Midterm: Star Wars "Do or do not. There is no try." (Blog 2, Eryn Green)

This has never been more true.  In Star Wars there is a Light side and a Dark side.  You can be either or.  You can't be in the middle.  However, you can convert.

To Qui-Gon Jinn, Anakin was the chosen one.  The prophesy says the chosen one will bring peace to the Force.  But when Anakin was put in front of the Jedi council, Yoda said, "Cloudy the boy's future is."  Luke also asked Yoda about his vision in The Empire Strikes Back if Han and Leia would die on Bespin.  Yoda replied, "Difficult to see.  Always in motion the future is."  This probably indicates that we don't know our future.  The Jedi can see major events in the future, but the actions they choose are what dictate how the future will turn out.  It is the Jedi's free will that determines their future.  Their future is not set in stone (1).

Yoda says these wise words to Anakin who has much fear for his mother's well being.  A Jedi is supposed to take control of his emotions.  Emotions can pull a Jedi to the Dark side.

Anakin is the perfect example for this since he has been the main character throughout the the entire series.

When Anakin finds out that his wife Padme is pregnant, he begins to have compulsive nightmares of Padme dying during childbirth, which makes Anakin terrified of losing the woman he loves.  Finally, in  Revenge Of The Sith, Chancellor Palpatine tells Anakin of Darth Plaugeis.  A dark lord who was able to stop death with the power he gained from the Dark side.

This caught Anakin's attention very quickly.  He wanted to do whatever it took to keep Padme alive like he could not keep his mother.  In Attack Of The Clones, Shmi, Anakin's mother, died while being held hostage by the Sand People on Tatoonie.  Anakin came to rescue her but got to the Sand People's camp site just in time to hear her last words.  Once Shmi died, Anakin began to weep while still holding his mother's body.  Then came his anger.  Anakin wanted revenge.  He did so by killing all of the Sand People at the camp site.  Fear lead to anger, anger lead to hate.

Once Anakin returned to his step-father's home on Tatooine, he was very upset about his mother's death.  He told Padme what he did and she became very disappointed.  Hate lead to suffering.

Here, Anakin helped Chancellor Palpatine kill Master Windu.  Anakin wanted to stay loyal to the Jedi, however, Palpatine's offer was too good for Anakin to pass up.  He decided then to convert to the Dark side to save Padme.  By converting to the Dark side, Anakin became Darth Vader.

Yes, it's that dramatic.  This is an example of free will.

But the Force still seems to have this power of what happens to us and what Jedi and Sith do.  Even though there is free will, the Force still influences many of the decisions made by a Jedi or a Sith.

When Luke had tried to find the good sensed in his father, Darth Vader, Vader replies:

"You don't know the power of the Dark Side, I must obey my master...It's too late for me Son." -- Darth Vader, Return Of The Jedi

Even Qui-Gon Jinn argued that finding Anakin was the will of the Force in The Phantom Menace.  They must act as the Force wills (1).

If this is true, Eberl argues in his book, Star Wars and Philisophy:  More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine, that the only people who are actual "free" are the ones who do not subject themselves to the Force.  After all, Obi-Won said it himself to Luke from A New Hope.

Obi-Won: "Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him."Luke: "You mean it controls your actions?"Obi-Won: "Partially, but it also obeys your commands."

One example Eberl gives is Han Solo, which to me is the best example ever.   In A New Hope, Luke asks Han, "You don't believe in the Force, do you?"  Han replies:

"Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other.  I've seen a lot of strange stuff.  But I've never seen anything to make me believe there is this all powerful "Force" controlling everything.  Cause no mystical energy field controls my destiny.  It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense."

Han aggressively shows his freedom of choice by choosing to save Princess Leia instead of joining the Rebel Alliance in destroying the Death Star.  Even in our world, a man has a choice between making a decision that is good or evil.  St. Augustine says that desire is the foundation of all evil that results from a person's disordered will and describes a person as having an "inordinate desire" when focusing too much on "temporal" things (1).  This perfectly describes Anakin and his love for his mother and Padme.  Even George Lucas said that Anakin has a problem with letting things go (1).

That's why when he lost his mother he vowed to become the most powerful Jedi ever and to learn how to stop death.  This greed allowed Anakin to chose to seek out revenge.

To save the one you love or control the universe?  You can't really control the universe.  There are some politics to that...


References
Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones
Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
Star Wars: A New Hope
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi