• UlyssesT [he/him]
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    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Speaking of "there needs to be a balance of evil" enlightened centrist bullshit, every single self-described "Grey Jedi" I ever ran into in college, the kind that were Star Wars fans and most of their discussions were "who would win in a fight" fantasy football drafts regarding midi-chlorian count estimates, became some kind of chud afterward, such as working for a military-industrial corporation, a surveillance startup, or even joining the Air Force. pete

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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      8 months ago

      I always hated that grey jedi shit. You cannot use your magic powers to hurt people for your own selfish goals just litte a, as a treat. The whole narrative around the force, at least in the better stories, is that the dark side is inherently corrupting - the more you use magic to hurt people to get what you want, the easier it gets to cross that ethical line.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        The whole narrative around the force, at least in the better stories, is that the dark side is inherently corrupting - the more you use magic to hurt people to get what you want, the easier it gets to cross that ethical line.

        Lucas himself derailed the old thematics of his own franchise when he greenlit the "there is an evil moon and a good moon around a magic planet and the wisest space god decreed that you must have essential evil nutrients or else you get imbalanced" episode of Clone Wars, effectively canonizing "Grey Jedi" bullshit.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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          edit-2
          8 months ago

          This is why it's vital to remember that Maria saved Star Wars in the edit and Lucas didn't even direct Empire or Jedi. Through the magic of fanon and death of the author and contempt for IP law I can just pretend Lucas never said that.

          Plus, Lucas was constantly making up new shit and retconning things. I firmly believe he was just making the story up as he went along.

          But yeah god I hate the "father son daughter" bullshit. Like why the hell would you even do that? It's so dorky and out of place with the entire rest of the story. ; p

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
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      8 months ago

      Every actual "Grey Jedi" in the actual setting is either

      a) A light side user who thinks the space cops are full of shit. (Ashoka, Bindo or b) A dark side user attempting to be all edgy but who is actually full of shit (Kreia)

      • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
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        8 months ago

        Chris Avellone writing Kreia as a Jedi south park contrarian is 100% to blame for the folks UlyssesT is describing lol. Yeah, she's clearly the villain, but these kinds of people were never media literate enough to wrap their heads around that.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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          8 months ago

          "Hmm I think Darth Betrayal has some good points about why doing good things is actually bad!" - a shocking number of media illiterate people down through the years.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
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          8 months ago

          I'd like KOTOR2 and Kreia as a villain character a lot more of more "Grey Jedi" wannabes noticed that she always said their choices were wrong and ultimately was a liar anyway and was fucking everyone over for her personal agenda while dragging all life in the galaxy along with her.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
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        edit-2
        8 months ago

        The space cops are full of shit, but so are the "a balanced amount of atrocities and cruelty for the sake of enlightened self interest is best, actually" dipshits that are effectively like the libertarians of the setting (if they exist in the setting at all): a bogus alternative to the two-party duality that isn't really better.

        If Star Wars had better writing and consistent leftists on the writing team, there'd be room for Liberation Ideology Jedi. Similarly, the wizards in Harry Potter are status quo oligarch assholes running a shadow government and if there was better writing there'd be room for comrade wizards forming communes to make magic available to all.

        • Helmic [he/him]
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          8 months ago

          HP setting's fucking nonsense. literally would only take one wizard to say "hey asswipes, magic is real. here is literally infinite bread. if they try to wipe your memory of this i am literally just going to transform into a fucking bird or something, fly somewhere else, and do it again. let's go kill every world leader."

        • Orannis62 [ze/hir]
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          8 months ago

          If Star Wars had better writing and consistent leftists on the writing team, there'd be room for Liberation Ideology Jedi

          This was apparently the original concept for Qui Gon and it's still supposed to be true in the background that he was like this and the council hated him for it, it just frustratingly never actually showed up in any actual media