The Star Wars universe is almost a religion to some. There are clothes, rituals, and codes to live by that many people find not only comforting but really entertaining as well. However, like religion, sometimes the Jedi in Star Wars contradict themselves.
Over on r/StarWars on Reddit, TheAnarchistMonarch posed the following question: “What Force power regularly used by Jedi most contradicts Jedi values?”
User Grecanis posited that Jedi’s using violence might not be a good way of balancing the force.
“I’d say chopping someone in half with a saber might be a little out of balance. Or maybe just killing in general.”
Warm-Finance8400 said that chopping people up with a saber was “not a force power,” while JWRamzic1 said, “But if you cut them perfectly on half, there’s balance there! Lol.”
User Frzbr took it to a more philosophical arena: “None. It’s how you use the power, not the power itself that can be applied to a value system. Example: Shooting someone is not bad if they are about to blow up an orphanage.”
Others pointed out that once a Jedi uses dark powers, they aren’t really a Jedi anymore anyway, so it doesn’t count.
“I think certain dark side powers aren’t even accessible unless the user has given in to those feelings or are tapping into those negative emotions right? Like, if you need to tap into your anger and rage to shoot lightning, you’ve already crossed the line regardless of what your intention is,” said Jiango_fett.
Kind of seizing on this line of thought, user RedditOfUnusualSize talked about how the Dark side uses the Force in a completely different way than the Jedi do.
“To be honest, I’ve always felt that one of the storytelling strengths of the OT was showing that Dark Side users very consistently chose the most direct route to solving a problem, and always resorted to force to accomplish it. You’re underling is getting uppity about the Force? Choke him with it. A kid proves that he’s capable of leaping around better than you thought? Rip a support beam out of the wall and throw it at him. Can’t convince a would-be disciple to work for you? Electrocute them.
By contrast, the Jedi were always about creative use of powers, and minimizing the amount of force. Obi-Wan didn’t hurt anyone there, he just befuddled a traffic cop, when he was asking a question that would very clearly get Luke arrested and killed if answered. Luke very clearly didn’t have false identification, and Luke’s family has already been summarily executed just for buying the droids in the first place. I think we can give Obi-Wan a mulligan here. Similarly, Obi-Wan doesn’t toss anyone off a platform, when he can just convince them they heard something in, uh, that direction over there.
This was something abandoned when people realized that it might interfere with the power fantasy aspect of being a Jedi.”
However, one answer did kind of make sense, again from Warm-Finance8400: “I’d say force pushing enemies. Yoda said the force must only be used for defense never offense.”
Another user, msellers30, pointed out that Luke murdered a ton of people, and whether he was being good or bad depends on the perception.
“Luke using the force to kill ~2 million people on the death star. Which begs the question: is taking that thing out a defensive or offensive move?”
The question originated from whether Obi-Wan was being ethical when he used his mind trick on a stormtrooper on Tatooine so they wouldn’t need identification for Luke. User JonSnow31391 broke it down:
“It’s actually a very interesting point. I understand that how you use an ability matters a lot more than what you do, but I feel like the Sith and Jedi each have a main power that feels like it should belong to the opposite.
Mind trick (and any mind control) is really sketchy ethically. You’re removing somebody’s ability to make their own decisions. Beyond that, the stormtrooper it was used on is probably going to get executed when one of the many witnesses eventually recognizes that he let Obi Wan through a checkpoint. Maybe we dont care because he’s a storm trooper, but what if he was forced into service, or raised that way like Finn? It feels like a manipulation ability that is closer to the dark side.
The other ability is force lightning. The Jedi don’t use it, presumably because of its associations with torture. However, it didn’t directly kill any of the jedi it was used against. Anakin was stunned for a while, Mace was in pain but alive until he was thrown out a window, and Luke was zapped for a long time and managed to carry Vader down to a shuttle after. It seems like a “taser” ability would be preferable to killing people with lightsabers, even if it has the potential to be abused.”
Whether you think the Jedi are always in the right or definitely in the wrong, it’s still something interesting to consider.
