Legacy of Anakin Skywalker and Evil Luke / Exile

From what I know, Lucas considered having a plot line where Luke consumed with rage & anger at the death of Anakin(Darth Vader) kills Palpatine then converts to the Dark Side, becoming what he feared.
This was meant to take place in the 3rd act of ROTJ.
As I posted before on the forum, Luke changes from White to Gray to Black with his outfits in the OT.

TheFettMan

 

Interesting idea about corruption...absolute power corrupts absolutely...since Luke is alone he knows this thought thus why he goes into hiding....

 

Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely... it is far more appropriate to say that power attracts corruptible people. Palpatine did not suddenly become evil because he became emperor, he became emperor because he was corrupt and attempting to further his ambitions. This is something to keep in mind when looking at contemporary politicians. There are some who get involved in politics due to truly noble ideals and a desire to effect change, and there are some that get involved to increase their powerbase.

The difference is between morals and ethics. A moralistic person knows the difference between right and wrong. An ethical person does the right thing.

As a sidenote, there are 3 major ways to tempt someone to do what you want... you can offer them money, you can tempt them with sex or you can threaten them. I am not saying that I would fall to temptation, but it would be nice if someone tried something other than threats once in a while...

 

great thread.. and a captivating read.

something that i don't see posters discuss (not often anyway) is whether or not Vader actually chose to save Luke.
the rule of 2 and the traditional need for apprentice to kill master almost suggests to me that Vader may have simply taken the opportunity to climb the executive ladder.

what he says to Luke after throwing the Emperor (note i didn't say kill.. but thats for other threads lol) and seeing him as a force ghost next to Yoda and Kenobi does negate my thought somewhat... although he was on his death bed and that may have "redeemed" him.

just my silly thoughts.. but the beauty of star wars is how open all this stuff is to interpretation and why the ST speculation is so much fun.

 

While I agree that 'power' doesn't always corrupt...absolute power (at least in humanity) corrupts us. Power is something that comes with great responsibility but when 'absolutes' are added into the equation we are talking about something that is very difficult to discuss. While I agree with your thoughts on an ethical person knowing the difference btw. right and wrong...I also have to ask the question of what about the situations where their is personal decisions to be made.

For example we would both agree that Luke's character is a moral and ethical person, yet when the decision to continue his training or go help his friends/family what decision did he make? In our human situation (Luke's situation as an example on screen) our emotions sometimes override the 'right' or 'correct' decision that should be made. If Luke had stayed and finished up his training it is true that his family and friends may have been killed yet if he had stayed and finished his training...would fewer systems suffered...would all of the people that had died btw. Empire and ROJ need to do so if Luke had stayed?

What lured Vader to the 'darkside'? Absolute Power (though he didn't have the ability to ever actually have it). Vader also tried to do the same in Empire to offer 'absolute power' to Luke to try and turn him. I don't believe in absolute power but the intentions behind the idea of 'absolute power' is what corrupts moralistic, idealistic, and good people.

Governments, Religions, idealogues; all have this one thing in common...they have intentions to better the world that surrounds them; broken as it is...yet when they are given the opportunity to choose between letting people decide on their own or 'decide' for them...they ultimatley fail and seek after 'absolute power'...'control'.

In Luke's situation in Ep. 7 we could see Luke thinking to himself...yes I have to leave because I will always pick my 'family and friends' over what should be done. Thus Luke's hiddeness is to walk away from what he percieves as absolute power being corrupted...in other words the world would be better off without him.

If he is becoming a robot it would show an interesting dynamic between humanity and robots...which has been at the heart of the story from the beginning.

 

What lured Anakin to the dark side was fear... power was just the means he thought would overcome that fear. It's the same story of everyone who got bullied as a child, if I grow up to be big and strong then nobody can hurt me. Alas the demons that he faces were the loss of life itself...

I do agree that it is the moralistic choices that will play out in this episode, and how Han and Leia will react when Luke makes the choice he feels he must.

As for the meaning of a cyborg Luke... the Empire was always meant to represent something cold and mechanized... "more machine than man" This contrasts with the Republic, which was well meaning but naive, in that they trusted that the ethics upon which they were built would be strong enough to overcome the threat of those who would abuse them.

The redemption, then, would be someone who could be humane and Imperial both... someone who was machine, but retained humanity

 

Holy crap... They're all like the worst substitute teachers ever! Has there ever been a good jedi trainer? Yoda had 800 years of experience as a teacher and he couldn't even do it right! We need to unionize these teachers!

Perhaps the sith have a more disciplined course of study.