Saga The Chosen One

I agree, just not with the concept that one is "good" while the other is "evil". Yin 陰 and Yang 陽 don't correspond to "good and evil" as often mistakenly interpreted by Westerners. True, Yin and Yang are about balance, like you said, which can mean many things, male and female, bright and dark, dry hot weather opposed to cooler more humid one, the food you eat.... everything needs to be balanced out. According to TCM you need to balance your diet in order to avoid diseases, can't eat too much "hot" food (meaning stir-fried, fries, anything cooked in oil or fat, but also including mangoes or lychees). You balance that out by eating "cool" foods and drinks such as certain herbs, vegetables and yes, also beer. I never studied TCM, but have gained a certain understanding that everything in the body needs to be balanced out. What it comes down to is harmony, not good or evil.
What Lucas MAY have meant is that "good" and "evil" need to coexist, not one rule over the other. So the Sith may not be the "absolute evil" many thought them to be, IF all that Yin-Yang concept were to make any sense at all.

 

The Force is in balance when neither side has an advantage. When the Sith take over the galaxy, that disrupts the balance.

"As evil begins to take over, it pushes the Force out of balance."

--George Lucas, AOTC DVD Commentary.

The film is ultimately about the dark side and the light side, and those sides are designed around compassion and greed. The issue of greed, of getting things and owning things and having things and not being able to let go of things, is the opposite of compassion—of not thinking of yourself all the time. These are the two sides—the good force and the bad force. They're the simplest parts of a complex cosmic construction."

--George Lucas, Time Magazine article, 1999

"If good and evil are mixed things become blurred - there is nothing between good and evil, everything is gray. In each of us we to have balance these emotions, and in the Star Wars saga the most important point is balance, balance between everything. It is dangerous to lose this. In The Phantom Menace one of the Jedi Council already knows the balance of The Force is starting to slip, and will slip further. It is obvious to this person that The Sith are going to destroy this balance. On the other hand a prediction which is referred to states someone will replace the balance in the future. At the right time a balance may again be created, but presently it is being eroded by dark forces."

--George Lucas, Cut Magazine Interview, 1999.

"The dark side is always there. It is experienced daily by people. It is like a huge cancer, alive, festering—both a reminder of a moral state and, at the same time, symptom and symbol of a very sick society."

--George Lucas, “The Mythology of Star Wars,” Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth DVD, 2001.

 

This is exactly where I disagree! Oh...... I'm agnostic . And so?

 

I really don't see how it's Obi-Wan. While he was a key ally in bringing back balance, he wasn't one of the absolute keys.
It's either Anakin, Luke, or Rey. You could make an argument for all 3. I see Anakin as the Chosen One because George does and I'm pretty sure most Disney canon sources describe him as such (as does Legends).

 

Unfortunately this isn’t a real George Lucas quote. I’ve watched “The Mythology of Star Wars” and nothing of the sort is said in it. The alleged quote above appears to be a bastardization of a passage from Donald Richie’s 1965 book The Films of Akira Kurosawa concerning the film Drunken Angel :

“This pond becomes the center of the film, its core, and on its banks occurs the anecdote. Dangerous, filled with disease, it is experienced daily by the hundreds and thousands who live around it. It is like a huge cancer, alive, bubbling - both a reminder of a moral state and, at the same time, symptom and symbol of a very sick society.”

The original quote had nothing to do with Star Wars at all.

 

It doesn't matter what you believe in, with regards to religion. The point is that these beliefs are part of the narrative in both religious stories and myths. In developing the six films that he worked on, Lucas had an interest in dealing with those themes. His view is that there is a universal power that shapes things. Within that power, are people who can manipulate it on a larger scale. But it takes one specific group to manipulate it to the point that it throws everything into chaos. Saw Gurrera is an example of that imbalance. Here is a good man who has been corrupted by the dark side. He isn't Force sensitive, but he is affected none the less. He has become angry and hateful, due to the Clone Wars and then the rise of the Empire. He has done questionable things under the pretense of being a good guy. The morally gray nature is the thing that drives the imbalance. It is evil thinking it is good and good doing evil in the belief that it is good.

 

And the death of his sister probably didn't help.

 

That's implied by the war.

 

What does that got to do with anything? Star Wars doesn't cease to be a morality tale just because some people are amoral.

It is what it is, irrespective of anyone's philosophy, beliefs and point of view. An onion doesn't cease to have layers within just because you refuse to peel it.

 

^ That's right, SW is like ogres. And parfait. Anybody want parfait?

 

Now that's something I haven't eaten in a long time... a long time.

 

OK, I'll make this short: I don't care. Lucas may have tried to teach his own views of morality, which I as the viewer will choose to take or leave. It's a movie, and that's it. I certainly won't get into any discussions about god. End of story!

 

You don't have to care. That's irrelevant. You not caring is one thing, you claiming that there's no underlying message, belief or philosophy in the movies, or that it's not to be taken seriously, is something else entirely. Something easily disproven.

 

It isn't about God. It's about concepts of good and evil, some of which tie into religious beliefs. The Saga isn't like "Left Behind" or "God's Not Dead", that argue about the existence of God. What it has always been about is a universe that did have a religious belief system, but said religion was difficult for outsiders to understand. The Clone Wars was originally The Holy War Of 06. The Force was discovered by a holy man, who passed his teachings onto his children. "Star Wars", like "Star Trek", is about the human condition. They both explore what it means to be one, but have differing approaches. You don't have to look for deeper meaning, but don't get all in a huff when it's discussed and proven with facts.

Yes, because Kasden was the one who was reading up on it prior to being hired to write TSEB.

 

So, are you trying to convince me that Lucas tried to push HIS belief system or religious agenda on the audience instead of just make an entertaining movie for all ages?
Before TPM he certainly wasn't. It's the "missing your mother is bad - missing anyone leads to the dark side - you should not be a Jedi bla bla bla...." stuff in TPM when things and SW philosophy gets "slightly" dodgy. Scrap the non-attachment stuff, Jedi's cold and inhumane dogma and SW would have been much better for it.
What's the message here anyway? TPM was made mainly for kids and the younger generation. What kind of moral values was he trying to give them by "don't miss your mother", or when someone dies "mourn them not miss them not but rejoice"? VERY questionable indoctrinating small kids with this ideology, and in fact actually dangerous and traumatizing. Again, somehow the word "brainwashing" comes to mind once again.
And all Jedi turning a cold shoulder to Anakin's fears and a blind eye to practically everything that was going on around them, when Sidious is the only one who would listen? No wonder HE was the one who became Emperor!

 

Lucas was the Emperor since A New Hope.

 

BILL MOYERS: "What do you make of the fact that so many people have interpreted your work as being profoundly religious?"

GEORGE LUCAS: "I don't see Star Wars as profoundly religious. I see Star Wars as taking all the issues that religion represents and trying to distill them down into a more modern and easily accessible construct--that there is a greater mystery out there. I remember when I was 10 years old, I asked my mother, "If there's only one God, why are there so many religions?" I've been pondering that question ever since, and the conclusion I've come to is that all the religions are true."

MOYERS: "Is one religion as good as another?"

LUCAS: "I would say so. Religion is basically a container for faith. And faith in our culture, our world and on a larger issue, the mystical level--which is God, what one might describe as a supernatural, or the things that we can't explain--is a very important part of what allows us to remain stable, remain balanced."

MOYERS: "One explanation for the popularity of Star Wars when it appeared is that by the end of the 1970s, the hunger for spiritual experience was no longer being satisfied sufficiently by the traditional vessels of faith."

LUCAS: "I put the Force into the movie in order to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people--more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery. Not having enough interest in the mysteries of life to ask the question, "Is there a God or is there not a God?"--that is for me the worst thing that can happen. I think you should have an opinion about that. Or you should be saying, "I'm looking. I'm very curious about this, and I am going to continue to look until I can find an answer, and if I can't find an answer, then I'll die trying." I think it's important to have a belief system and to have faith."

MOYERS:"Do you have an opinion, or are you looking?"

LUCAS:"I think there is a God. No question. What that God is or what we know about that God, I'm not sure. The one thing I know about life and about the human race is that we've always tried to construct some kind of context for the unknown. Even the cavemen thought they had it figured out. I would say that cavemen understood on a scale of about 1. Now we've made it up to about 5. The only thing that most people don't realize is the scale goes to 1 million."

MOYERS: "The central ethic of our culture has been the Bible. Like your stories, it's about the fall, wandering, redemption, return. But the Bible no longer occupies that central place in our culture today. Young people in particular are turning to movies for their inspiration, not to organized religion."

LUCAS: "Well, I hope that doesn't end up being the course this whole thing takes, because I think there's definitely a place for organized religion. I would hate to find ourselves in a completely secular world where entertainment was passing for some kind of religious experience."

MOYERS: "You said you put the Force into Star Wars because you wanted us to think on these things. Some people have traced the notion of the Force to Eastern views of God--particularly Buddhist--as a vast reservoir of energy that is the ground of all of our being. Was that conscious?"

LUCAS: "I guess it's more specific in Buddhism, but it is a notion that's been around before that. When I wrote the first Star Wars, I had to come up with a whole cosmology: What do people believe in? I had to do something that was relevant, something that imitated a belief system that has been around for thousands of years, and that most people on the planet, one way or another, have some kind of connection to.I didn't want to invent a religion. I wanted to try to explain in a different way the religions that have already existed. I wanted to express it all."

MOYERS: "You're creating a new myth?"

LUCAS:"I'm telling an old myth in a new way. Each society takes that myth and retells it in a different way, which relates to the particular environment they live in. The motif is the same. It's just that it gets localized. As it turns out, I'm localizing it for the planet. I guess I'm localizing it for the end of the millennium more than I am for any particular place."

--Time Magazine interview, 2002.

The message is to care about your loved ones, but be willing to accept personal loss.

"This is obviously a very pivotal scene for Anakin because this is reuniting with his mother and his youth and at the same time dealing with his inability to let go of his emotions and allow himself to accept the inevitable. The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can't hold onto things which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn't willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he'd have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn't have this particular connection as strong as it is and he'd have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them. But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he's been prepping for this, but that's the one where he's sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate."

--George Lucas, AOTC DVD Commentary.

"The scene in the garage here, we begin to see that what he's really upset about is the fact that he's not powerful enough. That if he had more power, he could've kept his mother. He could've saved her and she could've been in his life. That relationship could've stayed there if he'd have been just powerful enough. He's greedy in that he wants to keep his mother around, he's greedy in that he wants to become more powerful in order to control things in order to keep the things around that he wants. There's a lot of connections here with the beginning of him sliding into the dark side. And it also shows his jealousy and anger at Obi-Wan and blaming everyone else for his inability to be as powerful as he wants to be, which he hears that he will be, so here he sort of lays out his ambition and you'll see later on his ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku's. He says "I will become more powerful than every Jedi." And you'll hear later on Dooku will say "I have become more powerful than any Jedi." So you're going start to see everybody saying the same thing. And Dooku is kind of the fallen Jedi who was converted to the dark side because the other Sith Lord didn't have time to start from scratch, and so we can see that that's where this is going to lead which is that it is possible for a Jedi to be converted. It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful, and control things. Because of that, and because he was unwilling to let go of his mother, because he was so attached to her, he committed this terrible revenge on the Tusken Raiders."

--George Lucas, AOTC DVD Commentary.

"The key part of this scene ultimately is Anakin saying "I'm not going to let this happen again." We're cementing his determination to become the most powerful Jedi. The only way you can really do that is to go to the dark side because the dark side is more powerful. If you want the ultimate power you really have to go to the stronger side which is the dark side, but ultimately it would be your undoing. But it's that need for power and the need for power in order to satisfy your greed to keep things and to not let go of things and to allow the natural course of life to go on, which is that things come and go, and to be able to accept the changes that happen around you and not want to keep moments forever frozen in time."

--George Lucas, AOTC DVD Commentary.

"One of the problems of Sith is that they are always quick to anger. This scene with her it was very important that we set it up to the point where he chokes her as he does with one of the generals in ANH. But at the same time he doesn’t kill her and he just causes her to faint but you get to see that flash of anger which he now doesn’t have much control over. The whole point in a Jedi is that you can completely control your anger and now he’s at a point where he cant control it at all and its because of his need for his control for power and he gets very upset when he can't have it. And now he’s assuming that she’s with Obi-Wan, not necessarily in a love relationship or anything, in the basis that they are both on one side of the path and he’s going down the other."

--George Lucas, ROTS DVD Commentary.

"The thing that breaks Padme's heart in the end is the fact that Anakin says to her, 'Come and join me. I have all the power now. I can rule the universe and you can do it with me.' So the idea of saving her life has become a minor issue. And that's when she says, 'Wait a minute. This is not what I want and you're not the guy I fell in love with!'"

--George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith; page 52.

"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.

"It's about a good boy who was loving and had exceptional powers, but how that eventually corrupted him and how he confused possessive love with compassionate love. That happens in Episode II: Regardless of how his mother died, Jedis are not supposed to take vengeance. And that's why they say he was too old to be a Jedi, because he made his emotional connections. His undoing is that he loveth too much."

--George Lucas, Rolling Stone Magazine Interview; June 2005.

 

Great post Sinister. I will say that there is some level of uncomfortableness within me with the idea that having parents is "bad" for jedi. I definitely like almost everything about the story, and possessive love is definitely Anakin's downfall and that makes sense to me, but i feel like if they trained 18 year olds as apposed to 3 or 5 year olds that should go well. Training them to change what they can, accept what they cannot and know the difference shouldn't require the removal of parental figures.

 

The reason they trained kids was attachments to family and friends, which included parents. So once the Jedi went this route, parents became part of the no attachments. Before then, they trained from any age.