posted
Getting back to the best Jedi, I would draw a distinction between the Jedi and the Sith. While in terms of sabre skills and perhaps even force powers, members of either side can be judged in a similar manner, different criteria must be used in the matter of .... craftiness, honour, and other attributes in which the ethical code of each side differs vastly. For this reason, I would not compare, for example, Darth Maul to Qui- Gonn, or Luke Skywalker to Darth Sidious. Take for example, when Darth Vader makes Han Solo et al suffer to bring Luke to Cloud City. This is, by Sith criteria, a move of utmost skill, whereas by Jedi criteria, this would be judged to be dishonourable at the very least.
------------------ Try not. Do. Or Do not. There is no try.
posted
Gurgeh's comment made me think again about what this question was about. (I hinted at the complexities in my own post.) The question is who is the coolest Jedi, which leaves the field (too?) wide open for any criteria a poster deems relevant. The distinction of morality and how it would affect any (ultimately arbitrary) ranking is important. Perhaps a way to avoid the problem of ethical positions, I would rephrase the question, "Who was the most consistently pleasing force-user in the movies seen thus far?"
However, to indulge the morality distinction, I would say the most dynamic and successful Jedi seen thus far has been Qui-Gon Jinn for his braod command of Force dynamics that not every Jedi seems comfortable with. The most dynamic and successful Sith would probably be Senator/Emperor Palpatine, an expert at covert accomplishment of his objectives and closest of any Sith user to finding the equilibrium between delegation of freedom and control over subordinates.
------------------ "Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the basis of life and death, the Tao to survivial or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed."
"...attaining one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of excellence. Subjugating the enemy's army without fighting is the true pinnacle of excellence."
posted
I just watched The Phantom Menace again and I have to say that I still like my choice.
------------------ "Warning: The contents of this Physics lab are 100% matter. Should the lab come in contact with antimatter in any way, a catastrophic explosion will occur."
posted
Point taken about "coolest" being a bit vague. However, what I was getting at was "Who's the coolest Jedi of the 4 films?" as opposed to Jedi/Sith. But I'm just being pedantic here. Has anyone played "Jedi Knight" and "Mysteries of the Sith" on the PC? They might be a bit dated now but if you have any sort of half decent PC I recommend trying these games. They immerse you in the atmosphere of the films completely, and the exhilaration of blasting somone away with Force Destruction or one of many other Force Powers is something every Starwars fan should experience. Not to mention the lightsabre(you can even deflect laser shots). Also, if you finish the game, there's always online gaming. The people I played against on the Internet Gaming Zone knew huge amounts of trivia, and the cooperative games are very interesting.
------------------ Try not. Do. Or Do not. There is no try.
posted
It was so long ago I played Jedi Knight, but, yes, it was arguably the best computer game rendition of the Star Wars universe, including the flight simulator games. My main gripe about them is really a gripe about first-person simulators in general.
You can go too detailed and make the person engage in every little activity in daily life to make it as "real" as possible (making the game drawn out and boring to a instant-gratifiaction population of gamers), or you can go with strict combat-simulation (and lose some of the subtlety of how Jedi work).
Ultimately there really is no solution. It is incredibly hard to make a story line that allows for the degree of creativity Jedi must exercise in their line of work (the whole plotline with Anakin's owner is a bit mundane for action games, yet the way it came together is exactly the kind of conflict management Sun Tzu addresses in my signature's second quote) without overprogramming every detail of day-to-day life gamers are trying to escape. Can you imagine trying to program the creativity of Mission: Impossible into a game without programming every object in the real world?
Sadly, I fear we may forever (at least for our forseeable lives) be restricted to battle simulation without the covert manipulation and influence that make Jedi so formidable.
------------------ "Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the basis of life and death, the Tao to survivial or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed."
"...attaining one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of excellence. Subjugating the enemy's army without fighting is the true pinnacle of excellence."
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