#JediDefender

Would you look at this: All the popular Anti Jedi arguments in one poll! And each option is worse than the last.

is a take that fundamentally misunderstands both Luke as a character and the entire point behind Star Wars and the Jedi religion.

Luke didn't act out of attachment. If he did he would have killed Palpatine and Vader in a desperate attempt to save his friends.

Let's actually compare this to mister attachment aka Anakin, shall we.

If Anakin was in a position where some guy (for example Dooku) was responsible for Padmé, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Rex etc. being in current life threatening danger, he would have killed that man and anyone who stood in his way. If there was another guy claiming to be his father that might have thrown him off for a bit but in pure rage and terror of what might happen to the people he loves he would have 10000% killed him, father or not (he literally tries to kill his surrogate father / brother out of attachment and greed and later succeeds IN THE MOVIES).

Luke however chooses AGAINST acting out of attachment. He doesn't let his fear for his loved ones control him. The literal moment he crashes out and eventually almost kills Vader is when Vader mentions Leia. His attachment to her led him to react with rage in a desperate attempt to protect her but then he realizes that that's WRONG. That he's playing into Palpatine's hands and giving himself over to the dark side, so he stops. He chooses not to become what Anakin let himself be turned into.

Luke's motivation for saving Vader is not attachment - it's compassion.

Attachment is to act on behalf of yourself. Attachment is choosing your own feelings over what the people you love would want. Attachment is sacrificing everything your wife stood for, choking her to unconsciousness because she doesn't react the way you want her to and trying to kill your own brother out of greed and jealousy. Attachment is selfish love - love that is about YOU and not the people around you.

Compassion is SELFESS love. Compassion is choosing others over yourself. Compassion is valuing the ideals and wants of the people you love - not just wanting to keep them by your side at all cost. Compassion is tossing away your lightsaber and letting yourself get tortured and almost killed because you REFUSE to act out of attachment and let anyone be hurt but yourself. Compassion is also to sacrifice yourself to save your child even though it gains you neither a better future nor his staying in your life.

Like never once in the movies did I see a jedi being a colonizer and an executioner? Oh wait I do know one jedi! Anakin Skywalker! Like that one time he murdered an entire tribe (including the women and children) for the act of murdering his mother (a casualty in the ongoing war between the moisture farmers and the tuskens, in the AOTC novelization Cliegg talks how they haven't had their annual tusken massacre in while in order to stop the sand people encroaching on their land).

(Wow! Speciesm against Jawas as well? Who could have thought that?)

But in a dramatic irony, the tuskens are the one who act first, kidnapping Shmi and torturing her.

Or that one time Anakin executed Dooku without trial even though he literally disarmed the Count, making him unable to fight back. When he helped Palpatine murder Mace or when he massacred an entire Order because of visions that he caused them to happen?

But I'm pretty sure they talk about that one time Mace Windu killed Jango Fett in an ongoing battle, or when Mace was about to kill Palpatine, even though Mace went first with the intent to arrest him for treason against the Republic, with Sidious resisting arrest and trying really hard to murder 4 jedi.

Fine let's also discuss jedi actions during the clone wars show that induce such weird takes:

Season 1: They decide to listen to the Lurmen's wishes to leave them alone, until they find out about the Genocide Machine 3000 that the Separatists invented and they were morally obligated to warn the Lurmen about this contraption. In the end the Lurmens and Jedi fight together to repel the invasion. Ryloth was a rescue operation that freed the planet from the droid army. The Orto Plutania episodes were clearly the Jedi advising against colonizing the native tribe that the Pantorants wanted murdered.

Season 2: Geonosis was a Separatist aligned planet that was complicit in the making of more droid factories. The Jedi were there to stop such plans. In the Voyage of Temptation episode, Anakin executes Tal Merrik without trial (even though he was actually justified in this situation).

Season 3: Anakin and Obi-Wan were able to enter and leave Dathomir peacefully without scandal. Nothing else happens.

Season 4: The Clone Army and the Jedi are clearly on Mon Calamari at the request of the Mon Cala. In the end both the Quarren and the Mon Cala were able to settle aside the differences and live together from then on with the help of the Republic. While Umbara was an invasion, you can't decide to switch sides in war without repercussion. Zygerria was a rescue mission to retrieve the people of Kyros from being enslaved. In the Deception Arc, Anakin was intending to murder Obi-Wan masquerading as Rako Hardeen (without trial!).

Season 5: The Republic was on Onderon at the request of Lux Bonteri. The Council didn't even want to send people to Onderon initially but in the end decided to help the people.

Season 6: The Queen of Bardotta didn't want the Jedi at first but acknowledged Jar-Jar's wish in having Mace Windu with him to help.

Recently I saw someone say that Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side because he wanted the Clone Wars to end, now we're going to set aside just how wrong that is, because that's a whole other discussion

Now to clarify, I should say that Anakin didn't want the Clone Wars to end DEEP DOWN, I'm talking in his heart of hearts, his innermost desire, on the surface he wanted it to end, but the most shameful part of his heart loved it

Why?

Simply put, the war was the best thing to ever happen to Anakin, for 3 main reasons:

1.

""His Jedi dream? From the framing of the scene, it's just a dream he had one time, not a prophetic dream, not even necessarily recently occurring, it's not in the movie"

"I had a dream I was a jedi. I came back here and freed all slaves" you must have watched a different movie.

What do you think was the purpose of that scene? For you to dismiss it? This moment tells you that his future would have been very different under different circumstances."

2.

"Dream of marrying Padme? That never happened"

Anakin had frequent dreams of Padme , his soulmate and future wife, that he brought up multiple times.

3.

"You've got the dreams about Shmi wrong, Anakin never brings them up to Obi-Wan who then dismissed them, OBI-WAN is the one who brings up Shmi, Anakin refuses to elaborate on what his dreams were about-theres also no indication that said dreams are about Shmi suffering, just that he is dreaming about her-and wants to leave the subject, only then does Obi-Wan say "dreams pass in time", it's very clearly not a dismissal, but an attempt at comforting someone with the limited information Obi-Wan has, and when Anakin does get dreams of Shmi suffering, the only person he tells is his second worst enabler"

Obi-Wan comments on Anakin looking tired and Anakin says he cant sleep anymore. What kind of dreams make you unable to sleep? Obi-Wan bringing Shmi up on his own is supposed to inform the audience that this is not the first time they talk on the subject.

-I dont know why I keep dreaming about her? - Dreams will pass.

Who exactly wants to leave the subject here? "

4.

"You are also completely wrong about the last one too, Anakin is told exactly what he needs to do by Yoda, let go, accept when people have passed, that's not being told to not care and ignore, that's an accurate statement on dealing with death, for anyone, people die, we have to let them go when they do, accept their passing, the fundamental problem here is you're misunderstanding Anakin's motivations, he's not looking to prevent death, he wants to make sure it can never happen"

Except no one has passed yet. People are in danger and they can be saved. Shmi would have been saved IF Anakin didn't follow "letting go" advice. What Yoda and Obi-Wan advised Anakin is to ignore and do nothing.

5.

"You also missed the part where it's not childbirth that kills Padme, it's ANAKIN STRANGLING HER!! And he does that precisely because he didn't follow Yoda's wisdom, had Anakin accepted the Padme could die and it may be beyond his ability to help, Padme would not have died, but that's not what Anakin did, he was possessive and attached, he wanted a cure for death and turned to the dark side to find one, and when Padme refused to accept the atrocities he had committed and go with him, Anakin decided he would rather kill her than not have her, and that's what happened, Anakin's dream is not a case of "this will happen", it's a case of "this is what will happen IF you continue on the way you have been"

Yoda didnt tell Anakin to accept possibly of death. He told him not to care if people die. Quite a nuisance here.

6.

"this is what will happen IF you continue on the way you have been" too bad Yoda didnt have your wisdom because he sure made it sound like dreams always come true.

7.

"Anakin decided he would rather kill her than not have her" if this was the case then how Padme was alive, psychically fine as stated by medical droids and gave birth to twins?"

The consequences of his choices are still his fault.

"But Anakin was sad-"

The consequences of his choices are still his fault.

"But Anakin didn't mean to-"

Yes he did and even if he didn't, the consequences of his choices are still his fault.

"But Anakin was just trying to-"

The consequences of his choices are still his fault.

"But what about Palpatine?"

Meanwhile, Luke and his order do NOT kriff around when the word Sith comes up. The second the council gets word from Ben Skywalker that a new group of Sith is out there, they ask no questions, they have no debate, they just fuel up the Stealth Xs, load the blasters, and issue the thermal detonators. They don’t care if it’s only a dark Jedi group or a hunger/exhaustion induced hallucination, they’re not risking a repeat of the Jedi purge and the Galactic Empire.

Old: “Masters, I encountered a Force strong warrior with clear Jedi training who I think might be a Sith.” “Hm, well the Sith have been extinct for a thousand years, I’m not sure they could just show up again, but we’ll investigate the situation and respond accordingly.”

New: “Master Skywalker, I had a nightmare about a Sith under my bed last ni-“ *rest of statement is cut off by Luke, all available Jedi Masters and Knights, the Solos, Rogue Squadron, the Wraiths, and a hundred Noghri trampling over each other to surround the dormitory, evacuate all Jedi younglings to the Hapes Consortium aboard the Errant Venture, promote a dozen of the older apprentices to knighthood to increase their odds, get Talon Karrde’s organization sweeping the galaxy for any whisper of where the new Sith came from, coordinate with Tenel Ka to blockade the entire system with the Hapan navy, and call Lando for another few dozen YVH droids.