Star Wars Discussion

Since I'm in the process of writing a KotOR story, I've given a lot of thought to the philosophies of Jedi and Sith, and I came to the same conclusion. The whole "There is no emotion" and "a Jedi must not have attachments" strikes me as the sort of thing thought up by someone who has no idea how people work, or has any understanding of peoples' basic psychological needs.

"Yes, let's tell people they cannot see their families ever again, that they cannot form any sort of friendship or attachment to others, that the worst thing they can do is fall in love, and that feeling any emotion in any substantial degree is a personal failure. And let's send these people off to fight against unimaginable horrors, and somehow we should expect them not to become psychologically damaged or maladjusted."

The Sith philosophy, on the other hand, is ultra-individualistic with a core of social Darwinism, but how could you ever build any sort of lasting society on pure self-interest? It's the same issue with the Drow in Forgotten Realms - these people would have destroyed each other through power struggles and political intrigues long ago.

Of course, I should point out that these "philosophies" were not really fleshed out much in the original trilogy, with much of it coming from the (now non-canon) Expanded Universe. From what I understand, the whole Jedi idea of "harmony" was loosely based on the Taoist idea of living in harmony with and abiding by the fundamental order of the universe. It's a bit like how the Dude in The Big Lebowksi said "I could be sitting here with just pee stains on my rug." All his problems in that film movie were caused by the fact that he gave into his anger and greed and got himself caught up in events beyond his control. He had been more Dude-like ("The Dude abides") then none of it would have happened.

So really, what the Jedi need in future SW installments is less emotional repression and more Dudeism.