(First things first, we'll be tackling this from the prequels to the originals, as it makes more sense linearly, and even though we didn't like them, they're part of the story, so we've gotta deal with that reality. Sorry, guys.)
So here goes!
1. Emotions.
When little orphan Ani is brought before the Jedi counsel, their major argument for not training him is: "He's too old."
This is because Force-sensitive children are basically harvested as infants. Even Master Obi-Wan was taken when he was 6 months old. The purpose for this was to prevent the children from having fully developed emotional attachments to anyone, be that hatred or love. In fact, part of the training was the intentional suppression of emotions in infants (official guide handed down through the siblings. Yeah, it had cool pictures.)
If that reference proves wrong (as I can't find the book) then we can also take the Jedi code as a reference for it:
"There is no emotion."
NO emotion??? That's the ideal Jedi???
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm really bad at handling emotions myself and find them irritating a lot of the time, but to condemn them entirely is pretty extreme. Because if you don't have an emotional passion for something, then you would only fight for something with a sort of 'survival instinct' mindset, which would bring you down to a level lower than animals. Even lions came to save a human child's life, not because they had to, not because it would sustain their survival - in fact, it endangered them - but because they could and wanted to.
Now, put those same people - who actively strive to be detached and unemotional about life - in charge of law enforcement. Boy, I wonder how that could go wrong.
One thing that always sort of confused me as a kid was why there was a definite division between Jedi and Sith style powers. Why was it okay to essentially break into someone's will and mangle it, while giving them a zap of lightning wasn't?
On the one hand, this could be because Jedi mind tricks are used for 'peace' (aka, the Jedi in the situation getting his way instantly without any discussion or dissection of the subject to find out what was really going or needed,) but on the other hand, one is effectively obliterating someone's will for however long you need, while with the other they may have a fighting chance. Therefore, lightning, while painful, is slightly more in the morally-proper zone.
(As a bonus, think of all the uses for Force lightning besides torture!)
3. Priorities
So, in the Empire Strikes Back (spoilers if you haven't seen it) Luke is training with Yoda in the swamps of Dagoba when he starts getting the sense (probably via his Force bond with Leia) that his friends have been captured by Darth Vader. He prepares to leave, but Yoda tells Luke to stay to complete his training, saying that he needs to control the Force better before he can defeat Vader. While this is true - let's face facts, it is - he's basically telling Luke, "Forget your friends, you've got to become powerful enough to kill that guy." There's no option of him actually going with Luke to help - which was possible, he could've sat on Luke's lap all the way there, rode piggy-back, and crushed Vader like a grape - all the focus is put upon making Luke into a lean, mean, killing machine to assassinate this one guy instead of saving his friends. The only excuse they can give for this is:
"You don't actually know that Vader will kill them!"
Why yes, that does seem rather unlikely.
*Stage whisper * "Do you want another Darth Vader? BECAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU MAKE ANOTHER DARTH VADER, MAKING A MAN PRIORITIZE GAINING POWER OVER HIS LOVED ONES!!!!"
So yeah. The Gray Jedi has spoken her piece. If anyone has any counter arguments backed up by facts, please bring them forward, I like respectful stimulation :)
Ich leibe dich, y'all!
