More Sith-Bashing

I’ve been getting a lot of flak for saying that “Revenge of the Sith” was for the most part a steaming pile, but it seems I’m in good company. Although my review focused more on the movie’s failure to adequately complete the story, I’m glad to see that others noticed the absurdity of Obi-Wan’s “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” remark. Take this excerpt from the article “No Faith in This Force” by Orson Scott Card (yes, that guy who wrote “Ender’s Game”):

But in a pivotal scene, Obi-Wan says what amounts to the same thing: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”

Isn’t that odd? The only thing both sides agree on is that people who believe in absolute good and evil are bad!

I suspect that Lucas realized, after writing "Good is a point of view," that all his friends actually believed that. So he had to make it clear that moral relativism was the right way after all—so he had Obi-Wan say that absolutism was a Sith thing, even though in the actual story, the best of the Jedis show an unbending commitment to absolute Good.

It’s a terrible thing, I suppose, for a writer to invent a religion and then discover that he and all his friends are on the wrong side of it.

Read his full article here.

Also worth reading is this blog post, which I have commented on. Notable among his complaints against the film is “Anakin’s unbelievable, immediate shift from doubt to disgust to obedience.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

Comments

[AllyKatt]

i am glad i am not the only one who got a nagging sense of "moral relativism" from the latest 3 in the star wars series.

i find myself more pretending that there were only 3 movies these days, after wasting countless hours in lines for the new ones.

it is nice to see that you were blogging, i think of you often lately. my return to the church, marriage and kids have me thinking back to a lot of people i didn't appreciate when i had them around me.

drop me a line sometime, if you are so inclined. i would love for our kids to meet, and to discuss theology and/or politics of the world with you, now that we are back on common ground.

[Jerry Bray]

Hi Dave,

This is your old library buddy, jerry bray. I'm down in texas teaching special ed nowadays. I hope everything is going fine. I am extremely( HA Ha) dismayed that your not down with my man mr Eko on lost. he's my favorite character. He killed two of the "others" all by himself, using a rock no less!! That should make up for any theological faux pas don't you think. And i think his scripture/Jesus stick is cool. Anyway, drop me a line sometime. jerry