Partially disagree on the "create a fear of losing" bit. I would argue that fear of loss is inevitable and near-universal, even among Jedi and even toward things you are not "strongly" bonded to (for example, I'm not hugely attached to the computer I'm typing this on, but I do feel a mild trepidation at the thought of somebody physically smashing the thing, if only because of what a pain in the ass it would be to replace it and recover my files).

As I see it, the problem is not that they feel fear - because pretty much all of them must from time-to-time - but instead arises when they are unable to disconnect that fear from their decision-making process (which is a thing that people absolutely can be - and are - trained to do irl), and release it in the moment so it doesn't taint their Force-connection

Is there a source for this? I have literally never seen this stated anywhere else. Granted, I know very little about most of Disney Canon beyond what I read online or see in these shows, but I've still never heard anything about swapping masters for that reason. In fact, the only reasons I've heard for Padawans in the Old Order switching masters would be because their previous master died, Fell, or repudiated them.

That sounds almost like what I was envisioning, which is that through meditation and introspection, a Jedi has to analyze, pick apart, and understand their emotions and the roots of those emotions, until they can come to a point of acceptance of those roots factors in order to release those emotions. Basically the whole process is something anyone could do even without the Force (irl, it's a big part of several types of behavioral therapy), up until the very last part where the Force is called upon to sweep away the remnant of those emotions and to solidify that psychological change, to make the state of acceptance more permanent than it would be otherwise. Essentially, the individual Jedi still has to do the hard mental work of coming to terms with these emotions, but the Force is there after the fact to help seal the deal.

If that's how it works, it could be a big factor in why a Jedi Master is so much more serene than a Padawan or a Knight even in extreme situations where they don't have time for meditation or introspection. Because if they've already been doing this for decades, creating permanent or semi-permanent states of serene acceptance applied to particular emotional stimuli, then the breadth of their experience would naturally make them more like this ideal. The types of situations they could get into after a few decades of being a proper Jedi that they hadn't already emotionally dealt with and accepted would be miniscule, and would likely continue to shrink as their career continued.

Eventually, they might get to Yoda's level. As far as I can tell, the only thing that really shook Yoda's emotional stability in the whole Prequel Trilogy was sensing the near-complete extermination of his Order, which is of course an extreme situation that he obviously would never have dealt with before.

 

You're falling into the same trap the Jedi did, re: the Code, and the reason Anakin became a ticking timebomb, by being overly literal in your interpretations of it.

The code's got nothing against strong emotional attachments. Many of the best Jedi form all kinds of attachments (see: Obi-Wan, Qui Gonn, etc), of the exact same kind between Din and Grogu, as well as romantic and other such attachments, and it's just... not a problem. The forbiddance from attachment thing was an archaic tradition that the Jedi Order adhered to far too rigidly by the time of the prequels, a part of showing their degradation/corruption as an order.

The Code is all about understanding yourself and mastering your emotions/attachments, instead of letting them master you. Nothing more or less. It's based loosely on the Eightfold Path, if memory serves, the steps to reach Enlightenment in Buddhism, and is all about essentially growing as a person beyond your crude matter into the luminous being you truly are.

 

In fairness to the Jedi, Anakin had a lot of shit going on that made him a ticking time-bomb, most of which was his own fault or Palpatine's. Even a strictly literalist interpretation of that part of the Code could still work just fine in practice (and did work, for most, otherwise that mindset wouldn't have become as entrenched as it did in the first place). Anakin didn't want to be that way however, and when he was told it was either that or stop being a Jedi, his ego insisted that he could have his cake and eat it too. That was his choice and his responsibility.

 

Yes this is exactly what the code implies. It acknowledges that you will feel fear, and that you likely will get attached to things, and thus create fear of losing those things. The code "forbids attachments and possesions", but this does not guarantee that attachments will not occur in a Jedi's life. A "quality" Jedi who follows the code is trained to be mindful of recognizing the things they are/may become attached to and learns to let them go (and in the case of Legends, learns to let go BEFORE the strong bond is formed).

It is about accepting the impermanence of all things.

Sorry, they only have one official master, but they get pushed around to train under other masters. I believe this was a Legends Dooku story. Can try to find it. I shouldn't have said frequently because I only have the one example.

The distinction between emotional attachment and caring deeply about something is razor thin, but the distinction is clear in Star Wars. The distinction is the idea of possession and the inability to accept loss of the thing you care about.

During the Clone War, they were surrounded by so much death and destruction and suffering, that their practice of detachment and acceptance of impermancence and loss made it easy for Palps to make people hate them.

Everyone should take a gander at the Jedi Code Canon page before the discussion continues. This is all talked about in depth.

 

Seriously though, as much as I love the EU, fuck the EU for being so contradictory at times. If there had been a core team of Lorekeepers at Lucasfilm managing all the stories, I honestly don't think Disney would have tossed it out.

 

Well, they might have still thrown it out in order to do new things with creative freedom, but they probably would have put more thought into the decision first.

Plus if Disney Canon has taught us anything so far, it's that having the company manage the continuity more carefully does not guarantee a quality product. It's entirely possible that some of the best parts of the old EU wouldn't have happened at all if the wrong people had been in charge of Lorekeeping back in the day.

I just wish they would stop being butthurt that so many people didn't like their new Canon, and recognize the huge amounts of money they could make if they allowed new Legends material to be published. Plenty of other entertainment franchises (particularly comics, but Star Trek is another big one) have multiple timelines running in parallel, with books, films, games and television shows covering alternate continuities, even as the franchise has a "main timeline" that it follows. If Lucasfilm ever remembers that they are a business first and foremost, with all the impersonal profit-driven motives that implies, we might just get that in Star Wars too.

 

They own Marvel already, it's right in front of their faces.

What If? - Star Wars

 

Um?

 

I think the point was they could recognize the full EU as a canon alternate Star Wars universe without too much trouble, much as What If / Loki / No Way Home has canonized all the Marvel properties as being within the MCU.

 

The last episode was fun I guess.

But I think it really solidified the issue with this season. The world and story felt very small. How is this fight between a few dozen in each side what is determining the fate of a huge galactic crime empire?

All the time it just felt like low level street gangs, not huge rival fractions striving to carve out empires.

 

Finale rundown:

Spoiler

Good things:

- Bane Boba faceoff
- Riding rancors
- Snek droids
- grogu


Things that needed work:

- most of the blaster battle scenes - I had episodes of Battlefront that were flashier and more organized than this
- no apparent tie in to ANY overarching plot which just leaves me a with a general sense of "what was the reason for this?"

So not how I was hoping it would end, but somewhat satisfying.

 

"Somewhat satisfying" is exactly how I'd put it.

Spoiler

Two episodes being basically from The Mandalorian Season 3 didn't help, as well as it taking several episodes for Boba to learn "oh you need muscle to be a crime-lord" or even "who were Jabba/Bib's sub-crime-lords" (and also he doesn't seem to want to be a crime-lord, in a way that makes no sense to me. Why even come back to a shitty planet if you don't want to be a Don?).

Even ignoring that huge plot hole, the rancor riding felt very un-earned. There was one scene where he speculated about it, and then, BAM! He does it in the finale.

It didn't help that Black Krrsantan, who I didn't know before this show (like everyone else, I don't read Star Wars comics) felt like he was as big of a "Looks Cool, We're Told He's Cool, But He Still Somehow Always Fails On-Screen" character as Boba Fett has turned out to be, even in his own freaking show.

The finale was basically The Mandalorian plus a multi-part Worf Effect episode.

Edit:

Spoiler

Also, I don't know that we can ignore the fact that beskar armor makes you invulnerable (despite the majority of your body being not covered by it) when Black Krrsantan was shot only in his non-beskar bandolier. We in literal plot-armor country now!

 

It's already been done, though, better than even Filoni could hope for. Here's part one.

 

Yeah, just finished watching it myself, and my first impression was "Well, I liked the parts with Grogu in them." Underwhelmed is the word, and considering how low my expectations already were, that's saying something.

Spoiler: Things I Didn't Like

In no particular order, some of the things that bugged me:

*"No! We have to stay and protect the city!" They were literally just after Boba and his crew. Staying in the city not only doesn't protect anyone, it actively puts them and their property in the line of fire. The Pykes even confirmed this in their pre-battle meeting where they learn where Boba's at and decide to go after him there.

*When the mods were helping up the wounded Krrsantan, and cyborg-eye-dude turns toward the enemy reinforcements with his blaster out, pauses, then does a hilariously awkward and unnecessary spin before shooting. More than anything, it reminded me of Barrel Roll Cop, except that cop apparently had a better choreographer, judging by how much less awkward his move looked.

*The Rancor rampage toward the end was just gratuitous, and the way they clumsily parodied King Kong was cheesy as hell. Sure, a barely-trained animal freaking out like that is reasonably likely under the circumstances, but it added nothing to the episode's story, which was already a chaotic mess.

*The mods are pinned down and under attack, when Fennec saves them. Then Fennec jumps down from the roof to hop onto her speeder bike... which was parked five feet from where the Mods were hunkered down... Meaning that Fennec had to have pulled right up to the fight, parked her vehicle there in plain sight, climbed the building behind the Mods, then saved them, all without being seen or heard by either party despite their clear and unobstructed line of sight on where her vehicle was parked. Not to mention, there are flashes during the fight scene before that where the camera points right at where the bike was parked mere seconds before Fennec opens fire from the roof, and it wasn't there...

*Boba and Din acted like "make a run for it and get to your ship" automatically meant flee the planet forever, when it could have just as easily lead to a counter-attack from the air, just like Boba had already done to those swoop gangsters that he thought had murdered his Tusken buddies.

*Getting the Rancor made vastly less sense than getting Slave I would have. Slave I's guns would have chewed through those Scorpenek droids' like they were nothing, where the Rancor struggled and nearly died fighting two of them hand-to-hand.

EDIT: *One more thing. This is more of a general pet peeve, but I absolutely loathe it when people misuse the phrase "in cold blood". The term is a specific one, which refers to a murder that is committed without provocation, on a person who is unarmed and/or not resisting. The bartender from Freetown says that Cobb Vanth was "gunned down in cold blood." That is nonsense, Cobb Vanth was both armed and resisting, he just happened to have a slower draw than Cad Bane.

Spoiler: Things I Did Like

*Grogu. Little dude is the most adorable thing on television. That scene at the end with him and Din flying away from Tatooine was hands-down the best part of this whole show. Not just this episode, but the entire series.

 

Agreed on all points, @Othalan. Also one thing neither of us mentioned:

Spoiler

When Boba comes on the rancor to the last-stand held by the Freetowner and Mods, none of them fire during the entire sequence, even at the obviously open Pykes or the huge droid that was about to kill them. Why not pick off the people in the open?!

 

It's sad to say, but I don't think that Temuera Morrison had the chops to be a leading man. Jango, Aquaman's dad and other mostly background roles seem to be his ceiling.

 

Oh, right! I had forgotten that one. I was actually yelling at my tv when that happened.

That may not be entirely fair. We don't really know how much of his poor performance is him vs. how much is poor writing/directing.

 

I assume it's entirely poor writing. Saw somewhere he didn't care for it, which I definitely believe.

 

He’s good at some stuff. Look st his early work like “Once were warriors”, he can act a piece.

 

I mean it was good for what it was. Effects were good, fighting was fun, everyone got their time in the sun, it ended in a nice way. I had fun with it.