Star Wars, Clone Wars, the animated series.
(Whitney Delaglio , who has seemingly enjoy the other meditations on this. Also, I have a stomach bug today. It is terrible.)
I find this show hard to watch. I'm in the 2nd season, and an episode centered around helping farmers defend themselves from pirates.
Which is to say: the central conceit of the episode was the republic either cannot or will not defend its citizens from murdering assholes. This is the first and primary purpose of government.
Which is the biggest problem: the republic is a failed government throughout the show. There are heroes (Yoda), but most of the jedi exhault in their position in the patriarchy, rather than viewing that s a means to an end.
And that's really hard to watch, because it strikes to close to home.
In related politic news, a veteran in Alexandria, VA was raided by police -- guns drawn -- because his asshole neighbors thought he was squatting. The cops responded in the standard way we see the jedi react -- with violence and the threat of violence.
Sometimes, the jedi do a lot better than this -- but, ultimately, their power is derived from the blade of a lightsaber.
This is all related, and the brilliance of Clone Wars is exactly what makes it so hard to watch -- it tells us the story of failed power structures.
Or, maybe, I'm just projecting into a cartoon?
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I don't like a system where you always have to ask first. That's basically saying we don't trust you to make any good decision on your own. Not to mention there will be situations where there is NO TIME TO ASK!
ReplyDeleteAlso, feel better soon bro :( tummy aches are the worst!
ReplyDeleteWhitney Delaglio I don't follow -- can I get that with fewer indirect pronouns?
ReplyDeleteA lot of times on the show a Jedi will want to do something, but they have to ask the council first.
ReplyDeleteYes! The Jedi's have some extraordinary, superhuman capabilities -- and are treated like children by everyone higher in the power structure.
ReplyDeleteThat red tape is one tool of the patriarchy. right?
Yeah, Noah Stevens , Yoda is an interesting case. In the first episode, he and a squad of clones need to battle against an entire brigade (or whatever) or battle droids. And it works out, because yoda talks to each clone individually and brings out the best in each one.
ReplyDeleteWhich is important -- we see what jedis are capable of if they put down the lightsaber for a minute and talk to people. The rest of the series shows them unable to replicate this feat.
And yeah, yoda is suspicious of his power and his position and that good can be done from it. But, we don't see him stepping down, or reducing the influence of the jedi council.
In that way, Palpatine was a revolutionary fighting against the single most entrenched power system in the galaxy