How The Empire Strikes Back Ruined Star Wars

Now, don't get me wrong, the Empire Strikes Back was certainly the best movie of the franchise. Thanks to the talents of Lawrence Kasdan, especially, the Empire Strikes Back was the most emotionally striking and technically impressive movie of the bunch, with a textbook screenplay and perfect pacing along with amazing sights.

It also ruined the franchise.

Why?

Because it destroyed the myth of the Jedi.

Now, this was a scene from the first film. An alien threatens Luke Skywalker in the bar and so Obi-Wan Kenobi cuts off the alien's arm.

Step back and think about it.

Cutting off someone's arm completely is a pretty extreme move. Especially since it isn't really apparent that he had a weapon. And even then, if Darth Vader could choke a man to death who was in another room, perhaps ten kilometers away,

Or Yoda could easily move a multi-ton space fighter

why couldn't Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is at least comparable to Vader, intervene without cutting off the man's arm?

Cutting off the arm is incredibly stupid. First of all, it is disproportionate. Secondly, it draws attention to Obi-Wan Kenobi, since it was done in front of a roomful of persons.

The answer is that the above two images are from the second film. In the first film, the Jedi are more akin to savage mystical warriors, more myth than reality. In Eastern religions, tales abound of holy men who can do insanely amazing feats. In ancient China, for instance, holy men were said to have been able to make themselves bulletproof through their mastery of chi, able to withstand the blast of a gunpowder cannon from ten feet away.

In the Star Wars universe, the holy men are masters of The Force. But, just as most people in the modern day do not believe in Chi, so too do most people not believe in The Force in the days of Star Wars.

Image aside, the man was mocking Vader from a secular standpoint.

So, why did Obi-Wan Kenobi cut off the man's arm? Because that's what Jedi do! Jedi are mystical holy warriors. They are wild and unkempt. They cut off the arms of other people because that's just how they roll! They're not nice and cuddly. They're cruel, deceptive and manipulative, and severe. 

Their enemies are not the Sith, who conveniently take on all of the evil features of industrial society. Their enemies should be the secular professional classes, who tolerate a disfiguring of the natural order for higher standards of living. 

Instead, as the series has gone on, this notion has been forgotten. 

Here is a recent depiction of the Sith.

The Sith are red-skinned wild warriors. 

They have been made into, and I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but they have been made into Native Americans. 

Somehow, all of the bad aspects of industrial society, the pollution, the selfishness, the killing of innocent persons, have all been grafted onto the bad guys, who choose these vices because they enjoy them. Meanwhile, the Jedi and the Republic have it all: they live in harmony with nature despite being in an advanced star-faring society, they are selfless, and they preserve life. And never do they ever must make a choice against those values. 

It's two-dimensional, basically.

And it all started with the Empire Strikes Back, when Force powers were let out of the bag. With the Empire Strikes Back, the conflict moved from being one of the secular world vs the mystical world, and instead to a two-dimensional mystical and evil protagonist, that the good secular persons could wipe out with zealotry.