Friday, May 27, 2005
The Examination of Human Nature as reflected in Star Wars
My title sounds like some uni module title, right?
Qns: How can you identify a fresh graduate?
Ans: If his/her blog post title sounds like a uni module title, you've spotted one!
Anywayz....
I watched Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith just now with my family... in my living room.
Hahaha... and the color and sound was of good quality.
On the whole... I don't know.. I found those parts where Anakin and Padma were trying to sound lovey-dovey pathetic; if S'porean couples use them as role models, our birth rate is going to be non-existent. And those bits where the Chancellor was seducing Anakin, slowing psycho-ing him, plain boring. I mean, we all know Anakin was all young and silly, and that he went over to the dark side, so there was no real excitment there... no heart-thumping, screaming, "Anakin, no! Keep away from the dark! Come closer to the light!"
You just looked at the way he was deceived, and you roll your eyes up to your ceiling fan in disgust at all the silliness.
But I enjoyed any scene that involved Yoda... I totally loved that scene where Yoda brushed his hair back with his hand... and the way Yoda talks, excellent he is... I always like listening to him talk, the intelligent things he says... and gosh, that little green guy looks so cool when he fights!!!
Yes, as you can see, I am a Yoda fan.
And the graphics were great.. especially the last fight scene b/w Anakin and Obi-Wan... the lava.. gosh.. all quite realistic.. all computer-generated..
And Padma looked so pretty lying in her coffin, flowers in her hair.. no I'm not a lesbo, but I did like the hair decorations.
I seem to have disgressed from the topic title.
There was one scene, where Anakin went to the Jedi temple and killed all the young kids. My 15 yr-old brother gasped at the killings, and I told my bro, "Don't be so surprised. That's the ugliness of human nature for you." and I ended up getting a earful from my dad. He said something about how I should sit on the fence and how I should always know and recognize that things are always either right or wrong.
Earlier on, my dad was like, commenting every now and then about how Anakin was stupid whenever he did do something stupid, like, listen to the Chancellor for example... especially the bit where Anakin thought he'll use the dark force to save Padma, the love of his life. And I said something like, "You can't really outright condemn Anakin, coz he was just being human." I mean, you can know right from wrong, but in moments of desperation, when your loved ones are in danger, wrong might not seem all that wrong. And of course, I got another lashing for that... the whole 'right is right, wrong is wrong'... making me look like as though I have no morals.
But seriously... say you know a loved one will die, and you need to do something wicked in order to save that person. I know that murder is a no-no.. and I can say right now that oh, I wun do it, my loved one would rather die than have me commit a sin for him/her. But you know, I cannot guarantee 100% that if I was put in an actualy real-life situation like that, I'll say the same. Hell, I might be more than willing to kill someone just to save my family, for example. And I don't think my dad can 100% guarantee that he'll put morals over love. It's easy to talk when you're not in the actual situation.
So yes, I was pissed. I do have morals, I do know right from wrong... but I say, we should never be too quick to condemn people. Poining a finger at someone = pointing 4 other fingers back at yourself. Really, it's so hard to have absolutes. Many a time, there's no black or white, only grey. And I cannot stand people who think that life is a simple chessboard; that's just either being naive, or too arrogant.
And human nature is such that emotions always get in the way. People fear easily, people want more power than they can handle. And people, can be so naive. Anakin chose to believe the Chancellor over a friend who had taught and taken care of him since he was a little kid! How silly is that? And the Chancellor succeeded coz feelings are so easy to manipulate... ass-kissing at its best.
And Anakin was too ambitious, he wanted too much... he was too impatient... thinking that he could fly even before he could sprout wings. How many of us are like that? We are quick to call Anakin a fool... but are we able to realise that those traits are present in so many of us too? We are quick to see things are face-value and judge accordingly, without taking the time to think through, try to understand the implications, why some people tell us to do certain things, for example. And Anakin was too blind to see the goodness of the Jedi Council, like all those Americans who voted for George W. Bush - but that's another topic altogether.
I know that this is just a movie... but I think there are many lessons to be learnt. People are so eager to see the downfall of Anakin... do they realise that the things which cause him to fall, could also cause us to fall?
I always believed that you haven't gotten your movie money's worth if all you can see is the story-line, the effects, etc. You dun exactly need to learn something of moral wisdom from every movie... coz well, we humans have always had difficulty learning things like that. But at least, to just be aware that there are such issues...
I cannot guarantee that I won't behave like Anakin if I was in his situation... but at least I am aware that the world is never as simple as it may seem.
Qns: How can you identify a fresh graduate?
Ans: If his/her blog post title sounds like a uni module title, you've spotted one!
Anywayz....
I watched Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith just now with my family... in my living room.
Hahaha... and the color and sound was of good quality.
On the whole... I don't know.. I found those parts where Anakin and Padma were trying to sound lovey-dovey pathetic; if S'porean couples use them as role models, our birth rate is going to be non-existent. And those bits where the Chancellor was seducing Anakin, slowing psycho-ing him, plain boring. I mean, we all know Anakin was all young and silly, and that he went over to the dark side, so there was no real excitment there... no heart-thumping, screaming, "Anakin, no! Keep away from the dark! Come closer to the light!"
You just looked at the way he was deceived, and you roll your eyes up to your ceiling fan in disgust at all the silliness.
But I enjoyed any scene that involved Yoda... I totally loved that scene where Yoda brushed his hair back with his hand... and the way Yoda talks, excellent he is... I always like listening to him talk, the intelligent things he says... and gosh, that little green guy looks so cool when he fights!!!
Yes, as you can see, I am a Yoda fan.
And the graphics were great.. especially the last fight scene b/w Anakin and Obi-Wan... the lava.. gosh.. all quite realistic.. all computer-generated..
And Padma looked so pretty lying in her coffin, flowers in her hair.. no I'm not a lesbo, but I did like the hair decorations.
I seem to have disgressed from the topic title.
There was one scene, where Anakin went to the Jedi temple and killed all the young kids. My 15 yr-old brother gasped at the killings, and I told my bro, "Don't be so surprised. That's the ugliness of human nature for you." and I ended up getting a earful from my dad. He said something about how I should sit on the fence and how I should always know and recognize that things are always either right or wrong.
Earlier on, my dad was like, commenting every now and then about how Anakin was stupid whenever he did do something stupid, like, listen to the Chancellor for example... especially the bit where Anakin thought he'll use the dark force to save Padma, the love of his life. And I said something like, "You can't really outright condemn Anakin, coz he was just being human." I mean, you can know right from wrong, but in moments of desperation, when your loved ones are in danger, wrong might not seem all that wrong. And of course, I got another lashing for that... the whole 'right is right, wrong is wrong'... making me look like as though I have no morals.
But seriously... say you know a loved one will die, and you need to do something wicked in order to save that person. I know that murder is a no-no.. and I can say right now that oh, I wun do it, my loved one would rather die than have me commit a sin for him/her. But you know, I cannot guarantee 100% that if I was put in an actualy real-life situation like that, I'll say the same. Hell, I might be more than willing to kill someone just to save my family, for example. And I don't think my dad can 100% guarantee that he'll put morals over love. It's easy to talk when you're not in the actual situation.
So yes, I was pissed. I do have morals, I do know right from wrong... but I say, we should never be too quick to condemn people. Poining a finger at someone = pointing 4 other fingers back at yourself. Really, it's so hard to have absolutes. Many a time, there's no black or white, only grey. And I cannot stand people who think that life is a simple chessboard; that's just either being naive, or too arrogant.
And human nature is such that emotions always get in the way. People fear easily, people want more power than they can handle. And people, can be so naive. Anakin chose to believe the Chancellor over a friend who had taught and taken care of him since he was a little kid! How silly is that? And the Chancellor succeeded coz feelings are so easy to manipulate... ass-kissing at its best.
And Anakin was too ambitious, he wanted too much... he was too impatient... thinking that he could fly even before he could sprout wings. How many of us are like that? We are quick to call Anakin a fool... but are we able to realise that those traits are present in so many of us too? We are quick to see things are face-value and judge accordingly, without taking the time to think through, try to understand the implications, why some people tell us to do certain things, for example. And Anakin was too blind to see the goodness of the Jedi Council, like all those Americans who voted for George W. Bush - but that's another topic altogether.
I know that this is just a movie... but I think there are many lessons to be learnt. People are so eager to see the downfall of Anakin... do they realise that the things which cause him to fall, could also cause us to fall?
I always believed that you haven't gotten your movie money's worth if all you can see is the story-line, the effects, etc. You dun exactly need to learn something of moral wisdom from every movie... coz well, we humans have always had difficulty learning things like that. But at least, to just be aware that there are such issues...
I cannot guarantee that I won't behave like Anakin if I was in his situation... but at least I am aware that the world is never as simple as it may seem.
