www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall the latest Star Wars movie

Darth Vader is bad but Anakin is good. Sure, he turned to the dark side but look at his reason to do so. He thought that he would do something good not something horribly awful.
-Katie g

Agreed. Two things I like most about the Star Wars movies are that they make a sharp distinction between good evil and they clearly exalt goodness.

We need more of that in today's entertainment and popular culture. We need quality, moral entetainment. And when that is put into a well-crafted, entertaining story, the public responds with lots of business and approval.

I just don't understand why there isn't more quality moral entertainment. When it is presented, it sells well. Even if the Hollywood people don't care about their immortal souls, they do care about their bank accounts. They make every kind of filth, appealing to the basest passions, in order to make money. Why, then, don't they make other product that sells well: quality, moral entertainment?


I think you are exactly right. The rest (East Asian religions, martial arts, etc.) is added in, but I think 'the hero's quest' is the core of this story.

I agree with your post, Annie_SFO. In addition to the theme of 'the hero's quest', I think Lucas tried to make his Star Wars movies to hearken back to the days of serial movie shows like "Flash Gordon." It was good, clean, enteraing fun with lots of action.

I enjoy the spiritual dimension to the Star Wars movies too. Much of it is special effects, etc., but at least those movies *mention* higher realities without getting into devil worship, witchcraft or whatnot. And they do so without being preachy or dull. (Although Yoda's German syntax gets a little tiresome after a while.)

I enjoy Eastern philosophy too. I had left the Church for several years, and reading East Asian religious philosophy (Hinduism, Buddhism and a litle Taoism) enabled me to be open to the Gospel again.

--John

Agreed. And his son (Luke) helped him rediscover that fact within himself in the last movie.


Agreed. And that is how so much evil gets started . . .

I agree I too enjoy the Star Wars movies.

My ears just tune in when I hear such things as I posted earlier. It sends up a RED flag in my mind, it says to be CAUTIOUS. Maybe it is just a hang up from when my kids were young. If we cease to be vigilent in the smallest of things sometimes big stuff creeps in and we are caught unaware. I don't mean I go looking in every cornor, but sometimes things just don't seem right, and each time I heard those words that bothered me. But then other than Star Wars I have never been much of a science ficiton buff.

The distinction between good and evil is very clear though, you got that right.

Pani Rose

I saw the 1st three movies - now IV, V, and VI, which led me to the conclusion I reached long ago - he's making this stuff up as he goes along. I hear the new movie has better acting and lines than the earlier ones - it would have to. I remember hearing the charge of new age religion many years ago concerning these movies. But like one of my elementary school students said about the Harry Potter books, "it's not real." In the end, it's only a movie and it's not real, either.

You're kidding, right? He cut off Mace Windu's hand so that Darth Sidious could kill him--and not because he was concerned for Sidious but because he wanted to save his wife. He also slaughtered a room full of helpless children and butchered the seperatist leaders who had already surrendered. There can be no possible reason that legitimises such actions, particularly since Padme would've rather died than have him do those things. I mean, he even attacked his wife in anger. At any time he could have chosen not to do those things.

No matter how nicely Lucas portrays his 'conversion' to evil there is no way you can maintain that Anakin thought good would come of his action. I mean, having discovered that the Dark Lord of the Sith was Supreme Chancellor he would've realised that Palpatine had orchastrated a war which had cost millions of people their lives simply to secure absolute rule for himself. Teaming up with Sidious could only have meant one thing. Anakin knew this and joined with him anyway.

It is never permissible to do what is objectively evil even for a greater good. Thus, to plunge the galaxy into darkness for the sake of a lesser good is just taking the cookie from my vantage point.

Sorry to start a diatribe about this issue but I LOVE STAR WARS. Yes, its pure pantheism but I've been watching this series since before I reverted to Catholicism and well...its cool

Anakin was selfish, nuff said. I empathise with him but I cannot sympathise with him (note the distinction). I understand why he acted as he did, I even feel pity towards him, but there is no way that justifies what he did. Anyone who thinks its worth trading lives (particularly those of innocents) for what they want has pushed the old boat out a little too far in my opinion.

I wouldn't take the Star Wars movies for anything other than simple entertainment. Mainly because the story as a whole (all six movies) doesn't really present a unified vision.

If you watch the first three movies (i.e., the new ones) you see that Anakin's downfall was based on his love for Padme, and a desire to protect her at all costs. In other words, he was willing to do evil in order to save her, even though she would be repulsed by that attitude. So rather than detach himself from his love for her as his Jedi training demanded, he refused to see love as somehow wrong.

Ironically, in the second trilogy (i.e., the original movies) it is Anakin's love for his son that ultimately leads to his destroying the Emperor, simultaneously bringing about his return to the good side of the force.

Clearly, the message of the original movies was a positive message, it was a message of love and redemption, while the new movies send a confused message about the nature of love, which is presented as the cause of Anakin's downfall, and a bizarre notion of good and evil, where only evil deals in absolutes.

As I see it, the overall story (all six movies) presents a confused vision of the meaning of good and evil, and of the importance and place of love in human existence.

hey, just read the works and view the films for what they are. I enjoy all of these genera, whether it by Rawlings, Tolkien, Lewis, Lucas, or whoever. enjoy, and if you can get a few insights, great.
Much Love,
Jonn

hey, just read the works and view the films for what they are. I enjoy all of this genera ;whether it by Rawlings, Tolkien, Lewis, Lucas, or whoever. enjoy, and if you can get a few insights, great.
Much Love,
Jonn

Myles, I think you may have missed it when I said that Anakin is good, Darth Vader isn't good. Anakin didn't kill youndlings or choke his wife that was all Darth Vader. Anakin chopped off Mace's hand but the rest was all Darth Vader. And Anakin was lied to. They all were Anakin Obi-wan Padme they were all lied to. Look at the scene when Anakin walks in on Mace standing over a "helpless" Palpatine. It certainly looks like it did when Anakin killed Dooku and he later said that what he did was wrong so it did kinda look like Mace was the bad guy. I"m not saying Anakin is all good but you have to know that there is a line between Anakin and Darth Vader.

-Katie g

You seem to separate the two sets as somehow exclusive of the other, and not as an entirety as most see it. You would naturally come to the conclusion you have if one were to take the two sets as somehow mutually exclusive of the other, which is not so. The progression can be seen even by merely looking at the titles themselves: Revenge of the Sith shows us the completion of Anakin's downfall towards darkness, while Return of the Jedi shows us his return to goodness, with the help of his son. What they do show is that love can both be constructive as well as destructive, and in Anakin's case it led to his destruction, though slowly he was redeemed by it as well. I would think that partly as well that it was his love for Padme, through Luke, that led him back. There is no confusion in the message about good and evil. Only when you try to isolate one from the other do you come out with such a thinking, but not when you take the series in its entirety.

Just on O'Rielly, a man and woman went to see Star Wars in England and decided to have a light sabor fight. So they put oil in glass tubes and lit it somehow, and proceded to have a "light sabor fight". Both people are in the hospital recovering from their burns and other injuries. OH WELL!

I guess it took some brains to figure that out. But it took a total lack of common sence to do such a stupid thing.

Pani Rose

gee, I'm glad it wasn,t fatal. you would have someone or other proffer the opinion that it would be a prime example of thinning out the herd.oh, according to Voltaire, common sense is not as common as one would think.
Much Love,
Jonn

The Onion Dome has listed some ways to tell if your congregation is Star Wars crazy.
Star Wars [theoniondome.com]