Jedi Emotions
Posted: 2005-05-08 01:16pm
I have been reading in a few of the threads, people arguing that the Jedi of the Old Republic repressed their emotions and taught that emotions were bad and lead to the dark side. Where exactly is this the case in the movies? Fear, anger, agression, those are the path to the dark side. There is nothing said about all emotion being bad. Infact, we see Jedi of all ranks showing all kinds of emotion. We've seen Obi Wan express joy, concern, sadness, annoyance (a lot) and anxiety to name a few. Yoda jokes and laughs when it serves his purpose, and is concerned about others wellbeing. Even Qui-Gon Ginn, the most centered Jedi in the series is seen to be happy now and then and gets an air of wistful sadness when he talks about Jedi dying. Hell, Kit Fisto had a stupid grin through the whole battle on Geonosis. Where are these emotionless 'Vulcan' Jedi?
They even DO show fear and anger from time to time but the skilled Jedi will see this, get a hold of himself, control it and try to regain his calm.
Being calm and serene and at peace is not the same thing as repressing your emotions. Looking at your feelings, searching them and trying to undrestand them before you act is not the same thing as repressing them. Infact the whole idea for Jedi repressing their emotions is obsurd considering one of their basic tenents is searching and trusting your feelings. How can you trust them when you're trying to run from them?
Now, I know that 'Knights of the Old Republic' has some line in it saying, "There is no emotion, only the Force" blah, blah blah. Quite frankly, that is contradicted in the movies and makes no sense with the way the Jedi act and use their feelings. The only good I can see of it is as a mantra for calming the mind that people would use when they don't fully understand the nature of their training.
They must be calm and at peace because emotion in the face of stress clouds judgement. They are beings of great power and they must be very wary of why and how they are using that power. To act on emotion without understanding why, with that kind of power, can have grave consequences. That does not mean that their ultimate goal is the elimination of those feelings, only an understanding of and complete control of them. Control is not repression. Controlling emotion is something we all start learning when we are small children.
Half their job in negotiation is understanding the motives and feelings of other people for God's sake. How are they doing this when they're repressing their own emtions instead of dealing with them? How can you understand someone else when you don't allow yourself to experience the same thing? You can't. Yet they do all the time.
I ask again. What makes people think that the Jedi are repressing their emotions instead of controlling them? If this is the case, then we have a lot of poor Jedi. Like all of them... Accept maybe Windu. The one smile that guy's ever cracked looked so fake I think Yoda had a gun to his crotch forcing him to do it.
They even DO show fear and anger from time to time but the skilled Jedi will see this, get a hold of himself, control it and try to regain his calm.
Being calm and serene and at peace is not the same thing as repressing your emotions. Looking at your feelings, searching them and trying to undrestand them before you act is not the same thing as repressing them. Infact the whole idea for Jedi repressing their emotions is obsurd considering one of their basic tenents is searching and trusting your feelings. How can you trust them when you're trying to run from them?
Now, I know that 'Knights of the Old Republic' has some line in it saying, "There is no emotion, only the Force" blah, blah blah. Quite frankly, that is contradicted in the movies and makes no sense with the way the Jedi act and use their feelings. The only good I can see of it is as a mantra for calming the mind that people would use when they don't fully understand the nature of their training.
They must be calm and at peace because emotion in the face of stress clouds judgement. They are beings of great power and they must be very wary of why and how they are using that power. To act on emotion without understanding why, with that kind of power, can have grave consequences. That does not mean that their ultimate goal is the elimination of those feelings, only an understanding of and complete control of them. Control is not repression. Controlling emotion is something we all start learning when we are small children.
Half their job in negotiation is understanding the motives and feelings of other people for God's sake. How are they doing this when they're repressing their own emtions instead of dealing with them? How can you understand someone else when you don't allow yourself to experience the same thing? You can't. Yet they do all the time.
I ask again. What makes people think that the Jedi are repressing their emotions instead of controlling them? If this is the case, then we have a lot of poor Jedi. Like all of them... Accept maybe Windu. The one smile that guy's ever cracked looked so fake I think Yoda had a gun to his crotch forcing him to do it.
