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Choking as Darkside

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 Rev7
07-12-2008, 2:06 PM
#51
^ I smell some hostility toward pig-like races here.
Agreed. He should probably just take a breather. :chew1
 Kurgan
04-12-2009, 10:50 PM
#52
Stylistically, yes, ROTJ drops this as another of the hints that Luke is "becoming more like Vader" without bashing us over the head and saying "oh no, this is a DARK SIDE POWER!!!"

But otherwise, the main point is that Luke is much more powerful now, and these alien thugs don't intimidate him. Remember also, that as the Prequels hadn't been written yet, we were left to ourselves to imagine what a "real Jedi" would do in such a situation.

Of course, all of Yoda's blather about seeming pacifism (which seems to contradict his idea that Luke needs to "conquer Vader and his Emperor" (what, non-violently? he doesn't bother explaining this to Luke very well, the scenes on Dagobah could be interpreted as just saying he needs to remain calm while killing) is contradicted by his character's own behavior in the Prequels. Apparently the Jedi have no qualms about "kicking butt" and only employ diplomacy when strategically necessary. These aren't guy with codes against killing.

So then the question is, what DOES it mean to "go darkside"? The prequels don't fully answer this, so again it's a big matter of speculation. The EU tries a lot of different explanations, but these two are interpretations and often contradictory.

So since this is a movie and not a video game (or pencil & paper RPG), it's anyone's guess. My guess is that the movies are basically saying that if you have to kill, do it without personal malice. However I realize that this philosophy could be misread to say it was justifying being a "cold blooded killer." This would have been an interesting topic to explore more fully in the other movies, but they really didn't.

As flawed a movie as "Watchmen" was, I think it dealt with the issue (of "good guys" using lethal force and other questionable methods to achieve their ends) much better.

But perhaps we can say Lucas, in leaving it deliberately vague, left more room for this to be the beginning of a discussion of morality and spirituality, rather than hammering us over the head with his "answer." In the Prequels Anakin comes off as a psychotic, more than anything, while Luke comes off in the OT as a good person at heart who gets his emotions toyed with at various times by various people to manipulate him, but ultimately makes his own decision when the time comes, which turns out to be the right one.
 noizer
10-25-2009, 1:31 PM
#53
But in martial arts moves today isnt it possible to stun someone by cutting off most, but not all air?.

i can anwser this since i am a big mixed martial arts fan :thmbup1:

its not cutting of someone's air but stopping the bloodflow to the brains for a few sec that make's someone uncounsious.
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