Sort of lost all respect for Yoda at the moment Dooku tried to crush Anakin and OB1 by forcing the column to fall toward them in Clones, thereby distracting Yoda so he could make his escape. Why the hell didn’t Yoda simply move the two Jedi out of the way rather than attempt to hold that massive thing in mid air above them? He could have shoved them right out of the thing’s path and continued working on Dooku.
He deserves to live in a swamp for the rest of his days.
The Force doesn’t work very well against living beings. It was possible for Yoda to block the pillar; it wouldn’t be possible for him to move two Force-users.
Or at least not on OTHER living beings. Explaining why someone can use the Force to cushion a fall, jump 30 feet and such, but not simply pick someone up and toss them.
Of course, that doesn’t explain Vader choking people. Unless, of course, that takes massive concentration. Again, notice he never does it in a battle or anything. You think Luke would have a harder time fighting if he couldn’t get any oxygen.
Or Oxygen, if Luke is the Lifetime-watching sissy type.
-Joe
Well, yeah. I’m sure there is some problem with being a Jedi and utilizing the Force-choke. That must be one of the cool party tricks that Palpatine promises to Anakin.
“Come to the Dark Side, and you’ll be able to choke traffic cops at will.” 
Seems to me that even if the Force doesn’t work so well on telekinetically moving living stuff, that it would be invaluable in distracting people in a fight.
Obi-Wan did it in Episode IV (Star Wars) by making a sound to distract the Stormtroopers.
I’d think that a little poke in the eye or groin, or just a little something to distract you or make you stumble would be really useful, especially in a Jedi-style fight where concentration would be paramount.
Yet they don’t do much of this.
However
I **do ** now forgive George Lucas for The Star Wars Holiday Special :wally
Why wouldn’t they just pick up the floor tiles to trip people up, drop ceilings on their heads, throw rocks at them, or move the air to create a vacuum around people?
Again, there’s so much stuff they could do, that you need to go to the more “limited” force in the original movies. The prequels opening up the use of it (I’d swear I saw jedis using the force push to knock people on their asses in the new movies) is what causes the problem.
I don’t think they can detect it. I can’t recall any instance where the Force gave them particular knowledge of the Dark Side except for a vague feeling of wrongness.
No, I actually think I know why: he just didn’t think of it. He had two seconds to think and act before they died. He was focused on the pillar. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea, but people make bad decisions when under immense pressure and sever time constraints.
Just today I was walking along, thinking about something else, when I saw a shopping cart rolling across the parking lot. I knew something was wrong about it. It wasn’t until after the pusher ran over and stopped it that I realize it might have been a good idea to do that myself. Basically, I agree Yoda made an error. But that’s perfectly natural .It was proper for him to make such as an error under the circumstances. Nothing pisses me off more than character who never make errors.
It does, but they do imply it’s harder. The uses of telekinesis against living beings were fairly weak. Even Vader didn’t actually crush someone’s throat: he was apparently stopped any air from going in or out.
The scene you’re referring to is Mace Windu at the Battle of Dantooine, where he pushes and dismembers hundreds of battle droids at a time. The way I see it, this was probably one of the greatest single displays of power ever by a Jedi. Your run-of-the-mill Joe Lightsaber couldn’t do this, but Mace, who is a Jedi Master widely acknowledged as one of the greatest Jedi of all times, is able to do it in a critical life-threatening situation by summoning all of his power.
This is actually good writing, IMHO. Yoda is like Superman–massively overpowered and thus difficult to write for. How do you defeat Superman? You put Lois Lane in danger and force him to rescue her while you do your eeeevil. I don’t recall the timing of the specific scene, but maybe Dooku’s ship is already out of the hanger by the time Yoda can take his attention off the threatening chunck of rock.
Of course, that just brings up the question of why Yoda doesn’t use The Force to disable Dooku’s hyperdrive, doesn’t it?
Or, for that matter, not notice the evil darkness oozing from Palpatine?
Maul didn’t have any problem knocking OB1 back and over the edge of that pit. Yoda must be at least twice as strong as Maul. It was bad writing.
Oh yeah.
:smack:
I always thought the dark side was like cheating, so it makes sense to me that Maul would be as strong as some of the strongest jedi. It was 'cause he cheats by using the dark side. It seems the dark side is stronger, thus Vader and his “You don’t know the POWER of the dark side” quote. Or am I wrong?
from the novels, there are multiple styles of saber fighting. in an interesting twist mace windu uses a “dark” form of saber fighting. perhaps that is why he has a purple lightsaber, a mix of blue and red.
from what i read i figure on the following:
a. after the sith were brought down to 2 and the dust settled; the jedi were very, very, wary of doing or using anything that ventured into the dark realm.
b. very strict rules were put into place on the jedi to keep them from even the remotest touch of the dark realm. no relationships, parent-child, spousal, etc. i do wonder how they managed to keep appren. and master free from any fondness or favourtism.
c. hi george!
d. the jedi seem to have gone from a monastic to a peacekeeping mode. they appear to have started out something like the monks of china, with seeking to become one with all to becoming something like the un troops.
e. there is a an odd split between the jedi that connect to “the life force” and those that connect to “the unifing force.” qui-gon was more connected to life force and yoda to unifing force. there will be an interesting effect of qui-gon’s connection in epi. 2 and 3.
f. when luke is sent to yoda to learn the ways of the force, yoda has had 20 years or so to focus on the force and how to set up the next generation of jedi. as the novels that follow epi. 6 show, the jedi are allowed relationships and a better balance between monastic meditation and having a life outside of knighthood.
g. in conclusion it seems skywaker/vader did bring a balance. the jedi that follow after him have a more balanced and broader life than they did before him.
Actually, I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that Lucas is using Biblical imagery here. In one of St. Paul’s letters he says Satan (you know, the Devil) is capable of hiding his Dark Side with Light. Yeah, I’m paraphrasing. But given some of the other Biblical themes that pop up in this whole Messiah of the Force thing, I wouldn’t put it past Lucas.
Perhaps. I have heard that Palpatine is masking his evil self, and the switch from human-looking Senator to really decrepit monstrous keeper occurs when he drops his “mask of goodness.”
Sigh. This is a case of people looking for things to bitch about. (Not you, NCB)
What’s the exact phrasing in AOTC? Something about the Dark Side clouding everything? Hmm…almost exactly what NCB is saying above…
You know, evil being hard to spot.
-Joe
Hey, he may not even realise that so much of what he’s doing in SW can be somehow linked to Biblical ideas. The Bible is an old book, full of some pretty cool stories. Hard not to borrow some themes from it, whether accidental or on purpose.
One of the silly games my friends and I used to play is to link the movie/song/book to the Bible. Pretty easy if you’ve read it. Sure, sometimes it’s a stretch, but stories do tend to get repeated and covored over and over again.
Quick disclaimer:
I don’t care one way or the other. I’m not one of those seeking to put God into everything or to moralise for Hollywood, I was simply noticing a correlation of ideas.
It isn’t just the Bible that Lucas borrows from. It is just what most westerners recognize. Lucas was influenced by good ol’ Joe Campbell and his writings on all forms of mythology. The stories in the bible have many of the same underlying themes that many other ancient texts cover. Evil in the form of goodness is a pretty common theme.