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This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Welcome to my fully operational

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Star Wars podcast. Thank you for joining me this time out. As I continue my journey towards

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the Ahsoka series, I am discussing Star Wars Episode 3 titled by George Lucas, Revenge

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of the Sith. And this is going to be a casual chat about the movie. I'm not going to go

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in too deep just to kind of talk about the highlights, some things that stood out to

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me. And I'm going to jump right into it. So here we go. I like this movie a lot. I don't

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know if it's the best of the prequels or it's the most enjoyable of the prequels. I still

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think there are problems with it. I think there are problems with all the prequels that

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range in severity. I'm not a prequel hater though. I do like them as a whole. I love

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the story they tell. I just wonder why the story was told the way it was. And in my previous

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two episodes talking about Phantom Menace and Chamber of Sieges and Attack of the Clones,

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I gave reasons why I think Lucas did what he did. And I can appreciate it. But I think

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it really would have been interesting to see this story played out over three movies. If

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we get to see Anakin, the hero of the Republic, the hero of the Clone Wars, the good Jedi,

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the exceptional Jedi Knight, and then we get to see him in his most desperate hour being

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tested and being tempted by the dark side in the rescue of the Chancellor, that would

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be episode two I guess. You could make episode one be Anakin's trials and ascension to knighthood

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and then maybe a little bonus 30 minute adventure after he's a knight. And then episode two

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could have been they have to rescue Palpatine and work through this whole thing and then

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in it you get flashes of him being tempted to use the dark side and fight Dooku and all

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that stuff and then maybe in the third one that's all fall and it's all bad. But that's

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not what Lucas decided to do. That's not what he decided to give us. Instead we start off

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this movie with a weird thing in the opening crawl that says war and there are heroes on

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both sides and stuff like that which is weird because it makes it feel like nuance and it

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almost gives justification to the line later on that from my perspective the Jedi are evil

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and it's odd that you would have that but then again if one of Lucas's points or ideas

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that he wanted to explore is that no villain thinks that they're evil or thinks that they're

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a villain they think that they're a hero they think that they are doing something good.

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I guess that makes sense. How does Anakin justify the slaughter of all the Jedi younglings?

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Maybe because the Jedi are evil and they're raising these children to be evil therefore

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there's no issue in slaughtering them so that they don't become the same kind of evil that

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threatens his wife Padme and that prolongs war. I don't know what the whole package of

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lies that I don't know what it was that Sidious told him. Is it that the Jedi fomented the

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war and planned it or does Anakin know, does Darth Vader know, does he realize that his

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master is the one who started the war who orchestrated this war that took so much from

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him and has brought so much stress and tension to his life separating him from his wife Padme

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and endangering him. I don't know. It's unclear. It's not addressed. You would have to assume

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no and maybe as time goes on he becomes aware that that is the truth and that seeds his

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anger and resentment towards Sidious. But that's a discussion for another movie. It's

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a really interesting movie. I absolutely love the heights of adventure that we get in the

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first bit and up until Palpatine is rescued and I love the fact that it just it drops

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you into a space battle and it's the most action packed most scenery jammed I don't

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know visual spectacle and that's why I thought looking at it this time I thought this is

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a spectacular visual. It's just it's chock full of stuff and it reminded me oddly enough

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of like some time sometimes in Studio Ghibli animation. I can't I feel like I've seen another

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animation but I can't name anything off the top of my head but like there's such attention

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to detail and you're in like a cottage and there's just like hundreds if not well there's

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like hundreds maybe up to like a thousand like tiny little hand drawn items or hand

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drawn details that fill the place and it's really special. It feels really I don't know

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like breathtaking and captivating that like all this attention to detail was put in by

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somebody by somebody or by a team of somebody's who drew each and every one of these little

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things and it's astonishing and I love the idea that you had a whole team of people working

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on all these you know CGI assets. I am pretty sure that scene that we drop into is all computer

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generated there's no practical effects there just because it wouldn't make sense unless

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they're you know compositing ship models or something in which is a you know art in and

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of itself and I think a really good way to use the computer generated effects or imagery

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software so anyway but yeah just it was a dazzling fight you know Coruscant looks amazing

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from up above but then you've got all these you know giant ships fighting next to each

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other you've got all the I think they're called Arc 150s or Arc 170s whatever the pre the

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precursor to the X-Wing with like the you know hawk like nose on it and the wings that

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split with the S-Foils and then the Jedi starfighters which I love the Jedi ships from last movie

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that dock into those those hyperspace rings and we get to see a little bit more of that

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in this movie but we get to see you know Anakin and Obi-Wan flying in these Jedi starfighters

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that they have S-Foil things that fold out too but the shape of them and everything it

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looks like these are pre-tie fighters and they probably even have twin ion engines on

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them don't they huh I thought about that but I think they exactly do have twin ion engines

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if you didn't know that's what tie of tie fighter means twin ion engine fighters why

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they named after their propulsion system I don't know but they are anyway it's not because

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they look like bow ties so anyway we get just this super exciting battle there's the thing

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about you know oddball and his men the clone troopers are having trouble fighting and Anakin

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tells Obi-Wan that he wants to break away and help them and Obi-Wan says no they're

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doing their job so that we can do ours and you can tell that Anakin is pained at the

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prospect of having to leave these men these clones these you know meatbags like all you

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know about them is that they were cloned from Jango Fett who tried to kill Padme you would

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think that Anakin would be mad at them but no something has happened in the last three

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years of this war that has led him to love these guys and care about these guys to the

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point where he would take himself off of the mission for a moment of saving Palpatine to

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rescue some of these clone troopers who you would think would be nothing but flesh droids

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to him that would be meaningless to him but they're not he cares he loves these guys he

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wants to protect them and at Obi-Wan's insistence he lets them go but then Obi-Wan becomes in

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danger and Anakin's focus shifts to doing everything he can to save Obi-Wan and he even

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makes a mistake he accidentally shoots one of those TIE fighter wing panels off of Obi-Wan's

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ship which is pretty hilarious and R2 gets in danger at some point there and Anakin shifts

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his focus away from saving Obi-Wan and saving Palpatine to making sure that R2 is okay they're

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doing a really good job of showing like the camaraderie and the friendship and the high

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adventure but also Anakin's attachment Anakin is so attached to all these people to all

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these different well to all these different people in his life and he's not willing to

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let them go and it's setting us up for the fact that he doesn't want to let Padme go

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and ultimately in the end that's his downfall his refusal to let go when he goes to Yoda

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for advice Yoda tells him learn like to not fear losing people and learn to celebrate

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for those people who become one with the force that sounds great in theory but when it's

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your wife your mother your father your brother your sister who's going to die how good is

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that now I'm a believer I'm a person of faith I believe that when we die we go somewhere

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and we're going somewhere good unless we're you know the most wicked among us and I believe

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that God would be I believe that it really is sort of a better place but I also want

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to live as long as possible like for myself I would want to fight to live as long as possible

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and yes I would want to fight to save the lives of people I love close to me however

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I because of what I believe I believe that this is like all a test right now that we're

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going through and that when we get to the other side that it's going to be well when

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we get to the other side we'll be reunited with these people who we lost and it'll kind

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of it kind of won't matter that we were without them for one month one year a hundred years

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because in the you know in the face of eternity all of that will seem like the blink of an

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eye and it will be basically meaningless and if you're telling me that it's faced with

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the choice of either I don't know it seems like a rejection of his faith a rejection

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of his understanding of the force the ways of the force and all that stuff if Anakin

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can't see past Yoda's like dumb words and Yoda's like like clumsy consolation to him

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and realize yeah you know in the long and short of it or you know when it's all said

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and done even if Padme were to die you know I will lose my love I'll lose my child which

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is super sad but I will live on and I will endure and I will be with them again one day

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in the future and you know we'll be together for all eternity and there's something called

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a short time preference and a long time preference a short time preference I believe I'm saying

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this correctly and I think people accidentally say it the wrong way all the time so I'm tripped

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up by that short time preference is you want instant gratification you want everything

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now you only care about what happens in the immediate future and you don't think about

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what happens in the far off future so what is it easy to do what's it pleasurable to

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do now it's easy and pleasurable to sit on the couch and watch movies any Twinkies and

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drink coke or whatever kind of pop you're interested in however what will that do to

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you in the long term you'll become weak you'll become fat you'll become lazy you'll become

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incapable of doing anything useful for yourself or for others and ultimately it will kill

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you you if you do that and nothing but that you are choosing a life that will kill you

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and if you even indulge in that a little bit you're opening yourself up to that I think

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not that I never relax and eat stuff on the couch while watching something but it's not

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the point of my life and it shouldn't be and I'm teaching that to my children that it shouldn't

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be for them either however if you choose a life of like action and of taking care of

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yourself and of you know health and well-being and vigor and vitality that's you'll have

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long term benefits you'll have short term costs short term suffering short term you

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know pain and inconvenience but ultimately you will be a stronger healthier more resilient

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person when everybody else in the office or school or whatever is getting sick but you're

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eating the proper human diet and you're exercising and taking care of yourself getting enough

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sleep you're going to be fine and you basically have to be able to have the long view and

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have a high time preference where you choose to think about things in terms of how how

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the benefits will actually outweigh the costs versus how you know in the long run which

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is harder to see than how the benefit of watching this and eating that while laying here how

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that outweighs you know that's a much easier thing to say yeah the benefit of doing that

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all now is great for me right now the cost of it it's gonna be pretty high later on but

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that's later on so that's a problem for future me you don't think that way well a wise person

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doesn't think that way and it is foolish and deleterious to one's overall well-being to

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think that way I think Anakin is actually in that frame of mind of having a low time

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preference and I think it's you know destructive and dangerous and I think that's pretty clear

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to see from everything going on here again I don't like the way that Yoda handles the

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situation and I can understand him being like a harsh teacher being a severe teacher and

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you're trying to push the student and maybe Anakin to the point where he should be mature

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enough and like the Jedi you know ethical teachings or whatever philosophical teachings

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should lead him to a place where he knows this intellectually even if he can't accept

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it I don't know what the like emotionally but I know I definitely feel like there's

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something flawed in the Jedi teachings and the Jedi system of instruction but then again

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maybe Anakin is just the one with the flaw and we don't see that because the story is

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told from his perspective and maybe there are hundreds of other Jedi who face things

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similar to Anakin and not fall into the dark side in order to you know prevent a tragedy

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from happening and we we just don't know so I don't know I find it very curious and I

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I don't have an issue thinking that the Jedi are fundamentally flawed and maybe the you

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know arrogance and the shelf self-assuredness that Yoda talked about some of the older you

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know wiser Jedi who should know better having but they don't have it he talked about that

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with Mason Obi-Wan in the hallway in episode 2 maybe that Jedi hubris has led them to a

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point where they're instructing their students poorly because they think yeah we got this

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we're Jedi it's no big deal you just do this and there's like the lack of personal you

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know mentorship and time and attention giving to students who need this sort of thing look

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I'm gonna meditate next to you while I ask you to meditate and learn to let go this moment

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of everything you fear to lose I don't think that works the overall advice I think is good

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but the you know specific advice like you have to tailor anyway if a student fails in

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something there's a saying that it's not that the student has failed it's that the teacher

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has failed the student Obi-Wan later on in the movie tells Anakin I have failed you I

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think that's right I don't think Yoda thinks that he failed Anakin I don't know though

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he didn't say but I feel like Yoda thinks are nothing wrong did I Anakin at fault he

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is and you know yeah Anakin is responsible ultimately for what he chose to do but because

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our actions are what shape us our actions are what make us who we are even more so than

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our background in our upbringing and you know maybe that's why we had as much focus as we

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did on Anakin as a kid and you know Anakin's you know burgeoning romance with Padme in

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the context of him you know not having seen her for 10 years and all this stuff maybe

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all of that is to serve the point or put forward the idea you know push the theme that it's

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our choices that make us who we are and we can choose to be good we can choose to be

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bad we can choose to be selfish we can choose to be selfless and it's up to us to have the

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moral strength and grit and determination to do that and if you're only there's a saying

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it goes something like if you're only good when things are good then you're actually

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not a good person if you're good when things are bad or when things are hard that proves

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that you're actually a good person so if Anakin can only choose to do the right thing do the

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morally right thing when it costs him nothing then how good and sincere is his goodness

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and I don't know in some ways the movie is less about well anyway I don't know it's weird

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like Anakin has to fall to the dark side he has to have this tragic fall which by the

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way this could be entitled Star Wars episode 3 the fall of Anakin Skywalker or the fall

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of the Jedi ooh the fall of the Jedi would be a cool name if we had episode 2 was revenge

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of the Sith or the Sith conspiracy I think is what I called it it's return of the Sith

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is phantom menace in my alternate titling scheme attack of the clones is the Sith conspiracy

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and this could be the fall of the Jedi well those would be cool names anyway but like

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this is the tragic fall or this is the tragedy of Anakin also it could be called the tragedy

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of Anakin Skywalker it's really sad and awful and it's like a warning that you shouldn't

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emulate him in ways that would lead you to make similar decisions or have similar moral

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feelings because of what you fear to lose so yeah I'm not saying Yoda is 100% wrong

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I'm saying overall he's right but again you got to tailor that message to your audience

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if you can't say something to somebody in a way that they will receive it then I think

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you may as well not say anything at all you're better off not saying what you have to say

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because I don't know I think you're just going to turn them against you more and I know it's

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really interesting I have so much to say about this movie but I plan on talking about these

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movies again and again in different ways in these smaller more topical ways as I think

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about them in different contexts so I'm actually going to stop right now and ask that you stick

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around for the rest of these I'm going to do the original trilogy next and then I'll

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be talking about Ahsoka after that until that shows over unless it stinks in which case

198
00:19:36,720 --> 00:20:04,880
I'll drop it right away so until next time folks take care this is MJ signing out