Obi-Wan Kenobi (spoilers)

[Morrus]

I think any internet argument about what Jedi 'morality' is or is not supposed to be is pretty much doomed to failure (and parody).

 

[Zaukrie]

And bordering on incivility....

 

[MoonSong]

And bordering on incivility....

Just bordering?...

 

[Staffan]

Luke kills hundreds, if not thousands of janitors, computer techs and other non-combatants when he blows up the Death Star. That didn't drive him to the dark side.

The Death Star was a clear and present threat at the time.

Luke force strangles to death two Gamorreans who answer Jaba's door. That didn't drive him to the dark side.

I did not get the impression that Luke killed those guards, just that he KOed them. When Vader force chokes someone to death, it takes a while, but Luke only keeps it up for a few seconds on the guards.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I think any internet argument about what Jedi 'morality' is or is not supposed to be is pretty much doomed to failure (and parody).

Yep, and to toxic fandom, as can be seen in posts in the past few pages.

 

[Maxperson]

The Death Star was a clear and present threat at the time.

So it's okay to kill non-combatants if they are in the way?

I did not get the impression that Luke killed those guards, just that he KOed them. When Vader force chokes someone to death, it takes a while, but Luke only keeps it up for a few seconds on the guards.

Maybe you're right. We never get to see the conclusion. Either way, though, he's using the dark side when he does it. Jedi don't force choke.

 

[Hussar]

Why stop him from killing anyone, if you are going to let him live to keep doing it? It's the same thing. He knows he'll keep killing, over and over. Why stop him while he's killing, it's effectively the same thing.

For Board Rules reasons, let's not dive into the morality of the death penalty shall we? Let's just say that for some people, there is never a justification for the death penalty.

 

[Hussar]

How is letting him walk away to keep killing a good act?

Well, at the end of the day, letting him walk away results in the Empire being defeated, the Emperor killed and the forces of Good winning in the Galaxy.

Considering we know that the Force is able to see the future, you could argue pretty easily that the Force guided Obi-Wan at this moment to not kill Vader, in the knowledge that in the future, Vader will not kill Luke and will kill the Emperor.

We are dealing with a force (sorry for the pun) that is quasi-godlike in nature that is unknowable but, more than capable of affecting the real world. So, it's pretty plausible actually. Just like Obi-wan knows that he will become more powerful if Vader kills him.

 

[Hussar]

The point being, they both felt he should be dead for the good of the Galaxy. What changed, because Obi had a real chance there ...

Well, Alderaan hadn't happened by this point. Vader is bad, but, then again, lots of things in the universe are bad. Heck, at this point, Obi-wan doesn't even know about the Death Star. All he knows is his padawan brother went to the Dark Side. Vader didn't institute Order 66 - that's the Emperor. Heck, most of the bad things that are happening aren't from Vader - they're from the Emperor. Now, after Vader blows up a planet? Ok, all bets are off.

But, again, we cannot discount the idea that the Force is guiding things here (through the power of Narativium) towards the one good ending. After all, 50% of the universe had to die in order to defeat Thanos.

 

[Hussar]

Are you suggesting it is likely anyone thought Vader would just stop? How about detaining him instead of killing him? For the story, he could escape....

Luke?

And, again, how on earth would you detain him? Obi-wan has no power here. He's a rebel. Heck, at this point, the Rebellion has pretty much zero power. Someone who can literally rip apart a spaceship with the power of his mind? Never minding that Obi-wan has a duty to protect Luke and Leia, not stop Vader. The longer he stays with Vader, the greater the chance Vader learns of Luke and/or Leia, resulting in Obi-wan failing yet again.

If Obi-wan kills Vader, the Emperor wins and millions more will die at the hands of a virtually immortal Sith lord. After all, without Vader's weakness for his children, the Emperors new apprentice will be unstoppable and certainly will have no reason to betray the Emperor outside of standard greed.

This is a bog standard morality tale. Again, it goes back to the quote from LotR - “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.” You might not like it, but, the story here pretty plainly supports this interpretation. Kill Vader now and evil wins. Do evil, even with good intentions, and evil wins. That's been the basic premise of Star Wars since day 1.

I'm really frankly baffled how you can interpret Star Wars any other way.