Actually, he does. He's good at stuff, but more important is knowing what to do and what not to do, which is for all intents and purposes, moral grounding. Anakin has none of that. He thinks winning some fights entitles him, or else having a certain amount of power entitles him to rank and honors, and he refuses to trust anyone's judgement and acts on his own emotional impulses. He was not driven to the Dark Side by the Jedi's mistrust, he was mistrusted for the qualities that led him to embrace the Dark Side. He was ruled by his fear, as Yoda warned in their first encounter, which led to some incredibly horrible decisions.

Yes on the last sentence, but I think we'll have to agree to disagree on what exactly they set up. I think the prequels do an excellent job of showing the transformation of a genuinely nice & generous little kid into a monster. How many mainstream or commercially successful works can ANYONE name that do that? They also do a good job of showing you the qualities he once possessed that make his redemption at the end plausible, and why the sudden discovery of the survival of his son would open him up to that.


The Force is not some inert energy source that passively does what you tell it to; the Masters in both trilogies always stress the guiding aspect, and the insights granted by it. The way to master the Force is not through lightsaber drills and lifting bigger and bigger things to increase your strength, or devising complex techniques to utilize the energy (like, for example, the One Power of WoT), it is through meditation and self-mastery. Notice how few practical skills we see Yoda teaching Luke, yet he almost manages to fight Vader straight-up for a little bit, from being barely able to move his lightsaber to his hand at the beginning of the movie. I think after the ass-whupping he got from Vader, he took a lot of time for self-examination and working on where he went wrong, and mastered his abilities that way.


You probably don't.
Yes, kill & convert them. Not briefly choke them so they'll let him pass to be dealt with by their bosses.
Come on, Ryan. You need to actually pay attention to the Force stuff. It has to do with how and why you use the Force. Using it to guide a torpedo has no implications in and of itself. Using the Force to destroy a space station aiming its planet-destroying gun at all your friends is a morally good action and completely justifiable. Abruptly stabbing an old guy sitting passively in his chair, when they are all going to be blown up soon, and without a chance of affecting the outcome of the battle with his friends, is way more Dark-sidey.

Basically, Luke is in the clear in Jabba's palace, because he was on a rescue mission and gave Jabba every chance to resolve matters peacefully. He only turned to the Force when they initiated his execution. Assassinating a guy is a whole other kettle of fish. That entire scene in the Emperor's throne room was NOT about the lightsaber duel. Yes, it was cool to watch, but the duel was merely the setting for the moral conflict between Luke and Vader. Vader and the Emperor were both trying to play Luke and make him their Sith apprentice and turn him against the other, while Luke was trying to turn Vader from the Emperor. That's why he threw aside his lightsaber and defied the Emperor - that was his final victory and the reason the Emperor finally tried to kill him: he had won the spiritual fight, had found his moral high ground from which to resist the Dark Side's blandishments and was no longer a potentially useful minion. "A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never attack." Obviously Yoda did not mean a Jedi never strikes to kill, or goes on the tactical offensive, but that he never uses the Force to initiate a conflict, even for as good a cause as ridding the galaxy of evil-doers. By using the Force that way, he would just become another dark-sider.

And which one turned to the Dark Side and which one resisted the temptation. QED.

Anakin indiscriminately slaughtered people in their home, with no immediate good or defensive purpose. Luke destroyed a military vessel, full of military personnel, and prevented it from destroying an inhabited planet. Any innocents who may have been aboard were no more his fault than any other circumstance where a military hero destroys an enemy vessel.
He was not taunting, he was refuting the Emperor's claims of his turning.
It's called murder. He should.'Yes. What with them mostly being criminals and other people who were seeking to imprison him and his friends. What should he have done? Let them pursue them all the way back to their ships? He offered them a peaceful resolution, but they all chose to follow the giant slug and laugh at the second attempted murder of him. Once the battle was joined, he was perfectly justified. Even the Geneva Convention admits you don't have to take prisoners in the middle of a battle.
Biggest bullshitter: Ryan Britt. Body count means nothing. A serial rapist, thief and child-pimp might not have a single death on his conscience, but that does not make him better than an ace pilot with dozens of enemy planes shot down, or a military sniper with scores of combat kills. Also, how in the world does Luke have a higher body count than the co-commander of the Alderaan-destroying Death Star? How many temples full of children asking for his help did he slaughter without a word of demurral?