Empire Strikes Back: Jedi Training, Is the Dark Side Stronger?

Luke starts Jedi Training from Master Yoda:

Yoda: "A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the Dark side. Anger, fear, aggression, the Dark side of the force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever it will dominate your destiny. Consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.

Luke: "Vader. Is the dark side stronger?"

Yoda: "No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."

Luke: "How do I know the good side from the bad?"

Yoda: "You will know when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the force for knowledge and defense, never for an attack."

[peterp]

I like Yoda’s urgency in shutting down Luke asking about the Dark Side being stronger.

[coldog.]

Luke: Is the dark side stronger?
Yoda: Ah yes, very strong the dark side is
*Written and Directed by George Lucas*

[Chann]

I guess the right path is easier to identify when you are more calm, at peace, and passive, as the old master said.

[opcfxps]

yoda: “oh hell no, don’t even think about it”

[MrNoUsername]

A jedi uses the force for knowledge and defense, never for attack...

[professorsponge]

What I always thought of the Dark Side is that it is the quick route to power, but it ultimately dominates every aspect of your life and ruins everything you preciously stand for, like how a raging flood will cover everything. turning to it might seem like the best way to achieve a goal but it will always end with pain and suffering, yours, or others.

[kevinyin]

I love that Luke has the courage to ask. Is our evil in fact stronger than our good in spite of what we might hope? Yoda says that it is not, only easier. I wish I knew the fact of the matter.

[Mikazuchireborn]

One of my favourite examples of the Dark path consuming you was in Kotor 1, in the Sith Academy on Korriban. One of the Sith apprentices was a former slave who wanted the power to fight slavery and save others who suffered like her.

By the time you meet her, she's already more than strong enough to free the slaves... but she always feels like she needs more power and simply 'never got around' to freeing the slaves, or helping anyone, or accomplishing any of the things she originally set out to do. It's like talking to an unaware drug-addict who just keeps thinking 'I'll take care of it soon, just need a little more...'.

[FredChristopherHaskins]

Yoda training infers the Light is slower, harder, requires a stronger will?

[BasedHorrigan]

To all who defend the Grey Jedi and ying-yang philosophy of the force

[lemurpotatoes]

Luke asks "why he can't", seeking justifications for his purposes, when Yoda is describing how things are.

[chickbowdrie]

I never forgot how Yoda describes the Dark Side: "Quicker, easier, more seductive..."
How true that is of the sensual, easy way of life that so draws us down a selfish, evil path.

[DarkAdonisVyers]

You know what else is quicker, easier, and more seductive? Fast food. But guess what? That sells more than those health nut super foods.

[nossenkanter]

"That's where Yoda was wrong. It wasn't easier." - Darth Vader 😢

[astrahcat]

So, the dark side being busier, quicker and more seductive, the dark side in a way is kind of like Star Wars profit.

[Captainkebbles]

Key detail, Yoda still treats any curiosity of the Dark side as to be forbidden, the key ironically tho for Luke beating Vader was to fall to it, but be able to pull back (Lucas has confirmed in commentary that Luke does give himself to the Dark side in the NEVER scene) what Yoda doesn't want to accept tho, is that teaching young Jedi about it would have made better prepared them for its temptations. Yoda just says "it's bad and the weak way"

Windew for example useing a very aggressive style that uses ones dark side energies against them (hence why in the deleted fight, anakin beats him because ani isnt evil, he just is scared and trying to protect someone he thinks is a friend)

[abstraction]

0:34 this aged well and has plagued humanity for a long long time.

[joshuaweston]

Empire still remains the cream of the crop!

[dxfan]

"your mind is like this water, my friend, when it's agitated, it becomes difficult to see, but if you allow it to settle.... the answer becomes clear"

Seriously though, for the moment in a fight, the dark side seems like a good idea but acting solely on your impulses will ultimately be your downfall, thus a more focused mind will prevail. The problem, I think, was the Jedi were so mindful of the dark side that they refused to even look into it closely enough and developed a very dogmatic, simplistic view and many Sith were former Jedi themselves. Plus, the Sith learned from the past and made the 'Rule of Two' since they were killing themselves as much as they were the Jedi before, allowing them to both continue and stay as secretive as they needed. Like Luke said in the last film, the Jedi had to end, or at least change.

[Enterthemind]

The dark side is VERY self destructive. It prevents jedi from seeing his/her flaws.