries, had an even more successful CGI television show, and more comics and video games than George Lucas can shake his neck-chin at. Oh, and don’t forget that Phantom Menace is being re-released in theaters in 3D soon. In short, Star Wars isn’t going anywhere for a long time.
And almost all of that is because of the Jedi.
At it’s core, Star Wars is really about the constant struggle between laser-sword wielding fanatics of two diametrically opposed belief systems. It’s the only way to explain why the Jedi are centrally featured in all of Star War’s most popular content. Seriously, when’s the last time you played a Star Wars game, read a book, or watched a movie that wasn’t centrally based on a Jedi being the protagonist? It’s also the reason Star Wars remains science fantasy instead of science fiction like its constant frenemy, Star Trek.
I used to love Star Wars when I was a kid. I saw the original trilogy four or five years before Phantom Menace came out, and it was a good time. I got some toys and played a few video games to round out the experience. So why is it the Star Wars franchise has felt weird to me since the end of Revenge of the Sith? Something had been bugging me about the Star Wars universe for quite some time. it was when I happened across Red Letter Media’s lengthy set of reviews on the Star Wars prequels that I started to figure it out…
The newest movies are really, really bad. Seriously, watch these reviews and beware the NSFW elements.
Mace doesn't care. He'll cut your head off if you get in his way. moviefancentral.com
The reviews point out that there is a lot that’s gone wrong with the Star Wars films since The Phantom Menace. And while I could speak to all of that, what I really want to talk about are the way the Jedi have changed in the last 30 years. I remember a time when anyone could be a Jedi, before midichlorians forever locked most of us out of the dream. I remember when being a Jedi was about having a certain kind of spiritual perspective; it embodied something greater than slicing your enemy to death with a magic sword.
Now all you need to be a Jedi is a lightsaber and some choreography. Maybe this is a kind of fetishism that results from a fixation on combat weaponry, the dominance fighting over the spiritualism evoked by Jedi masters in the original trilogy, or a preference for that which can be seen (and filmed) over that which has to be “felt” or imagined. Whatever the case, being a Jedi now is kind of like going to church without believing anything. What’s the point of a Jedi if he doesn’t add some critical wisdom to the mix? What’s to keep any asshole from learning how to swing a laser stick and call himself a Jedi?
I do sometimes wonder if Lucas understands what he was originally filming. The Jedi now solve all of their problems with violence and espouse hollow platitudes that have no relation to any actual insight or wisdom about life and the universe. Instead the Force is about gaining tactical advantage over your opponents. If I could ask George Lucas one question it would be about the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi. While fighting Darth Vader, he sacrifices himself rather than sacrifice his values by killing an intergalactic menace. If Obi had stuck out the fight for a while longer, it would have served to help Luke and the others escape. Hell, he may have been able to destroy the guy (he apparently crippled) responsible for galactic terror. Instead he lays down his blade and takes a laser sword to the face. Why?
I suspect it has something to do with showing Darth Vader that he was right about peace and that Vader shouldn’t fear death, but that no longer fits into a Jedi schema based on defeating your opponent with a sword that can cut through anything.
Obi-Wan shut down his weapon because spiritual enlightenment and hard-won emotional discipline was more important than winning the fight. Luke does the same thing at the end of Return of the Jedi. But at some point that changed. Being a Jedi was a job in itself in the Old Republic, and it saw the force less as a spiritual reflection of life than a tool for maiming. The overabundance of the light saber speaks to this (beware profanity):
Aside from fetishism I think it comes back to a fixation with fighting. I suspect a lot of Harry Potter fans would not have liked magic if there was no way fight with it and no advantage to be gained. And it certainly would have been ballyhooed if magic was part of a spiritual practice. People would have asked, “what’s the point?” because magic is no longer a gift in and of itself. Historically speaking, actual belief in magic were originally attached to ideas of spiritualism and relating to the universe/god/gods/all of the above. Now magic is about what it can get you. Magic is only good if you can use it to better your lot or wreck someone else. We have successfully Americanized magic.
What happened to this kind of Jedi?
I rather enjoyed this one. I always knew there was something about the new trilogy that I didn’t like but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Watch those reviews and you may see there is quite a lot that’s bothering you. It’s like a bad burrito where every element is awful, but there are so many elements it masks how awful each bit is.
I can only agree with you. The Jedi you complain about is the Jedi that fits in with American culture: all action all the time. The Obi-Wan Jedi is actually more aligned with traditional ideas of spirituality and development (whether mystic or samurai). But after the original trilogy, Lucas lost whatever he’d learned from reading the Cliff Notes of “Hero with a Thousand Faces”.
On the other hand, the prequels (unintentionally, I assume) had an excellent job of showing a mystical order that has been hurt by success, which has lost it’s real discipline and power and become decadent and rigid. Which is why they lost to the Sith: they became complacent and lazy. Even Yoda.
I think what you say also parallels George Lucas’ journey. A man hurt by his own success. A person who once understood film development became decadent and rigid.
And lazy. The man works hard behind a computer, but his directing style is lazy.
“On the other hand, the prequels (unintentionally, I assume) had an excellent job of showing a mystical order that has been hurt by success, which has lost it’s real discipline and power and become decadent and rigid. Which is why they lost to the Sith: they became complacent and lazy. Even Yoda.”
Not unintentional at all. LMAO at all the stupid prequel haters who can’t get it. The script even discusses this in at least 3 places, and squarely shows that complete nonattachment is not the way to go, as it has a backlash. If it was any more obvious, Lucas would be talking down to the audience. I think most people wanted to be spoonfed everything instead of having to question their own values, like the OT challenged them to do. First, they were mad that Vader was redeemed. Now, they are mad the Jedi were flawed. People just want black and white good vs evil, just like idiot warmongers.
I think the prequels leave a lot to be desired particularly in dialogue and editing, but I think Lucas actually got the big picture right. The Jedi in the prequel have lost their way. This should be obvious to anyone who watches all six films really. The Jedi think they have got it all figured out and that’s what leads them to their great fall. It’s actually qui-gon Jin who is the maverick “grey” Jedi who had it right and learns to become one with the force. Only Kenobi and Yoda survive, and grow to understand things more clearly which is why they are wiser in the original films. And in the end that’s why Luke is successful when everyone before him failed.
I love talking about this. So I’m going to disagree, respectfully.
I tend to agree with you in the broadest sense. George Lucas successfully accomplished what the prequels set out to do: end the Old Republic and the Jedi order. But since Lucas didn’t write a script for most of the prequels until the 90′s, I have to conclude that it was largely by accident.
I also tend to disagree about Qui-Gon. While he was a maverick and it is later revealed that he communes with Obi to teach him about the force, he was anything but in tune at the time of his death. Qui-Gon pretty much setup the downfall of the Jedi order and the death of millions. How does someone capable of any level of enlightenment willfully disregard his colleagues and ignore the ominous meaning of “balance the force” when good is winning?
The other part that bothers me is that these attitudes carry on in a lot of Star Wars products after Phantom Menace. I can’t speak universally to the Jedi, but If you look at KOTOR, Clone Wars, etc. it’s about setting up the coolest fight. And that’s the real failure of the Jedi. That we expect nothing better from them.
Wrong about Qui Gon. Just because Anakin turned doesn’t mean that it was inevitable. It was the failure of Obi-Wan and Yoda that allowed the fall of Anakin. Qui-Gon was wu-wei, with no clinging to power. Yoda and Obi-Wan put institutions, rank, missions, war, and rules before love and loyalty. They took nonattachment to extremes in the realm of personal attachments, but remained very attached to political power.
“I remember a time when anyone could be a Jedi, before midichlorians forever locked most of us out of the dream. I remember when being a Jedi was about having a certain kind of spiritual perspective; it embodied something greater than slicing your enemy to death with a magic sword.”
I’ve heard a similar criticism in ‘The People vs. George Lucas,” but I don’t think this is correct, actually. I think it’s pretty clear from episodes 4-6 that force sensitivity is hereditary. Here’s why:
1. Luke is singled out for Jedi training. Luke is force sensitive because he inherited that from his father. Otherwise, why not pick others to be Jedi?
2. Obi-Wan mentions that Luke is their last hope, and Yoda reminds him that there is another– Leia. Why? Because Leia also had a force-sensitive father.
3. Luke telepathically calls to Leia for help when he’s stranded below Bespin. Why Leia? Presumably because he’s force sensitive.
Anyway, I’m not trying to tell you that you like the concept of midichlorians. I think the real reason people don’t like them is because some understanding of the underlying biology takes away some of the magic feeling of the force.
Midichorlians are like genes. We know species can inherit properties without understanding the mechanisms of genes (Darwin himself never lived to learn about genes).
So you can dislike the mechanism, but the heretibility of force sensitivity is classic Star Wars.
Jim Davies
I have to disagree with you a little here. I’ll grant that one can’t prove that anyone could be a Jedi. Some people have the gift and some people don’t, but it just seemed more egalitarian when there was mystery. That said:
1. Luke is a special case because his father was immaculately conceived. Anakin, for whatever reason, is an avatar created by “the will of the force” to serve an ultimate purpose. As such, I think it’s fair to conclude Luke is also a part of that fate.
2. Ditto for Leia.
3. Luke telepathically spoke to Anakin and Leia. I’m more inclined to believe it’s because of that shared destiny or because they’re all family. Then again, dead Obi-Wan was able to commune with Yoda, Luke, and Qui-Gon (alluded in Revenge of the Sith). And sometimes the Jedi see the future and sense force type stuff. So it could just be that Jedi do that sort of thing.
You make a pretty valid point. However, I’m confident there are instances of Jedi that don’t have force sensitive parents and I’m inclined to think Luke and his dad are a special case. And any way you slice it, fate, “the will of the force” and the ancient prophecy hint at an intelligent, mystical force that the midichlorians are associated with.
And since midichlorians are microscopic, intelligent organisms I’m not ready to conclude people inherit them as opposed to being selected by/for them. So you are probably right that not everyone can be a Jedi, but I still think medichlorians are an awful plot device. They simultaneously cheapen the force while not telling us anything substantial about the it. Why/how are they intelligent? Do they choose people? Do they ever leave? Do they pick people that are force sensitive, or make people force sensitive?
My interpretation is that they (like the mitochondria that inspired them) were separate organisms that evolved into a symbiotic relationship with living things, and that most of the time the amount of midichlorians in someone is heritable. That Anakin was born without a father, and we have no evidence that Shmi was force-sensitive, is a mystical anomaly. But that’s just my interpretation; the movies don’t make the details clear, but I would answer your question about why they chose Anakin this way: they needed to get rid of Palpatine, so they created Anakin to do it. Anakin did a sloppy job of it, but finally did get it done.
You mention that they are a poor plot device– what’s funny is that they really don’t serve the plot in any important way. People seem to be able to detect force sensitivity without a midichlorian counter (“the force is strong in this one”, so it’s not like they serve some important plot function. Qui-Gon could have just intuitively felt that Anakin was powerful. People seem to hate midichlorians, and they serve no important plot function, so in general I think it was a mistake to include them.
However, personally, I like them, and I think they do tell us something substantial in terms of understanding (though I might be wrong in my interpretation): ultimately, your force sensitivity is a function of how many midichlorians you have. How many you have is a function of how many are in each cell, and, importantly, *how many cells you have.* We might infer, then, that Yoda’s proportion per cell is very high indeed because he’s so physically small.
What’s interesting to me is that this interpretation helps explain why Vader is not as powerful as Anakin– his arms and legs were dismembered. Palpatine had such high hopes for him, but with so many limbs gone, he’s lost a lot of his potential. This also explains to me why Dooku was so disturbed when he cut off Anakan’s hand in Episode II: he knew he had crippled the force potential of a possible future dark side ally.
(Side note: of course, your ability to use that force potential is a function of practice.)
I could be wrong in my understanding of this, but you can see that this interpretation is impossible without some tie between the force and your physical body, and that’s what the midichlorian “explanation” provides, and what I think is good about it.
Thank you for your thoughtful replies.
A couple of things I’d like to point out:
1 – When Qui-Gon Jinn explains midichlorians to Anakin in Ep 1, he specifically states that : “Midi-chlorians are a microcopic lifeform that reside within all living
cells and communicate with the Force.” Did you catch that? ALL LIVING CELLS. He continues: “They
continually speak to you, telling you the will of the Force.” Got that? They live in ALL LIVING CELLS and CONTINUALLY SPEAK TO YOU (you being ALL LIVING CELLS). Wait, what, you can’t hear them? Well, as Qui-Gon tells Anakin, “When you learn to quiet your mind,
you will hear them speaking to you.” And, “with time and training…you will.”
Compare this to Obi-Wan’s explanation in Ep IV: “The Force is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates, binds the Galaxy together. You must learn the ways of the Force, if you’re to come with me to Alderaan.”
Yes, the tone in Ep IV is more mystical, less scientific, but the key detail is the same: ALL LIVING CELLS/ALL LIVING THINGS. And you need time and training to learn to speak to the midichlorians/learn the ways of the Force.
I don’t recall anyone in the old pre-Ep 1 days thinking that Han Solo was capable of learning the Force and becoming a Jedi. Or Grand Moff Tarkin. Or Lando Calrissian. Even back in the 70′s/80′s, there was definitely an unwritten rule that the Force was stronger in some than in others. How does calling it “midichlorians” versus calling it “an energy field” change that?
2 – Lucas has definitively stated that Vader cannot use Force lightning because he has robotic limbs. He has also says his lightsaber skills were severly hampered by the cybernetic suit.
3 – The implication in Ep3 is that Darth Plagueis was in some way responsible for the conception of Anakin as a result of his experiments with midichlorians to create life. The new novel “Darth Plagueis” may clarify this, although novels aren’t necessarily cannon to the SW universe like the movies are.
4 – The fairly blatant implication in the prequels re:telepathy and communication beyond the physical plane (i.e. Force ghosts, some sort of life after death) is that Qui-Gon Jinn was learning all this on his own before his death. He constantly defied the Jedi Council and chided Obi-Wan for heeding Yoda’s teachings at the expense of ignoring “the Living Force”. During the fight with Maul on Naboo, when he is separated from Obi-Wan by the energy barriers, he begins to meditate, knowing he’s facing possible defeat, preparing to retain his consciousness if he dies. In Ep 2, when Anakin murders the Sand People, Yoda hears Qui-Gon call to Anakin through the Force, begging him to stop this Dark Side behavior. In Ep 3, as he’s meditiating on Polis Massa while waiting for Obi-Wan to return from Mustafar, Yoda originally communes with Qui-Gon directly and learns that one can retain one’s consciousness in the “netherworld”. The deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray include this dialogue, as well as the novelization to the film and the published screenplay. After making plans for the raising of Luke and Leia, Yoda shares this revelation with Obi-Wan, and together they communicate with QGJ and each other through the Force while living in exile on Dagobah and Tatooine.
In my opinion, this broadening of their understanding of the Force at the end of Ep 3 is the reason why Obi-Wan and Yoda take a much less scientific, much more mystical point of view about the Force in Eps 4-6. Yoda especially is shaken in his beliefs about the Force after losing to Palpatine and realizing how blind he was to such a powerful Sith right under his nose for the past ten-plus years.
Like Jim, I don’t think I can change your mind, or anyone else’s, about the midichlorians, but I think these points are worth considering…
I think you and Jim are both right. I’ve already conceded that not everyone can be a Jedi and Jim has made some fine points about the operation of midichlorians. But I never said midichlorians didn’t work as part of the Star Wars universe, just that they’re sloppy. And the specifics of their workings take away more than they add. To reference that io9 article again:
“it’s more that they were a dumb, ridiculous technobabble concoction. And they’re not an explanation you can build on, which is even worse. You can build a whole architecture on top of “an energy field that connects all living beings,” and the original trilogy did, quite well. But you can’t build on top of “microscopic critters in the blood.”
At some point we got caught up on the aspect of midichlorians, but I was just referencing them to explain the way a child (me) experienced Star Wars. My real problem is with the characterization of the Jedi, not this one technical component.
When all is said and done, movies are made to entertain. They need compelling stories and likable characters. I just don’t find anything deep or likable about Episode 1-3′s Jedi for the reasons I’ve outlined in the article. It could have been done better. Hell, it has been done better. Others do it better all the time with X-Men: First Class, Babylon 5, and a slew of other movies and shows.
Star Wars’ Jedi work in the most minimal sense, but characterization of people with powers doesn’t have to be so bland or so disappointing. Why can’t we have compelling Jedi, individually and collectively, that make us ache like Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? It’s because the grand architect of Star Wars doesn’t seem to understand what he originally set out to create.
The other thing I forgot to mention relates more to the actual thrust of your well-written article, which is the Jedi in a post-prequel world.
In the original trilogy, we saw 5 Jedi/Sith: Vader, Kenobi, Luke, Yoda and Palpatine. None of these Jedi were in peak condition. In fact, it was kind of mind-blowing when I first saw Luke deflect laser bolts with his lightsaber in ROTJ in 1983. Now with the Prequels, that kind of thing is totally commonplace. I think you’ve described it well with the word “fetishistic”.
But let’s actually look at the time period of the prequels: Ep 1-3 take place during the last 13 years of a 1,000-year-old Republic. The Jedi have become complacent, rigid in their thinking, so blinded by their own false sense of security and superiority that they can’t even see their arch enemy for what he is when he’s sitting across the conference table from them in the opening of Ep 2. In my opinion, Mace Windu is the epitome of the Jedi of this era and almost completely opposite the kind of Jedi Qui-Gon (who is considered something of a renegade) strives to be. The Windu Jedi is arrogant, overly-confident and out of touch with common man. In Ep 1, Obi-Wan is very much this kind of Jedi – he dismisses Jar Jar as a pathetic lifeform and doesn’t understand why Qui-Gon keeps picking up these charity cases. But it’s through the course of Ep 2 and 3 that Obi-Wan matures and becomes the Jedi we see in Ep 4, who is very much in the manner of Qui-Gon.
Another thing to consider is that in the prequels, the Jedi are the losers. How do they lose? Because they’ve lost sight of being a Jedi is actually about – they’ve become much as you described them: ” the Jedi now solve all of their problems with violence and espouse hollow platitudes that have no relation to any actual insight or wisdom about life and the universe.”
I guess the earlier post-er, Isaac, said much the same thing, so I suppose I am echoing his pov, which I agree with, that Lucas crafted in the prequels a believable demonstration of how a republic becomes a dictatorship.
Oh, and Obi-Wan also turns off his lightsaber and surrenders to Vader because he knows in death he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.
I hadn’t watched any of the Star Wars films since ROTS hit DVD in 2005, when I watched all 6 and then shelved them. With the recent Blu-Ray release, and a new girlfriend who hadn’t seen them since the theater, I saw them again for the first time in 6 years. None of the films are perfect – and when you watch them in numerical order (Ep 1-6), making Anakin the focus of the Saga really short-changes Luke, Leia and Han by making them all supporting players in the redemption of Darth Vader. BUT, that being said, Lucas did pull off something pretty remarkable – when I watched the films fairly close together and distanced from all the expectation of their original release, I really found myself involved in the emotional arc of Anakin in the Prequels, so much so that when he finally is locked in the black suit and helmet, it really felt powerful and sad. And Padme’s character is so tragic as well, her funeral was quite moving. Finally, seeing Ian McDiarmid evolve from Senator Palpatine to Darth Sidious/The Emperor really paid off nicely in ROTJ where he is manipulating Vader even still in an effort to replace him with his son.
Anyway, my 2 cents. Thanks for listening…
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