{"id":129142,"date":"2015-12-15T19:47:53","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T02:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/15\/the-dark-side-of-the-force-wants-you.html"},"modified":"2015-12-19T18:13:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-20T01:13:43","slug":"the-dark-side-of-the-force-wants-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/15\/the-dark-side-of-the-force-wants-you.html","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Side of the Force Wants YOU!"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the amusing things about the revival in Star Wars<\/i> popular fandom with the new movie coming out (THIS WEEK!) is the revisionist views of the Empire vs the Rebels, the Jedi vs the Sith, the Light Side of the Force vs the Dark Side.<\/p>\n

In some ways, it echoes the iconoclasm over "real life" heroes and institutions. It's not really that the Dark Side is all that good (both the Emperor and Vader … and, heck, the whole Empire does a lot of dickish things) but that that the Light Side is itself so dubious in its morality (lies, mind control, lies, political manipulation, lies, killing, lies, etc.).<\/p>\n

There's a sociology thesis in there somewhere, I'm sure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\n5 Reasons The Dark Side Isn’t As Bad As You Think | Cracked.com<\/a><\/span>
\nHow exactly is the Dark Side ‘evil’ again? It really shouldn’t have been that hard for Vader to convince Luke to join his cause.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the amusing things about the revival in Star Wars popular fandom with the new movie coming out (THIS WEEK!) is the revisionist views of the Empire vs the Rebels, the Jedi vs the Sith, the Light Side of the Force vs the Dark Side. In some ways, it echoes the iconoclasm over "real … Continue reading “The Dark Side of the Force Wants YOU!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,372],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-star-wars-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2673,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/20\/why_the_empire.html","url_meta":{"origin":129142,"position":0},"title":"Why the Empire is Better than the Republic","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 20-May-02 9:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"A rather thoughtful (though somewhat tongue-in-cheek) analysis as to why, in the Star Wars universe, the Empire isn't all that bad. It echoes a few of my thoughts about AotC....","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39499,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/artist-of-light-side-of-the-force.html","url_meta":{"origin":129142,"position":1},"title":"Artist of Light (Side of the Force)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Nov-13 10:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Congrats to Jeff Bennett for adding just the right element of anti-schmaltz to Thomas Kinkade paintings. Star Wars Invades And Improves Idyllic Thomas Kinkade Paintings View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129286,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/26\/tolkien-star-wars-and-being-trapped-in-history.html","url_meta":{"origin":129142,"position":2},"title":"Tolkien, Star Wars, and being trapped in history","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 26-Dec-15 11:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"There are no happily-ever-afters with history. The world churns forward, and the evils defeated (one hopes) in one generation rise up in different ways in the next. We hope things get better, and try to make it that way, but, like the poor, war and conflict and disaster and greed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129532,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/21\/a-modern-revisit-to-the-original-star-wars-trilolgy.html","url_meta":{"origin":129142,"position":3},"title":"A modern revisit to the original Star Wars trilolgy","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Jan-16 12:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trailers for the first three films, fan-recreated in the structure (and music) of the \"The Force Awakens\" trailer. Good stuff (though, not surprisingly, Empire is best).https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLznkgAEduF--kLaen6qe_v_veu49Uh8gI \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/maxresdefault5B35D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/maxresdefault5B35D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/maxresdefault5B35D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48617,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/02\/the-worlds-first-star-wars-fan-weighs-in-on-side-sabers.html","url_meta":{"origin":129142,"position":4},"title":"The World's First "Star Wars" Fan Weighs In On Side-Sabers","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Dec-14 5:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen Colbert explains it all.Though with all due respect to Mr. Colbert, my objections are not technical so much as practical and aesthetic. And also a bit meta. Lightsaber Controversy Stephen defends the new lightsaber design unveiled in a trailer for J.J. Abrams's \"Star Wars: The Force Awakens.\" View on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2652,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/22\/a_long_time_ago-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":129142,"position":5},"title":"A long time ago …","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-May-02 8:17am","format":false,"excerpt":"So last night I decided, after waxing lyrical about Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope (a\/k\/a the original 1977 Star Wars flick) the other day, to actually watch it....","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129221,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129142\/revisions\/129221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}