The Dark Side

[fencingfrog]

ok people.

i was watching star wars: episode III and i realized the Dark Side always has cooler clothes and cooler weapons. what's up with that? why can't yoda have a double bladed lightsaber? why only the evil guys. i pointed this out to my mom and she just gave me "the look" as if i was going to go evil or something.
do other people agree with me? which side/weapon/clothes do you like best?

[TrainingDummy]

Dark side is coolest looking, no doubt. If I were in SW universe and had force powers (I know, I KNOW!), I would probably reject both. The Jedi Code is a strict and dogmatic approach to morality that encourages that black & white sort of view. Dropouts see the Dark Side as their only other option. Dissent can create new, better ways of thinking, but the Jedi Order always seemed to stifle it. It is important for one with such power to hold him/her self to a moral code, but it should be constantly looked at with critical introspection to make sure it is legit. Yes, I love Star Wars.

[Maester]

General Grievous is cool. I always wished I could marry him, thats how cool he is.

[Black Jeebus]

Yeah, he's so cool he can survive in the near vacuum of space with no problem, cause he's barely a living organism at all. In fact he's more machine than Vader is was. But he still has one hell of a cough. WHY?!

[TrainingDummy]

Well, apparently he has lungs that are human/organic but can survive in hard vacuum. Oh well, Star Wars lets you hear sound in a vacuum, so I guess it's not worth complaining over.

[Go? Fencing?]

I am a light side Jedi.

I'm also a Jedi Archivist; here is my site (still being updated):
http://jediarchive.bkfurman.com/

[Aqua_volans]

i don't like star wars.

[gtmac]

This poll is flawed along with episodes 1-3.

It's not a matter of hating or loving them both or one being better than the other. There can't be a light side without a dark and it's the balance and the ability to recognize each of them that's important.

[Black Jeebus]

Why does there have to a light side and a dark side? That's a rather narrow view of the world isn't it. Kind of intolerant if you ask me.

[fencingfrog]

It's not a matter of hating or loving them both or one being better than the other. There can't be a light side without a dark and it's the balance and the ability to recognize each of them that's important

more of what i meant is which is your personal favorite? and i'm sorry, but the poll is phrased funny. it should be which side do you think has cooler materialistic things. not morals or anything. sorry.

This poll is flawed along with episodes 1-3.

how are episodes 1-3 flawed? and if so, not the others?

[bmcfencer]

Can I be on the gray side?

[Epee_Pox]

Not only is the dark side cooler and more fun, it pays better too.


They even make more from merchandising in this universe. Seriously, after the first movie, were people happily sporting tee-shirts that said "Obi-Wan Lives?" Hardly. I believe the most popular shirt of '77 the one reading "Vader Lives."

[Beowulfman6]

how are episodes 1-3 flawed? and if so, not the others?

Let me count the ways... no I'm tired of bashing on I-III, they aren't even worth it. Better to just pretend they don't exist and were only video-game-induced nightmares.

[VELISARIOS]

The dark side are posers person, they had pride so they had more impresive weapons and clothes. Light side is simple. Light side does not need impresive clothes etc.

[Moses]

Let me count the ways... no I'm tired of bashing on I-III, they aren't even worth it. Better to just pretend they don't exist and were only video-game-induced nightmares.

For those of us who have yet to wear themselves out with complaints...

-Horribly written, clunky dialogue*
-Slow, "Blue's Clues" style reading of horribly written, clunky dialogue
-"Just plain weerd!"(tm) concepts (Midi. Frickin. Clorians. <begins seizing violently>).
-Ugly, suspension-of-disbelief-destroying vehicles**
-"NOOO!" scenes: Two "NOOO!" scenes in Episode III.
-Coughing robots. Don't even try to make excuses!
-Boring, synthetic action sequences which overuse CG images (the "pod race" puts me to sleep faster than a pint of Nyquil(tm))

Ick.

Oh, and I've always that characters in sci-fi and fantasy media tend to look cooler than the 'good guys'.

-Da Mose

*1: Anakin: Are you an Angel? I heard the traders talk about them. They come from the moons of Taneb, I think

*2: That robed guy: The Galactic Republic will be RE-ORGANIZED into the First. GALACTICE. EMPIRE!!!!
/cheers from Senate

...cause, ya know, Senators*** always cheer when the executive decides to reduce them to nominal actors within the government and claim power for himself alone.

**Weapons designer in the real world:

"I must invent a weapons-carrying vehicle. I will give it a low profile so as to minimize the risk of damage from enemy fire, make it quiet so as to minimize detection, and fit it with the latest laser guidance systems to aid its many types of rockets, shells and machine guns. It will use tank treads so as to move across all types of terrain and minimize production costs."

Weapons designer in the Star Wars universe:

"I must invent a weapons-carrying vehicle. It shall be in the form of a giant wheel!! This will ensure that the pilot will be unable to see what is directly in front of him unless he exposes his head to his enemies by leaning to one side. It will be loud, so as to let everyone know its location. It will be open air, so as to expose its operator to all forms of enemy fire, flying insects, radiation and toxic gases! It will be equipped with four large, identical lasers with no guidance system of any kind! It shall have multiple, non-functional metal spikes so as to MAXIMIZE production costs! Just 'cause I can, I will also give it LEGS!"

And what about those swamp people on Naboo? They have explosive balls of energy and hand-held forcefields, yet ride into battle on two legged swamp lizards and use catapults!

***Senators in a senate which also has operative votes of no confidence. I guess it's a Westminster style senate.

[Beowulfman6]

Alright, maybe I haven't completely gotten tired of trashing episode III yet.

Probably one of the biggest things for me is the overuse of cheap CG. Don't get me wrong, CG is a wonderfull tool that can have incredible results when used appropriately and skillfully, but these movies do not do it stillfully or appropriately.

The trend in big movies these days (LOTR too) is to CG everythuing possible. These people think it looks so great, but it doesn't. Watching 2+ hours of almost constant CG makes my brain hurt. If I wanted to see a computer generated world I could just play video games.

In fiction there is a little thing called suspension of disbelief, mentioned by Moses, which I find it realy hard to do with epeisodes II and III (and I have a great immagination).

IMO episodes IV, V, and VI are cinematic genious. Episode I isn't great but isn't a total loss either. Episodes II and III are crap... Total crap... Unbelievable crap... what hapened?

[Phaeton]

I'm not going to start bashing episode I through III based on their cinematographic uselessness, but how the concept of the force, in my opinion, became a lot less beautiful.

In the initial trilogy, the jedi had an allure to them. They were powerful wandering mystics. They were wise and from an era past, warrior monks. Jedi seemed much akin to the wandering powerful aesthetics in many traditions, the galaxies own Baxajuanak.

Even in the expanded universe the New Jedi Order was just attempting to reassemble shards of its past. It wasn't strangled by dogmatic beliefs, individuals seemed much more human. People seemed to be neophyte disciples of a long lost, yet barely reachable teaching. They strained and learned about the force, and it not bring arrogance, stupidity, and blindness to them.

The initial trilogy comes along and Jedi are no longer an enigma. They no longer seem wise, but fallible, strangled by their own cripling fear of emotion. The jedi in episodes 1-3 are not wise, the force is not a wonder, it is an average every day tool of an upper class of a strict sect of individuals who kill the "Dark Side" heretics, and those that belief that it isn't all bad. Look at how the Jedi were fooled. Even though Obi-wan says differently it in episode three, it is obvious that Jedi do see in black and white, good and evil. The greatest flaw of the order.

In the end it is shown that the Light and Dark sides cannot exist seperately, but can be weilded by an individual. Humans have emotions, and it is the intent and how they are used that determines good or evil. In truth, this is why it is good the order was wiped out initialy, without it light and dark would not be brought together into a whole individual, but rather stay in a feigned illusion of duality.

[Epee_Pox]

Forget the bad writing, the bad acting, the pointless over-explanation, and the unmystification of all that was good in the original series.

The REAL reason why 1, 2 and 3 suck donkey is because there is nothing at stake.

A good story, any ripping yarn worth its salt, has two sides with something deeply meaningful to lose.

In the first series, it was people (of various species) fighting for their freedom against other people fighting for power. The enslavement of the galaxy was at stake, and people were dying on both sides.

In the second series, the fighting was over trade relations. Wow. Yawn.

And the bad guys were robots. Wow, there's a lot at stake there. Not like they have lives to lose or anything. Yawn. Oh yeah, in 3 they were clones without identities, just basically fleshly killing machines. Big whoop. Yawn.

The one thing that WAS at stake was Anakin's soul. But he was so weak and easily-led that it was hard to care whether he would go to the dark side or not. It's not as if he even fought against it or tried to resist. Where's the dramatic tension?

That complete and utter absence of anything at stake, anything worth fighting over, and anything of value being risked, is what makes the 1-3 series so bad.

[Black Jeebus]

Interesting bit of trivia. The only thing George Lucas had to do with Ep. V is producing. He didn't hire the new people, he didn't write the script, he didn't do the directing. Any coincidence it's largely regarded as the best one?

[TrainingDummy]

Not a coincidence, and it is the best one. Remember when Lucas made Greedo shoot first in Ep. IV Special Edition? Blasphemy. Putting Hayden Christianson in for David Prowse in the end scene for Return of the Jedi? Heresy.