Didn’t think I’d find myself agreeing with Count Dooku but here I am.
Okay but he’s honestly 100% right.
Wasn’t this addressed though? In the Phantom Menace, Padmé specifically says, “The Republic outlaws slavery-” but Anakins’ mom outright states, “The Republic doesn’t exist out here.” Tatooine’s governing body was the hutt empire, a separate entity from the Republic.
As for Yoda, his edict of the Jedi order being servants rather than rulers meant that while he could challenge policies set by the senate, it was up to his dispatched Jedi Knights to combat the injustice wherever it could be found, but the Jedi did not have police priveledges so they found it very hard to investigate for proof of corruption, only when they witnessed it firsthand would they be able to intervene, specifically so they would avoid a situation like the ending of Revenge of the Sith.
The Hutts were never established in on-screen canon as being separate from the republic, while Tatoonie is implied to be relatively close too Naboo, a confirmed member world. In expanded universe continuity, Tatooine has always been part of the Galactic Republic, regardless of which continuity. Hutt Space was also part of the Galactic Republic in legends, later breaking away following the collapse of the Empire.
Shmi’s comment about the republic not existing on Tatooine is meant to reflect that because it’s not a centre of power or trade, those in the republic takes no notice of it, do nothing for it, and they’re so far away the population never see anything the republic does affecting anything. In essence, they’re on their own, bowing to the criminal cartels just to scrape by.
If you go back and rewatch the prequels without viewing him through the lens of “oh it’s that lovable old frog that teaches Luke and talks silly” prequel Yoda is actually a giant asshole.
“In the novelization, it is made clear that Yoda, being the oldest and most respected member of the Jedi Order, has essentially made it (and its rules) in his own image over the past eight centuries. There is no debate on these rules, there is no dissent permitted, and it is quite clear that membership in the Jedi Council is contingent upon being a meekly agreeable Yoda Yes-Man, which is why Qui-Gon Jinn never made it into the club.
“If Star Wars Episode 3 is a Greek tragedy, then Anakin Skywalker is not its only tragic figure. Yoda, for all his supposed wisdom, preaches the virtue of selflessness not because he believes he should help others, but because that’s the Code. The Code now exists for its own sake, and over the centuries, he’s forgotten why. In Episode 1, Qui-Gon Jinn would obviously like to help Anakin and his mother escape slavery on Tatooine, but it’s beyond his mandate, and he’s breaking the rules to save even one of them. Why is it beyond his mandate? Because the Jedi Order has no particular mandate to help people. Its only mandate is to keep the peace and uphold the Code. That’s Yoda’s Code, and when Anakin asks him what to do about an impending tragedy, he gives the most useless advice in history: “train yourself to let go”. Thanks a lot, Yoda. I ask you how to stop a tragedy and you tell me to just smile and let it happen.
“Of what use is a moral code if it does not tell you to help others? That is a question which Yoda apparently never thought to ask. Even in Episode 5, when Luke wants to go save his friends, Yoda counsels him to let them die. It is advice that Luke ignores, to his credit. Yoda is not an evil person, but he is not a caring person either. For him, morality is not about caring for others, but about simply following the rules.The biggest problem with “blind obedience to rules” as a moral code is that the instant someone loses faith in those rules, the whole house of cards comes crashing down and they literally don’t know right from wrong. In real-life this phenomenon is often referred to as “preacher’s daughter syndrome”, where a girl has been raised with a lifetime of strict preaching without understanding, so when she gets old enough to question authority she promptly gets herself into serious trouble. Yoda obviously never saw Anakin’s fall coming, because after eight centuries of indoctrinating Jedi from infancy, he simply couldn’t imagine a Jedi not having the same blind faith in the rules that he did. Love, jealousy, hate, anger are all emotions, all passions, all paths to the Dark Side, but caring and sympathy are emotions too, and Yoda threw out the baby with the bathwater.” - Michael ‘Darth’ Wong, creator of Stardestroyer.net
Seemed relevant.
Yoda may have basically written the codes because, with his long life, he could wait until his opponents just died and bring up his points again with less disagreement (because he taught the other Jedi, of course).
I am S W O O N I N G
(via patroclvss)
