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In light of Gideon's recent re-banning, I thought it interesting that I ran across another person sad enough to write an extensive essay on Star Wars.

The essay can be found here. But I'm posting it in the thread anyway. I don't have to original authors permission to do this, but I don't really think they'll mind. But check the link for sources if you want. Okay, so I was planning to post the essay in the thread like Gideon did with his, but it is waaaaaaaaaay to ****ing long to do that. Goddamn thing is 20 pages and 13,000 words long! So just read it from the link because Holy Fvcking Shit. Heres teh Preface:




This essay needs more recognition be as much as I rip on Gideon its pretty awesome what he did and its just as awesome what this person did. Its alway good to see nerds who love the fanchise enough to put this much passion into it. So Kudos to Katana Gelder.


Here's the thread in which I found it. Its also very interesting and I reccomend it.

So I just finished reading it and it was very interesting. Very well written and a truly fascinating insight into the philosophy of the New Jedi Order and Star Wars. Also interesting in that it spells out the way Vergeres teachings were misunderstood from a meta-textual viewpoint, which was very telling in regards to the decisions later novels took. Unfortunately it seems that now I have to read Traitor at least because man does that book sound like my cup of tea.

Though this essay only strengthens the contempt I have for the Legacy of the Force authors and the decision to 'dumb down' the setting by making Jacen and Vergere into evil Sith. Because it takes a special kind of missing the point to make the morally ambiguous characters into evil lunatics.

So no-ones going to bother to read it? Uuuuuuuurgh, you guys suck so hard!!!!!!!! >::::[

Lol. Why would read an essay on Star Wars of all topics?

That's a level of nerdiness I can't accept.

Because it's really interesting. And it onl takes like 30 minutes to read.

Originally posted by Nephthys
Because it's really interesting. And it onl takes like 30 minutes to read.

Jeez...13000 words/ 20 pages!!!

Okay, so 45 minutes if you're a slow reader. Jegus, its not like you guys have anything better to do or something! I'm sorry for interrupting you as you near curing cancer, god!

It's not the time; it's the subject. Why would I spend even 15 minutes reading an essay on Star Wars when I could be spending that 15 minutes doing something cool?

Oh what, like wanking off to watermelon and KFC!?


You're a neeeeeeeerd too Blax!

p.s. happy b-day.

Originally posted by Nephthys
Okay, so 45 minutes if you're a slow reader. Jegus, its not like you guys have anything better to do or something! I'm sorry for interrupting you as you near curing cancer, god!



People end up wasting time here and there, but they rather feel like they are doing some productive and while doing so become distracted rather than allotting wasted time to read a 20 page 13,000 word essay on Star Wars on a topic that doesn't seem particularly exciting.

Originally posted by Nephthys
So no-ones going to bother to read it? Uuuuuuuurgh, you guys suck so hard!!!!!!!! >::::

I'm sure if the essay's title was:

Why Sidious isn't the most powerful Sith of all time

More of us might be taking some time to read it. Hehehe...

wtfawe

I'm still mad. >:C

Originally posted by Korto Vos
I'm sure if the essay's title was:

Why Sidious isn't the most powerful Sith of all time

More of us might be taking some time to read it. Hehehe...

Noted.

Hmmm, ominous.

Well I read it. (Well, the first half.) (Well, I read roughly the first four pages and then skimmed till the halfway point.) (The point is I tried, okay?)

It has some good points, but the most interesting one (found maybe in the last section?) was about metatextual mistakes. Other authors didn't understand Veregre's position and so misused her, diluting the character entirely. But the basic idea is simple:
We are what we do. For a mythos that deals so much with the ultimate (meaning final) moral standing of a soul (see: Redemption of Darth Vader's Force Ghost) there is an awful lot to be said against the fatalistic deontological position espoused by the films.

(I think I used those philosophical terms correctly?)

Really, the whole shindig shows a general discontentment within the EU about how the Force was originally presented. Both Stover and the people trying to disagree with Stover set out to explore a different universe. This culminates, I think, in Avellone's vision of KotOR II, where we have a protagonist praised wherever he rejects the dogma of the Jedi or the psychosis of the Sith.

And then theres the people who want to keep Star Wars and the Force 'simple' and 'mystified' and f*ck up the intelligent explorations of Stover and co in the process. Its sort of like a giant version of the debate we were having in the other Swtor thread with Peach and Kal.


Does the Dark Side exist?


The thread the the top has some neat discussions in it. Though:



Made me growl, ever so slightly.





Haha, facepalm!

Stover is such a badass.

-------------------------------------------------

"Jacen, to tap deeply into the Unifying Force, we will have to surrender our desire to control events. We will have to unbridle ourselves of words and of thinking, because thoughts, too, are born of the physical world. We must refrain from analyzing the Force, and simply allow the Force to guide us. Our relationship with the Force must be impeccable, without the need to be supported by words or reason. We must carry out the commands of the Force as if they were beyond appeal. And we must do what must be done, no matter who attempts to stand in our way." — Sekot, The Unifying Force

"At the Temple, we teach that the only true mistake a Jedi ever makes is to fail to trust the Force. Jedi do not "figure things out" or "come up with a plan." Such actions are the opposite of what being a Jedi means. We let the Force flow through us, and ride its currents to peace and justice. Most of Jedi training involves learning to trust our instincts, our feelings, as opposed to our intellects. A Jedi must learn to "unthink" a situation, to "unact": to become an empty vessel for the Force to fill with wisdom and action. We feel the truth when we stop analyzing it. The Force acts through us when we surrender all effort. A Jedi does not decide. A Jedi trusts." — Mace Windu, Shatterpoint

Star Wars fans have strange priorities. The philosophy espoused in Traitor only amounts to a complete reimagining of how we see the Force and by extension the entire raison d'etre of the Jedi.

I'll read the essay properly after I read Destiny's Way. I just finished Traitor. My mind was well and truly blown.

(it took me 8 more days to finish the whole series. Awkward.)

Thanks for linking the essay, I loved it. I think the point about two Vergeres (the 'real' one and the one fabricated to sell books and/or misunderstood) is well-made and I think I've made the right decision in not reading beyond the NJO novels.

It would seem like such a waste to have made such enormous strides in philosophy in the NJO and then have none of it mean anything subsequently.

I will go back and read some of the prequel era novels, such as Rogue Planet, Stover's Shatterpoint and Zahn's Outbound Flight