Discussing
Star Wars: Episode II - He Who Lives by the Lightsaber…

What might a Christian ethic of conflict say about the lightsaber worship in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of Clones?

This is an interesting take, Kevin. I think I'm probably a little bit more charitably disposed to the saber-wielding Jedi, but I appreciate what you're getting at, and I agree with your basic premise.

I've always seen the virtue of Clones--disappointing in practically every other conceivable way--in its stark portrait of the beginning of the end of the Old Republic. The whole movie, at least to me, has a decidedly melancholy tone, with imminent doom on the horizon for the broken remnant of a once-glorious peacekeeping order that has been forced, hopelessly outnumbered, into the role of soldiers defending a defunct democracy on the verge of collapse and civil war.

A major sub-theme of the movie, though, is the increasing self-awareness of the Jedi leadership that they've lost touch with the ideology upon which the real source of their power in the galaxy once depended. There are even hints of its ideological obsolescence in a galaxy where blasters and huge droid armies settle disputes rather than diplomacy and personal encounter. Hence we see the Jedi increasingly forced to occupy the role of counter-aggressor rather than mediating peacekeeper, noted in passing by Anakin's tongue-in-cheek admission that even Jedi recognize the utility of "aggressive negotiations" (or negotiations with a lightsaber) when more peaceable approaches fail. And then there is the frank admission by Yoda and Mace Windu that the Jedi ability to use the Force has diminished, that the order has, in fact, fallen prey to the kind of complacency that a long peace in the galaxy has facilitated. When Anakin is preparing to go off alone with Padme, Obi-wan expresses his concern over how his Padawan isn't ready for this assignment because his powers have made him arrogant. "Yes...yes. A trait increasingly common among Jedi," Yoda agrees. "Too certain of themselves they are...even the older, more experienced ones." This arrogance is smugly evident in the Council's blatant dismissal of Padme's suspicions that Dooku is behind the Separatist attempts on her life. Windu simply can't conceive that a Jedi would turn to a murder for political gain. Obi-wan can't accept the possibility that a Sith lord could have been right under the Council's noses for decades without anyone noticing, etc., etc.

To me, this movie is the dirge of the franchise, the swan song of the Old Republic and the noble Jedi who once defended her. And that's the one thought that enables me to sit through such unthinkably bad lines as the all-powerful Yoda's "Seeing you alive brings warm feelings to my heart."