Forever will it dominate your path?

But will the Dark Side forever dominate your path, once you start down it? Yoda seems to think so, but he's proved wrong by Luke's redemption of his father.

Is Yoda wrong, or is this another case of "a certain point of view"? Is it only possibible to turn back from the Dark path if you're the so-called "Chosen One"? Or is Yoda's declaration something akin to a parent's warning to not get started on drugs, because you'll become an addict, (i.e. difficult to get away from but not impossible) and therefore warnings to the kids should be delivered in the strongest terms to make sure the little guys don't get started in the first place?

What's your take on this?

 

Well, Yoda is right-from a certain point of view. If Anakin hadn't turned, he probably wouldn't have died killing Palpatine.

His turning led to his injuries, which led to his needing electronic life-support equipment, which lead to his death.

 

Well Anakin is a special case isn't he. Something I like to say is "The only rule I live by is that there is an exception to every rule".

Anakin is that exception to Yoda's rule on the dark side. Besides that, no I think Yoda is completely correct.

 

That statement is an absolute, "forever will it dominate your path", and absolutes aren't supposed to be the way that a Jedi looks at the world, yet Yoda just did so. I'd say Yoda is completely wrong, he's letting his personal emotions guide his voice, and his love of the good side of the force is clouding his vision, Yoda has no idea how wrong what he's espousing is.

 

Yoda really isn't wrong. Anakin/Vader was destroyed, the Darkside dominated his entire life despite his turn to the good side. Bringing Vader back was the hard part, something Yoda and Ben gave up on. But Luke overcame this.

 

Anakin's not the only person to ever turn back from the dark side though, and I know this is EU material, but Luke did it, Luminara Unduli did it, and there may have been a few others. Yoda was wrong, just because you turn down the dark path that doesn't mean you are lost forever, you may be gone for awhile, and you may never be the same person again, but the dark side is not absolute, even while immersed in the dark side of the force you are given choices to make, and through those choices you can once again begin to veer towards the light side. Anakin and others have done this, so yes, Yoda is wrong.

 

Forever will it dominate your destiny?

I always viewed this in the same way I viewed skipping school for the first time, killing someone for the first time, or anything else where you normally make an exception to a rule. The light side of the force exists by following very specific rules laid down on how the Force is to be used. The dark side is basically not following those rules. Therefore, for 99% of people, after you skip school the first time, it is that much easier to do it the next time or be tempted to do it. In response to the drug addict analogy earlier, even though smokers can quit, they usually possess an increased potential for returning to smoking if they make an exception to their "I quit" ideology.

So, the dark side will always tempt you and draw you in regardless of how long you've been "off".

 

Yep, the point has been proven essentially.

It does dominate your destiny forever, once you start down it. Mainly because the Dark Side causes you to destroy something. You lose part of yourself or something you hold dear, and no matter how much you try to "beat it," you'll always be dominated by it.

Another way to look at is from the real-world religious perspective. Take something like sin.

Though religion tells you that you can be "redeemed" by following God, the fact remains that sin will "forever dominate your destiny." You will never become "perfect" or do absolutely good at all. In a sense, you will continually battle, repent for, suffer from, deal with, and overall just fight against it, and/or fear it, regardless of what redemption you've been afforded.

And the Anakin example pretty much rings true. Sure, he turned back to good, and not all was lost, but his destiny was definitely dominated. He lost his limbs, lost the capacity to breath, lost the love of his life, became utterly corruptable, and essentially slowly drifted towards complete ineptitude, as was evident in ROTJ. His own master was literally, in front of his face, selling him off to the highest bidder, and that bidder happened to be his own son. It's like the Emperor had at once stripped him of all power, and authority, and was now flaunting the fact that his son was going to replace him.

Doesn't matter what he did at the end, he was definitely dominated until his final destiny was fulfilled.

 

Anakin isn't an exception. Yoda says the darkside will forever dominate your destiny, he didn't say you will always be on the dark side. The darkside did dominate Anakin's destiny, right to the end, even though he himself became good again. "consume you it will, like Obi-wan's apprentice" and consume him it did.