In a recent poll by @Duo Lightning Production Studios, the prompt of: “Which would be worse.” was given as well as two options: A. Being a Clone in the Jedi Purge and B. Firing the Death Star. Both options include doing something that the average person would be against which is committing murder, with the first gunning down a friend who is a Jedi whereas the second has you supposedly vaporizing potentially billions of people. What interested me most about these two options, was the fact of free will that comes with firing the Death Star vs the inability to choose that would happen should you be a clone subject to order 66. Some of those who discussed the two options seemed to view Duo’s poll through the effect of blame and fault which would lead to guilt, essentially saying that, while being a clone trooper, you are blameless since, in that situation, you are not at fault for your actions and choice rather than freely choosing to push the buttons and flip the switches necessary to fire the Death Star where the consequence for your actions, guilt, is entirely your own. However, a thought came into my head while thinking about this way of looking at the two options: If you commit a sin that you committed without control of yourself, is it a sin? Now, in light of Order 66, you could, right away, say no! Seeing as the clones didn’t make the choice themselves and were forced to do it. However, interestingly, a concept similar to this exists between you and I. In our world, we have come to realize and accept that no one is perfect nor can be perfect. Some believe that people are not born with being evil, but become flawed by being “taught”, while others, on the other perspective, think that we are born with our flaws from our inception. But regardless, if you and I didn’t ask to come into this world and if we had no voice in the decision of whether we are flawed or not, why are we responsible for, for instance, telling a lie? “So what?” I could say! “I’m flawed! I’m only human!”, and yet our actions remain our own, even though we are incapable of changing ourselves from being blameless, even if we would like to be. At the end of the day, we still do wrong. We still choose what’s wrong. If being evil is “Just the way we are” and we have no control over that fact, how can we be blamed for what we do? One might say that we are because we made the choice and, by choosing to do wrong, we wanted to do it, even if we know it is wrong, even if we don’t want to give in, some how, we commit it. We may even come to regret it later, but in that moment, I wanted to tell the lie in order to evade the discomfort of what the truth would give me, so I did it. But, again, I could make the excuse that we are incapable of not sinning, so how can anyone blame us, even if we desire it and choose it? Could it be that we have this nature even before we knew any concept of anything? The plot twist is that, even while we had done no wrong, we chose our evil nature. Why? Because we wanted to do wrong.
Arguing with myself here:
|| But, I never said I wanted to do wrong!
| Yes, but you made your choice without choosing.
|| How this that possible?
| Because you would have chosen it had you been given the choice.
|| But how would you know what I would choose? I wouldn’t have chosen to be a bad person.
| But, my friend, you could say that you chose to be a bad person when you lied, couldn’t you? The way I look at it is that the proof is in the way you are now. If you had chosen to be good, you’d be good. Wouldn’t you? If you have done wrong that means that you chose an evil nature.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you disagree or are having trouble being convinced, I wouldn’t blame you for an instant, in fact, I’d be thoroughly baffled if anyone agreed! Anyways, I just wanted to take a little break and say that I hope I am not offending you. This is deep philosophical stuff we’re in and I know that people might be a bit sensitive being accused of something as harsh as choosing to be flawed. However, I certainly don’t think it makes one bit of difference about you. Its not like I’m pretending I didn’t do it too. I chose wrong just like, I believe, everyone else who has walked the earth. However, I’ll perhaps continue on that thought later. For now, and if you’re ready and still willing, we shall continue onward on applying my crazy philosophy in Star Wars.
One of the first thoughts that I had about Duo’s post was if being a clone had any difference in the levels of guilt you would feel. I wandered into the interesting realization that the reason people in the discussion felt that it would be better to be a Clone Trooper came down to an excuse being their inhibitor chip perhaps saying “It’s not my fault, since I’m flawed.” It was at this consideration that I connected it to the consensus that no one is perfect, and that it is impossible to be perfect. This, as you may have already realized, made me think that we could make the same excuse as the clone troopers did for the reasons shown above. Considering this, I began writing my thoughts down, wondering how I could possibly prove such an absurd point of view, and as I did so, it turned out that my original idea was wrong: the clone troopers were indeed still innocent. However, I wasn’t completely wrong. The scene that kept coming to mind during my examination was Rex’s specific encounter with order 66.
We see him struggle in his desperate attempt at keeping himself under his control, but, no matter what he does, his helmet falls out of his grip and he instead draws his blasters where he hesitates and shakes, wanting to divert is blasters, however, his efforts are futile and he has to give in. Now, what really stood out to me with this scene, even prior to this essay, is how, for me, Rex looks like he is in pain from his struggles. It pains him to try to stop himself, and the only way to get relief is to give in. As I said before, one of the reasons we sin is because we don’t want to feel the discomfort of not doing whatever it is that we want to do, which I demonstrated by the example of lying, and it is this that is communicated when I look at Rex and this scene. He is fighting a desire to kill Ahsoka. While it is true when it is said that the chip controls the clones, I think the chip is not taking control of their bodies, but their minds and desires. Their chips make them want to do wrong just as our the evil inside us wants to do wrong, and that is, to me, what the inhibitor chips now symbolize after looking at all of this. Both us and the clones were born with something that is unable to be fully put in check and something that we cannot change. The only reason the clones are still innocent is because they didn’t choose to have their flaw. You could say that they couldn’t choose to disobey the order, but, as I have already explained, if we have an evil nature and are imperfect by it, it’s impossible to be able to resist it totally. It is because of all these things that I now think that the inhibitor chip is a physical manifestation of our flawed nature, though I don’t think that this was an intention of Lucas and/or Filoni while crafting it.
If nothing else, I hope that, by reaching the end of this paper, you found it an interesting perspective on inhibitor chips and what they symbolize. I hope that I haven’t overstepped my boundaries, and I sincerely wish that I didn’t come across as trying to convince you of my way of thinking. If anything, my goal was to explain my reasoning so that it made sense to me! I would also like to thank you for reading and staying. It will always mean a lot!
Thank you, and may the Force Follow You.
