Was Anakin's life of a Jedi REALLY better than his life as a slave...?

I think not. Here are the facts:
AS A SLAVE
-Anakin had his pod, friends(Kitster,Jira,etc), and Mother
-he works a few hours a day,everday
-Anakin had his podracer which was one of his few leisures
-Anakin could love

AS A JEDI
-Anakin had Palpatine as a friend, and a "brother" to Obi-Wan but they were quite different from each other up until RotS IMO
-Anakin works 24/7
-Anakin cant even see his old friends or mother
-Anakin cannot love(although we all know what THAT leads to...)
-Anakin cannot even hate, so therefore not being able to love OR hate sounds inhumane

of course this is only my opinion

 

Well, it sounds pretty good (being a slave), now that you've laid it all out, but slavery might have been misconstrued in Qui-Gon's mind. See, people in the Republic were probably brought up to think slavery was SERIOUSLY INHUMANE, with masters beating, abusing, etc., their slaves. But Anakin and Shmi actually had it better than most: Watto, as stated in the TPM visual dictionary, was a much nicer slave owner than most. An example: Jabba. It probably would be better for him in the long run...But his midi-cholrain count is so high it can't possibly be ignored, so his life is better as a Jedi. Why? Because his dream is to save his friends and others from slavery. He might have gotten blown up if...ahhh, my opinion is weak on this...

 

It doesnt matter how good of a life he had, the whole reason he was made was to destroy the sith no matter how miserable he is. It was his destiny.

 

But as a Jedi, he gets a lightsaber.

Done. Where do I sign?

 

Wasnt it his dream to see all the planets or something in TPM? As a Jedi, thats what he was able to do.

 

yes, but my point is that I dont think being a Jedi was what Anakin expected IMO.

 

No, I think imagined he'd get the girl and be invulnerable like all kids do when they wanna be a hero. But he had to face reality.

 

Where would we be...without FREEDOM!?

 

Jedi are allowed to love

Also, you forgot a minor tidbit

Slave:

- Has a bomb planted somewhere in his body

- O_F

 

Actually Anakin said that they are "encouraged" to love.

 

Which means they're allowed to love, otherwise they would've made sure nobody would be "encouraged".

"The Jedi are trained to let go. They're trained from birth," he continues, "They're not supposed to form attachments. They can love people- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can't form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death."

--George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith, page 213


- O_F

 

Life as a Jedi isn't easy, but he chose that path. He has no room to complain, in my opinion. Jedi are servants of the people. They aren't meant to have actual lives because that would take away from their concentration.

 

There's an EU JQ book where Anakin wonders to himself if becoming a Jedi was giving up one form of slavery for another.

So maybe he thinks being a Jedi is sometimes equivalent to the life of a slave. He is always calling someone at some point "Master"

 

he was never free, would the jedi have helped him be free and let him go his own way if he had wanted?

 

I don't think that the Jedi are allowed to love because it leads to attachment.

love=A deep, tender feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship or sense of oneness.

attachment=the act of attaching or the condition of being attached. A bond, as of affection; fond regard.

These definitions I've found on the college dictionary show that love and attachment are the same because both rely on affection for a person to be drawn to other people which tells me that the Jedi are being hypocritical with their no attachment rules. You can't love someone and not be attached to them at the same time because it doesn't work that way or else Yoda wouldn't be clutching his hand on his heart after sensing his fellow Jedi being killed off across the galaxies. That shows that he had an attachment to those Jedi because he trained them since their births and he should have known that those rules are the reason that Anakin is so greedy and mentally unstable.

It's also why Anakin had a better life as a slave despite that he had no freedom but he still had his mother that loved him very much.

 

Hmmm, let's see, slave on a backwater planet or powerful, elite, galactic hotshot...let's just say I didn't see Anakin ever ask to leave the Jedi order and hop a transport back to Tatooine.

 

Well, according to Lucas; greed and jealousy lead to attachments, not love. Different authors - different definitions. And George even says Jedi are allowed to love there, so of course they can. Loving someone without being attached to them is exactly what saves Anakins soul, "I've got to save you father" "You already have Luke", he's willing die - because he loves Luke unconditionally, but he's not attached to him. It's the same with Obi/QuiGon in TPM, whereas Anakin/mom/Padme shows, instead of healthy love, a man thats attached to his loved ones.

- O_F

 

But what Lucas failed to realise is that greed and jealousy are the results of not being allowed to love because when a man wants to date girls and his Christian mentors tell him that he can't, that makes him greedy and resentful of his mentors for not giving him the free will to do what he wants.

That's why Anakin resorted to marrying Padme in secret and for what transpired in ROTS.

If that were true, then there was no reason for Anakin to keep his marriage a secret.

1)If Anakin/Vader wasn't attached to Luke, then he would never had sacrificed himself trying to save him because he feared death so much and 2) he became attached to Padme and his mom because he wasn't allowed to see either of them.

 

Let me guess, you took this from Matt Stover in ROTS? Because he brings up the same point in the book.

 

There are different definitions and aspects of love. I was sad to learn in the PT that the Jedi were supposed to be celebate. That didn't make sense to me, they are, afterall, Jedi Knights, not Jedi monks. I'd rather be a slave, allowed to have adult, sexual relationships, than any "free" man prohibited from this; I think most married people, or people in serious loving relationships would agree. Anakin was far to young to have an opinion on this when he became a padawan, and this has deadly ramifications for the galaxy. Knowing what he later knew, he would rather have been a slave, Padme would have bought him and freed him and they could have been happily married and that would have been the end of it.

 

That's interesting... and suppose watto lost him in another bet, and sold him to a hutt, who decided to use this special little human, as rancor food


Just because TPM depicted slavery from the POV of a 10 year old, doesn't mean slavery is a good thing

 

I guess no one is interested in arguing that anakin was better off as rancor chow

 

...as a 9 years old kid

 

yes, as a 9 year old kid, and with no information other than legends on what the life of a Jedi would be.

I can't help finding these posts going "after all, it was his choice" rather cynical, and I'd really like to know what "choices" these posters have made at the age of nine on the basis of zero information that determine their whole life, and they are still happy with.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to add: A "choice", with the alternative to remain in slavery.

 

Yes, he made the choice at a young age, but the point is that he could have left the Jedi whenever he wanted to. I don't believe I ever heard Yoda and Obi-Wan discussing the "Hunt-Down-And-Kill-Anyone-Who-Does-Not-Want-To-Be-A-Jedi" rule. He is the one that wanted to be a Jedi even as an adult, in fact the most powerful Jedi ever, and a master, and on the council...oh AND Padme. If he'd wanted a simple married life far away from it all, he could simply have done that.