Oh, cram it. The rest of what he wrote is wrong.

This made me laugh. No really, it did. No more needs to be said.

Except that's exactly what he said.

 

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes." That is the line.

If I was walking in a park with my mom, and then out of nowhere I just pulled up a gun and shot a guy a guy for no apparant reason at all.

my mom would go "What the **** are you doing"?

It would be obvious to her WHAT I did, what she is really asking is WHY I did it, yet that isn´t what she asked.

This is the same thing. You are listening to what he is saying, instead of what he means with it.

If I was walking in a park with my mom, and then out of nowhere I just pulled up a gun and shot a guy a guy for no apparant reason at all.

 

my mom would go "What the **** are you doing"?

 

It would be obvious to her WHAT I did, what she is really asking is WHY I did it, yet that isn´t what she asked.

 

This is the same thing. You are listening to what he is saying, instead of what he means with it.

This is the most useless excuse in the book, meant for children who are not old enough yet to know what they mean themselves.

Child: Gosh sometimes I just wish I didn't live here!

Parent: Then don't!

Child: I didn't mean it like that!

I think it's time that we start saying what we mean. First of all, how is anyone supposed to take what he said other than at face value? The sentences were pretty clear, I couldn't find any ambiguity.

Secondly, a majority of his explanation seemed to be pulled out of thin air. "not the Jedi position that you were an ally or an enemy"? Really? The Jedi have made it their purpose since the introduction of the Sith to eradicate them. Every time they win, they think the Sith are done, then as soon as they come back it's war all over again. This is seen in KotoR, Episode I-VI, and several books. Here's an example:

Evidence of Sith in the galaxy

Jedi witch-hunt begins

Sith dies

Jedi become complacent

*skip far in the future*

Evidence of the Sith returning for the first time in living memory

Jedi witch-hunt begins.

So on and so forth throughout all of history. Are Sith blameless? Of course not, a majority of them want to rule the galaxy (though for different reasons). However, the Jedi are far from open-minded on the subject. They are very black-and-white when it comes to Force users not practicing their beliefs. At least until the Imperial Knights. Even then it is a touchy subject.

*Edit*

As for his insistence that the Jedi believe in a balance of both the lightside and darkside, that belief didn't even come into existence until Luke Skywalker created the new Jedi Order and the new Jedi Code. Obi-wan Kenobi never expressed any feeling for the darkside other than what was required of him by the Order, which was to fight the darkside wherever it sprang up and to never EVER use it.

*/Edit*

Point being, if we take his explanation at face value (which we have no choice but to do unless he himself clarifies his statement because the phrasing he used is quite clear to begin with), the entire explanation is just assumption based on personal preference in the conflict. He sympathizes with the Jedi, therefore he looks for non-existent ambiguity in the dialogue of the movie (the line in question in the OP) to justify his beliefs. It is common, but that does not make it correct.

If I was walking in a park with my mom, and then out of nowhere I just pulled up a gun and shot a guy a guy for no apparant reason at all.

 

my mom would go "What the **** are you doing"?

 

It would be obvious to her WHAT I did, what she is really asking is WHY I did it, yet that isn´t what she asked.

 

This is the same thing. You are listening to what he is saying, instead of what he means with it.

No, it's totally not the same thing. He is basically conceding that Anakin is gone, but doing so in language that is highly contradictory. It's a poorly written line by a terrible writer.

This is the most useless excuse in the book, meant for children who are not old enough yet to know what they mean themselves.

 

Child: Gosh sometimes I just wish I didn't live here!

Parent: Then don't!

Child: I didn't mean it like that!

 

I think it's time that we start saying what we mean. First of all, how is anyone supposed to take what he said other than at face value? The sentences were pretty clear, I couldn't find any ambiguity.

 

Secondly, a majority of his explanation seemed to be pulled out of thin air. "not the Jedi position that you were an ally or an enemy"? Really? The Jedi have made it their purpose since the introduction of the Sith to eradicate them. Every time they win, they think the Sith are done, then as soon as they come back it's war all over again. This is seen in KotoR, Episode I-VI, and several books. Here's an example:

 

Evidence of Sith in the galaxy

Jedi witch-hunt begins

Sith dies

Jedi become complacent

*skip far in the future*

Evidence of the Sith returning for the first time in living memory

Jedi witch-hunt begins.

 

So on and so forth throughout all of history. Are Sith blameless? Of course not, a majority of them want to rule the galaxy (though for different reasons). However, the Jedi are far from open-minded on the subject. They are very black-and-white when it comes to Force users not practicing their beliefs. At least until the Imperial Knights. Even then it is a touchy subject.

 

*Edit*

As for his insistence that the Jedi believe in a balance of both the lightside and darkside, that belief didn't even come into existence until Luke Skywalker created the new Jedi Order and the new Jedi Code. Obi-wan Kenobi never expressed any feeling for the darkside other than what was required of him by the Order, which was to fight the darkside wherever it sprang up and to never EVER use it.

*/Edit*

 

Point being, if we take his explanation at face value (which we have no choice but to do unless he himself clarifies his statement because the phrasing he used is quite clear to begin with), the entire explanation is just assumption based on personal preference in the conflict. He sympathizes with the Jedi, therefore he looks for non-existent ambiguity in the dialogue of the movie (the line in question in the OP) to justify his beliefs. It is common, but that does not make it correct.

You are very wrong about Obi Wan. How did Obi Wan over come Darth Maul? He once held his lightsaber to the throat of the man that killed the woman he loved, and very nearly lost himself. Obi Wan Kenobi fell in love - count em - three times in his life. One of which when he was a full Master during the clone wars. Which might explain his lenience with the Padme situation.

The jedi do not evidently have as black and white a perspective as you appear to think. Consider the founding of the sith empire. Discord among the jedi about the very nature of the force let to the exile of the dark jedi. Not the destruction, they simply would not have them as part of their order. The violence only came much later, when the dark jedi became intent on imposing their will on others. There is much evidence to show that it isn't the /SITH/ aspect of a person they object to, but that those people tend towards the same thing - acts of horror and violence. What about all the dark jedi / sith that have changed sides and been accepted? What about the chances many a jedi have given for the sith to surrender, or be convinced that the dark side isn't the only way.

The fact that there were two philosophies of the force: unifying and living. This on its own is evidence that the jedi have a variety of beliefs, opinions and positions on the force.

Mace Windu's variant of form VII. Frankly, the list goes on and on.

I'm pretty tired right now, but I'll finish with this. As to the bit about personal preference, and essentially looking for what we want to see in the dialogue. I think you'll find that should you take the line on its own, free from context it makes no sense. But should you consider the scene before, and the scene its said in, there is no searching for anything at all.

The line makes perfect, self-explanatory sense in much the same way subject-less sentences do in everyday use.

Well, the way I see it the force basically works because there is both light and dark.

Originally, in its base unused form the force is like a basket full of black and white ping pong balls, if you look at it from afar it looks gray. The forces of growth and decay are doing their own thing, keeping life going and returning death to nature so that life can begin anew.

Then some genius thought "Hey, if I do this I can lift things with my mind" and then the first force users were born. These guys probably used both sides of the force and didn't upset the whole much, until they started the proto Jedi stuff on Tython. These guys separated the light and dark sides and started making moral codes and specific training exercises to streamline force use according to their view of the universe.

What this does is put all the white balls from the basket in one corner and all the black ones in the other.

Then they started a war, bad **** went down and if we fast forward to the end the darksiders got their asses handed to them.

Now all the white balls is still to one corner, so what remains in the basket?

Then the darksiders come back and kick the lightsiders around a bit more, white balls in the basket.

And this continues forever, basically.

Every time one side gets more followers and use more force power, the other side gains that much strength because of the unused force energy that they can draw upon.

This also explains how the emperor could be such a ****** when the entire Jedi order existed, and yet fail to kill Luke when he was one of the few jedi in existance even though he went all overdrive force lightning on his ***.

Anyhow, this applies to both sides.

I think the final boss of the Black Talon flashpoint says it best though "You can no more destroy us than can a shadow the one who is casting it"

"Only the Sith deal in absolutes" - Obi Wan

 

This has got to be one of the most broken statements... not only is it an absolute statement in and of itself but also Yoda says to Luke in return of the jedi "Do or do not, there is no try".

 

I'm sure there are tons more, but those are two off the top of my head.

I've always thought that line was unnecessary, because after he says it, he pulls out his light saber and says something close to, "I will do my duty." Which would have been just fine by itself. But I'm looking at it from a writing point of view, from a philosophical point of view I don't have an opinion.

He's being contradictory about the idea that ONLY SITH DEAL IN ABSOLUTES. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Jedi, not a Sith, and he apparently deals in absolutes too. I cannot make this any more clear.

Well, actually, if you are saying that Obi-Wan's statement doesn't stand for his personal opinion but for the jedis in general then you are dealing in absolutes. This makes you a sith then. QED.