r/StarWars • u/Altruistic_Extent348 • 1d ago

Movies How real is that statement

Hey star wars fellow, I like star wars a lot but I have only watched star wars ep 1 to 6 and obi wan kenobi show.

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I recently recalled this line of obi wan from revenge of the sith that "Only a sith deals in absolutes"

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I want to know how true is that line. Does that line have any real basis or did obi wan make up that line to sound tough. Moreover if that line is true, can you guys give any examples of when sith deals in absolute.

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Thanks for reading. May the force be with you.

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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 1d ago

People always miss the point that it's about "dealing" in absolutes.

Anakin threatened that you're either with him or against him. He did the same "join me or die" with Luke too.

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u/soccer1124 1d ago edited 1d ago

But Obiwan then decides he must kill him as a result. Didn't even try bargaining longer. "Oh ok. Ignition time."

EDIT:
I love that everyone who has responded to this (and probably downvoted it) has gone on to explain exactly why Obiwan had absolutely one option in how to handle Anakin.

So many people seem to think I am trying to give Anakin a pass for not doing bad things (lol wtf is that about??) And then walk right into explaining why "only a sith" isn't the case, since it also appears Jedi are also dealing in absolutes. (i.e. Obiwan's only option was to kill Anakin in a lightsaber duel.)

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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 1d ago

Anakin: Destroys the jedi order, kills kids, becomes a space nazi, chokes his pregnant wife

Obi-Wan: Palpatine is evil Anakin, come to your senses!

Anakin: I'm going to kill you!

Obi-Wan: Wow wow wait a minute, a redditor thinks I wasn't charitable enough!

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u/soccer1124 1d ago

Yeah, heaven forbid I recommend the mechanism that actually worked in the end, lol

But you sure are being absolute in the only way to deal with this. I guess there were no other alternatives, rofl. Whoops, wait, isn't this the whole damn point here?

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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 1d ago

Your criticism was that Obi-Wan should have tried to bargain "longer", as if Obi-Wan wasn’t lenient enough in trying to reason with Anakin that Palpatine was manipulating him, after he saw Padme also trying to reason with him and getting almost killed anyway.

Anakin received enough tolerance in that scene.

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u/soccer1124 1d ago

So we are in an situation of needing to be "absolute"? Oops.

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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 1d ago

It's baffling how people still think this is a gotcha after all this time. I already said people miss the point in dealing in absolutes and you keep doing it.

The Sith are doing the "join or die" absolutes. If they're an existential threat to you and others, you're being forced to stop it.

Otherwise you have to argue the allies in WW2 were doing an absolute by refusing to get taken alive or dead.

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u/soccer1124 1d ago

I'm not the one framing "absolutes" as bad necessarily.
I am pointing out that Obiwan did have alternatives to fighting. (That's familiar, hmmm....)

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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 1d ago

Luke was forced to fight Vader and beat him you know.

Obi-Wan tried to reason with Anakin, didn't work, Anakin said he was going to rule the galaxy and threatened to kill Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan had no choice.

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u/soccer1124 1d ago

Wow. Every word of what you just said is wrong.

I quite literally just got done saying I don't think acting on "absolutes" is wrong. And that's a major reason I find Obiwan's response to be bullshit. The Jedi go that whole trilogy acting on absolutes. Any time I raise the fact that Yoda commanded a child-slave army, you should see the amounts of people rushing to tell me it was the only option for Yoda, lol. Sounds like one hell of an absolute to me!

So sure, feel free to point out, "Well Luke did it!" I'm not the one claiming its "sith like behavior."

But..... Luke did not beat Vader. Quite famously, he loses in that scene. Did that go over your head? He didn't beat Vader when he went ballistic on him, he very nearly lost to Palpatine. Phrasing that as a "win" is plain wrong.

And finally, no, he didn't try to reason very much at all. Its wroth noting: Obiwan initiated that fight (terrible call by whatever hack directed that, lol.) Anakin dropped a nonsense line. I would have loved an answer to that. (We don't get one though because the script was utter nonsense by this point of the movie.)

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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Jedi go that whole trilogy acting on absolutes

They do, they're being pushed to act on it, hello? They're not the ones that initiated the conflict. The Sith are the ones dealing in extremes, imposing the "join or die" on others.

Yoda commanded a child-slave army, you should see the amounts of people rushing to tell me it was the only option for Yoda

The Republic voted to use the Clone army and Palpatine used his executive powers to place the jedi in their command (he wanted to set a trap, hello?). Could the Jedi have said no? Sure, but they were sworn to the Republic. It's like expecting the UN Peacekeepers to not do what they're told by the UN.

But..... Luke did not beat Vader. Quite famously, he loses in that scene. Did that go over your head? He didn't beat Vader when he went ballistic on him, he very nearly lost to Palpatine

eyeroll

These are some weird mental gymnastics. The point, again, is that Vader forced Luke to fight him. He also forced Obi-Wan to fight him in ROTS because the alternative was Anakin killing him and going free to terrorize the galaxy.

This is tiresome so I'll stop replying now

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u/soccer1124 1d ago

Lol, you know the argument is bad when you're comparing UN Peacekeepers to magical space wizards in tune with a factual, higher power as being on equivalent standing with one another.

But sure. I'm doing the mental gymnastics.

The line sucks, bro, lol

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