The Grey Jedi In You
By ~Joshua Gregory King
When you weigh your choices in life; are you driven like a character out of Mass Effect? "Hmm; do I slap this girl in the face for not allowing me to take her out to dinner? Or do I cry like a little girl in the corner." Probably not, you decide based on a large quantity of variances... the good and the bad often intermingle with each other to the point where if you were to choose your gut instinct, it would often both negatively impact and positively affect all aspects.
So why is it that we so often are given only two choices among the ranks of Jedi? In games such as Dark Knight, Jedi Academy, and even non Star Wars based games (Hellloooo Bioshock) we are often given two choices in any given situation. But we are all thinking the same thing; there is another way, why wouldn't I take the weapon and shoot the baddie? Why would I seriously lock myself into the choice of A) Slaughter every innocent in sight, or B) Rise up on a pedestal and dedicate your life to the church of the force. Well Skywalker; I for one am in love with the expression from a much beloved taco commercial; "Porque no dos?" For those of you whose Spanish is a bit on the weaker side... this means 'why not both?'; and it's such a valid question that most of us actually leave these encounters feeling deprived no matter which choice we happen to make.
If we go for light side, we deprive ourselves the pleasures of destroying our enemies. They are enemies for a reason you know; and most of the time you don't walk into a situation and aim for the nearest living thing... every single GTA game aside. And I find the lack of faith DISTURBING, in the way that the game creators will cripple you for being the GOOD guy in a situation. I mean; which is easier? Masterfully wielding a blade and dodging pedestrians while you ONLY strike 'troopers and dark jedi' in a crowd of innocents with nothing but a bit of speed and the ability to jump a bit higher than usual... or throwing a cloud of freaking lightning above the bad guys heads that bolts only target enemies? To me this always seemed asinine. A true Jedi would know and use both sides of the force, they would ebb and flow; or as Bruce Lee would say 'become water' and adapt to the situation as the needed.
Meaning if I want to force choke the living hell out of a guy I just saw shoot an unarmed pedestrian, why are you going to reward me with dark side points? "Sorry, he was a murderer... but you really should have been gentler in the way you took him out." WHAT?! You can't be serious... I uhh... screw it I'm going totally Revan on these bantha suckers. No..no no...spent the whole entire game up to this point going WAY out of my way to just barely scrape by situations without hurting anything that shouldn't be touched.
Ok well maybe if I just, use speed force, combine it with force jump and throw my saber at exactly a thirty-two degree angle I can swipe those three, dodge the child eating a candy bar in the middle of a MAGICAL BADASS FIGHT and still manage to survive without hurting anyone innocent.
This doesn't make sense, and it never will. This is because in reality, the truth is that you are going to need to use some force to accomplish any goals you have. Whether that be wiping all of humanity out in a single blast while a princess watches or reloading the game six or more times to try to take out an entire group of baddies because you ingeniously saved with two health points.
(Hey we've all done it.) This is why I am personally in LOVE with the style of The Knights of the Old Republic. Which honestly they can't make too many of and needs more sequels than the Twilight series got and didn't deserve from the start. *Force choke Edward. *FORCE CHOKE EDWARD; DAMMIT. *Force... avoid? At least? (saving throw fail)
I always find myself locked in a moral quandary in these games but the beauty of that is you CAN tread the middle path; you can save group A because they deserve it and destroy group B because they deserve it. That's right, I have always found myself following in the path of ole Jolee Bindoo because the man's sage-like wisdom is apparent in his actions. He knows that you need to be able to heal a friend and kill an enemy. Something that is practiced every day in real life but seems to be left in the dust in most choice-based games in these days. A mistake; I might add, all too often present. A mistake, that often leads to the downfall of many close-to-greats.
So I ask you; if an unarmed man walked up to you and whispered in your ear "I've killed... so many children", would you end him? I would. But maybe I've been hanging out with an old man in Kashyyyk just a litttttle too long.
Ok well maybe if I just, use speed force, combine it with force jump and throw my saber at exactly a thirty-two degree angle I can swipe those three, dodge the child eating a candy bar in the middle of a MAGICAL BADASS FIGHT and still manage to survive without hurting anyone innocent.
This doesn't make sense, and it never will. This is because in reality, the truth is that you are going to need to use some force to accomplish any goals you have. Whether that be wiping all of humanity out in a single blast while a princess watches or reloading the game six or more times to try to take out an entire group of baddies because you ingeniously saved with two health points.
(Hey we've all done it.) This is why I am personally in LOVE with the style of The Knights of the Old Republic. Which honestly they can't make too many of and needs more sequels than the Twilight series got and didn't deserve from the start. *Force choke Edward. *FORCE CHOKE EDWARD; DAMMIT. *Force... avoid? At least? (saving throw fail)
I always find myself locked in a moral quandary in these games but the beauty of that is you CAN tread the middle path; you can save group A because they deserve it and destroy group B because they deserve it. That's right, I have always found myself following in the path of ole Jolee Bindoo because the man's sage-like wisdom is apparent in his actions. He knows that you need to be able to heal a friend and kill an enemy. Something that is practiced every day in real life but seems to be left in the dust in most choice-based games in these days. A mistake; I might add, all too often present. A mistake, that often leads to the downfall of many close-to-greats.
So I ask you; if an unarmed man walked up to you and whispered in your ear "I've killed... so many children", would you end him? I would. But maybe I've been hanging out with an old man in Kashyyyk just a litttttle too long.
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