Re: [GZG] Troop potential

--NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_8262_1217289784_2
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l
--NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_8262_1217289784_2--
_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lThe
books and comics may be good, but none of them are canon except for a
few. I find this kind of uncharacteristic behavior in the character the
issue, not that Obi Wan was a Jedi so much. He just seems to good for
that.

-Eli

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Tom B" <kaladorn@gmail.com> 

You have to understand the Jedi mindset to understand their relationship
to the Clone Troopers. They were pretty unhappy with the whole
choreographed march towards war, but recognized they couldn't stop it
and the Jedi could not be an army. They were not comfortable with
cloning. 

But once they were in the war, and by the time you get deep into the
third movie, you really are deep into the war's timeline, they'd gotten
pretty used to seeing battles lost to the separatists at high cost. The
Clones were well-trained soldiers, patterned after one of the greatest
warriors of the age (Jango was feared by many and was a good physical
specimen). The thought was, with some tweaks, they would make excellent
soldiers. They were extensively trained. 

The expanded universe made good use of them in a number of books which
were actually better than the run of the mill for Star Wars books. The
Republic Commando series was particularly interesting - seeing what
happens when you leave more of the initiative and spirit in the Clone.
Better soldiers to be sure, but with a will of their own.

Anyway, back to the Jedi: The Clones were bred to be soldiers, which
wasn't what the Jedi would have preferred. But the war was costing many
lives and threatened the Republic and a bigger catastrophe. So they were
a necessary evil. The Jedi didn't, for the most part, shed a lot of
tears for their own loses. They were accepting that this was just the
way things were in this tumultuous time. The Jedi had to do their part
as battlefield commanders and as potent strikers - if they became
obsessed with trying to help out Clones, they were not doing *their*
job. And if they did that, more people would get killed.

In one of the Republic Commando books, two Jedi who are operating with
the Clone Troopers eventually end up going native because they do spend
a lot of time finding out that the Clones aren't just mindless weapon
systems, but actual people with an intense sense of duty and brotherhood
(and we have a resurgent Mandalorian tradition as a result).

One of the mistakes people make in interpreting the Jedi is in assuming
they are 'good' or somehow 'pro-life'. They remind me more of your
balance-oriented D&D true neutral character (or a druid). They're also
quite aware of the struggles of different forces in nature and this is
the way of the Force. They can be quite ruthless when circumstances
require it. 

Ultimately, Lucas' movie vision was a bit two-dimensional and a bit
ridiculous. Some of the authors in the expanded universe have cleaned up
the basic concepts in ways that make the Clones actually fairly
interesting (they remind me a bit of Maoris in some ways). 

TomB

-- 
"Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a
terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it."
Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like
administering medicine to the dead." -- Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine