The Force
While chatting with Fuchi tonight on AIM, we got into a rather rambling discussion about Star Wars that finally got me to sit down and write out my feelings on how the Force works.
Be warned: those of you who like the whole neutral Jedi thing are full of shit and wrong. Sorry.
Basically, what I've come to realize is that what the Jedi are supposed to do is listen to the Force. Qui-Gon was right in this regard. You have to listen to the will of the Force, for good or ill, because the Force is what matters. That's what the Jedi try to do, but like any group of humans (and aliens), they are imperfect and corruptible. The Dark Side is when someone uses the Force for their own aims, not that of the Force. This is why the Dark Side is so dangerous... it plays off the natural inclination to control. It feeds off your emotions. You have this power, but you must only use it when it's right to use it.
The Jedi tried to counter this by divorcing themselves from their emotions: essentially becoming robots. As Episode 3 teaches us, this doesn't work. The Jedi were able to hang on for as long as they had by taking potentials as babies and raising them under the Jedi Code. Anakin would have been an okay Jedi if he'd been taken as a kid, but he wasn't. He didn't get that pre-school force-feeding of no-emotion liturgy that all Jedi are subjected to, and as such, he was more easily corrupted by Palpatine. Does this make the Jedi bad? Not really. They made do with what they could. The problem with the Jedi is that they were unable to simply allow themselves to feel... when they let their emotion take over, it turned badly for them, like with Mace Windu.
This is partially why Luke was able to succeed where Vader was not. He wasn't raised to try and supress his own emotions... he had to learn to deal with them and use the Force at the same time, making him a more complete Jedi than his father could ever be. Anakin was forced to adopt the Jedi Code, and clearly stifled under it, as he couldn't just forget being a selfless little boy, full of love and a sense of adventure. Hence why in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Anakin constantly clashed with his Jedi teachings. He knew he was supposed to be better than he was, and instead of dealing with his emotions they built up and caused him to lash out.
Luke's way of learning is obviously more dangerous. With emotions always with you, you are far more susceptible to falling to the Dark Side. However, it would seem that you would end up a more complete Jedi by the end, as Luke seems to be at the end of Return of the Jedi. Ideally, Luke would then be able to let the Force guide him without having to sacrifice the emotional side of being human.
What does this have to do with neutral Jedi? Basically, there's no real middle path. If you're not letting the Force guide you, you're slipping down the path of the Dark Side, which is a corruption of the Force. This one isn't all me... it's Lucas, too, who's said that Vader only fulfills the prophecy at the end of Jedi by killing the Emperor... the balance isn't Dark Side/Light Side, but Light Side period. Using the Force for selfish reasons is throwing the Force out of balance. In this way, all Sith are ultimately corrupters, hence the loss of the Jedi Council's ability to use the Force described in Episode 2.
Rambling? Perhaps, but I've felt that I should write down my feelings on the subject at some point, so here they are.
May the Force be with you.
Be warned: those of you who like the whole neutral Jedi thing are full of shit and wrong. Sorry.
Basically, what I've come to realize is that what the Jedi are supposed to do is listen to the Force. Qui-Gon was right in this regard. You have to listen to the will of the Force, for good or ill, because the Force is what matters. That's what the Jedi try to do, but like any group of humans (and aliens), they are imperfect and corruptible. The Dark Side is when someone uses the Force for their own aims, not that of the Force. This is why the Dark Side is so dangerous... it plays off the natural inclination to control. It feeds off your emotions. You have this power, but you must only use it when it's right to use it.
The Jedi tried to counter this by divorcing themselves from their emotions: essentially becoming robots. As Episode 3 teaches us, this doesn't work. The Jedi were able to hang on for as long as they had by taking potentials as babies and raising them under the Jedi Code. Anakin would have been an okay Jedi if he'd been taken as a kid, but he wasn't. He didn't get that pre-school force-feeding of no-emotion liturgy that all Jedi are subjected to, and as such, he was more easily corrupted by Palpatine. Does this make the Jedi bad? Not really. They made do with what they could. The problem with the Jedi is that they were unable to simply allow themselves to feel... when they let their emotion take over, it turned badly for them, like with Mace Windu.
This is partially why Luke was able to succeed where Vader was not. He wasn't raised to try and supress his own emotions... he had to learn to deal with them and use the Force at the same time, making him a more complete Jedi than his father could ever be. Anakin was forced to adopt the Jedi Code, and clearly stifled under it, as he couldn't just forget being a selfless little boy, full of love and a sense of adventure. Hence why in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Anakin constantly clashed with his Jedi teachings. He knew he was supposed to be better than he was, and instead of dealing with his emotions they built up and caused him to lash out.
Luke's way of learning is obviously more dangerous. With emotions always with you, you are far more susceptible to falling to the Dark Side. However, it would seem that you would end up a more complete Jedi by the end, as Luke seems to be at the end of Return of the Jedi. Ideally, Luke would then be able to let the Force guide him without having to sacrifice the emotional side of being human.
What does this have to do with neutral Jedi? Basically, there's no real middle path. If you're not letting the Force guide you, you're slipping down the path of the Dark Side, which is a corruption of the Force. This one isn't all me... it's Lucas, too, who's said that Vader only fulfills the prophecy at the end of Jedi by killing the Emperor... the balance isn't Dark Side/Light Side, but Light Side period. Using the Force for selfish reasons is throwing the Force out of balance. In this way, all Sith are ultimately corrupters, hence the loss of the Jedi Council's ability to use the Force described in Episode 2.
Rambling? Perhaps, but I've felt that I should write down my feelings on the subject at some point, so here they are.
May the Force be with you.