What JEDI Used To Be

#obiwan #yoda #starwars

Why are Jedi so much more compelling and iconic than any iteration of the MAGICAL WARRIOR FACTION TROPE before or since?

Special Thanks to ANALYSIS FRIENDS!
And thanks to Squircle’s mom too!

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Edited by Tori R. @pinkerhero & FourSecondss

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0:00 - Framing the question
1:36 - Obi Wan 1st scenes
6:05 - Faction Trope Explained
10:16 - THE FORCE
13:45 - Yoda (questions)
21:16 - Yoda (answers)
25:00 - Theme(s) of Star Wars
31:20 - Answering final questions

[Wax_Man]

27:22 that’s why I love the Gandalf quote, “Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”

[casualfanatic]

Just started the video and already the analogy of “If you focus on how stupid a vinegar cupcake is, you forget how to make a good cupcake” calls out Star Wars discourse perfectly.

[Krystalmyth]

When Luke tries to look for Yoda, his expectations were to find a warrior, a powerful warrior, one who taught Obi-wan in his prime. Luke was expecting a champion, and found something what to his eyes was small, weak, aloof... too lost themselves to ever help him become a Jedi. Obi-Wan and Yoda showed the audience that being a Jedi, went much farther than being someone that could do amazing things with a sword. A lesson Luke failed in the cave, and only succeeded the moment he threw his sword aside to save his father. That was the moment Luke became a Jedi Master.

[undisclosedmusic]

…but you're so vinegary, like a cupcake

[varptm]

That vinegar analogy sums up most media “deconstruction” online, most people don’t even know what what the standard is they just know the extreme

[cloak]

"Why is this a more compelling way to do power progression?"
Andor: "Power doesn't panic."

[AdamSmith-jblf]

When I realised what you were getting at with the “Everything is the same” point, I actually paused the video and paced around my house for a few minutes, it blew my mind so much.

If you can lift a rock, you can lift a plane. If Vader can turn to the dark side, you can too. Luke needed to learn That lesson, and when he didn’t, Yoda was terrified that he’d go to Vader and turn evil.

[sakurap]

Everything comes together in the end. Ben not being afraid of death. Yoda pulling the ship out of the swamp. Luke bringing his weapons with him into the cave and facing his fears of becoming Vader. It all comes together when he faces Vader for real and he finally gets it.

[Entias]

I don't like vinegar. It's thin, and viscous, and sticky, and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything's soft...and smooth

[FattyMcFox]

Obiwan always struck me as "Powerful, wise, important, but understated and kind" which was something that I at the age didn't have and had never seen. No pomp, no dramatic lighting, just a kind greeting. I didn't realize it at the time, but i thought something akin to what you articulated so well here.

[ben-asinus]

I think the best quote about Jedi is "I miss… the idea of it. But not the truth, the weakness. “. Obi Wan Kenobi represent the best version of this idea of it. But even he failed when he was younger. And that's ok. No one is that perfect as Jedi want to be.

[patrickholt]

I love obi wan’s hut. I love his line about how the Jedi were the guardians of peace. The second they are gone someone gets to work on a mobile super weapon.

[neilhannan]

A Jedi is never lonely they live on compassion, and they live on helping people and people live them and they can love them back but when that person dies they let go those that cannot let go become miserable that the lonely place
-George Lucas

[e.l.norton]

The cave scene is obvious. When Luke asks what's in there, Yoda tells him "Only what you bring with you." Luke is bringing HIS fear, his anger, his hate, his impulsivity, his quickness to fight in there with him. He isn't confronting Vader. The figure of Vader is his fear and his object of anger and hate manifest. His real enemy is himself and the weaknesses and flaws he brought in there with him, hence seeing his own face in the form of his enemy.

[cassiopeiasfire]

I'm thinking about Andor now, because it's the only post-OG Star Wars that I can unhesitatingly say I love, and I think the key to that is: it's an entirely different story. It's set in the same universe, but thematically Andor is its own thing. [only light spoilers for Andor below]

And the complete lack of Jedi in it highlights this. The basic thematic question of Andor is "why do ordinary people get involved in revolution?" but not just that, "why do people who don't have magic or destiny or legacy, who are weak and scared, who have other priorities, people they care about, who care about their own lives more than the ideal of heroism... why would they join a blatantly impossible fight that will almost certainly kill them?" And this is where Andor being a prequel, surprisingly, works: we know Cassian will die in this fight before it's over, so why does it matter anyway?

The story explores this through all of its characters. None of them are at ease with the Rebellion. Cassian doesn't care. Luthen is tormented. Mon Mothma is afraid and estranged from her family. Lonnie wants to quit. Vel's scared for her girlfriend. And we see this mirrored with our antagonists, why these normal people choose to fight for the Empire.

The setting establishes the challenge: the Empire is more obviously omnipotent than in Luke's time. We see how small our characters are, the Rebellion barely even exists, a small squad of rent-a-cops is enough to endanger our heroes, they can get imprisoned for just walking down the street. And we ground all this in very real nightmares from our own world (the prison industrial complex, colonialism, the everyday creep of totalitarianism) that we so often feel helpless to stop. There is no outside of the Empire, there's nowhere at all to run.

All this gives us a setup very different from the OG Star Wars. You don't get to choose the fight based on your own ambition and recklessness, you're born into this nightmare with everyone else. There's no clear path to empowerment, there's just running from the fight until you admit to yourself that you can't escape it at all. And it's very unclear yet if your moral choices matter on a cosmic scale at all, all you have right now is a feeling.

But that feeling is enough. That's the thing I find so beautifully inspiring about Andor (why Kino is maybe my favorite character) is that deep feeling that's created that it does matter. Not because of eventual success and galactic liberation, tho we know that with the efforts of many many people that will happen. But in the act of choosing to resist, in accepting the fight, running towards our fear rather than away from it, we liberate ourselves. We can love authentically and feel connection and fight together for however many moments we have, at peace with our eventual demise, because we've chosen not survival but life.

And maybe that is a thematic connection with the OT, but it arrives there by a very different path. I love them both (and this video was beautiful, helped me continue to reignite my love of the old movies and understand why they matter), but the time I've found them both does feel apt developmentally for me. The OG movies were aspirational when I was young, the Jedi were a beautiful ideal of peace and justice I could look forward to developing in myself. And I have grown, and I still find that ideal valuable. But Andor, I relate to on a more visceral and adult level. Because it *feels* like our world today, in its overwhelming terror and faint yet necessary hope. It doesn't feel like I can change the whole world, and reaching for that can actually be damaging for me at times. But choosing to fight, choosing peace with the horror of the world as it is and facing it the best I can, not because of any guaranteed outcome but because it's the best way to live... yeah, that is what Luke chooses too, but down in the mundane dirt of Andor, it's easier for me to feel.

[hazza]

Starwars video be catching me off guard

[MaxxusDrago]

First minutes and you're already extremely coherent. That's why you're one of my favorite analysis channels, schnee. Not only are your analysis good, but the way you frame and observe everything is really logical and empathetic.

[AmazingMrMe]

Quick comment but in the OT (and PT as well actually) there isnt a single mention of the light side. The original vision is that The Force, is inherently balanced and Jedi serve rhe balance, the Darkside is distorting the force to your own goals and unbalancing it.

Kinda wild that there was no light side for so long but we sorta assume and create dichitomies where none is found in the source

[blackshard]

"Have you ever considered the fact that Yoda might be an apex predator?" 🤣🤣🤣

[andre]

I think for Yoda's perplexing teaching it would be helpful to consider some Zen-Buddhist philosophy / teaching methods. In the west, we operate on the assumption that everything can be taught and understood on an intellectual level, where this is not the case in Buddhism. That certain truths can only be gained through direct experiences, and often these experiences are impossible with our preconceived notions. Setting Luke up to fail, in this context, makes perfect sense. Luke is holding on to preconceived notions that need to be removed before he can experience the truth of the Force. Whatever the flaws of Last Jedi, this line is pure Yoda "The greatest teacher, failure is."