sith_happened: (Anakin: I'll get the paste)
Anakin Skywalker ([personal profile] sith_happened) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2008-02-20 10:37 pm
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Ethics [Thursday, February 21]

Anakin leaned a little uncomfortably against his desk as he waited for the students to take their seats.

"Today we talk about diligence, temperance, and forgiveness," he said quietly, "and we're going to use examples from last week's exercise to do so."

He flipped the hologram to life, focusing on a shot of Palpatine's face. "The goal was to save this man, the democratically chosen leader of your galaxy, at the cost--if necessary--of your own lives. After the first dozen or so droids shooting at you, you certainly had the option of retreating and leaving the mission for someone else to complete. So when does diligence turn to foolhardiness?"

The holocam switched to footage of two Jedi, blue blades flashing, taking on an older man wielding a red lightsaber. The older Jedi went ricocheting into a wall, then the second one, fire in his eyes, closed in on their opponent who dropped to his knees moments later with two lightsabers held to his throat.

The Jedi wielding the lightsabers looked an awful lot like their teacher.

"Temperance," Anakin said softly. "Do you kill him now? He's dangerous. He held the head of a galaxy-wide government hostage. He injured your partner. He certainly tried to kill you first. Or do you capture him and leave him to the whims of the courts?"

He shook his head. "Finally, forgiveness. You save the chancellor, at great personal expense, only to discover he's not the kind of man you thought he was. Your act of heroism has managed to make the situation at home much, much worse. How do you forgive yourself for it? Can you forgive the others who put you into that position?"
raspberryturk: (Sideways Glance)

Re: Answer the discussion question: forgiveness

[personal profile] raspberryturk 2008-02-21 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
"Wrong choices are only wrong choices if you know they're wrong when you're makin' em. Otherwise, they're just mistakes. You didn't know any better, then there's nothin' to go kickin' yourself for. If you knew full well and still let him run around causin' chaos, then you can kick yourself in the head all you like, yo." Reno wasn't half as cocksure answering this one as he had been the last two. "Either way, bein' miserable about it afterward ain't gonna change what happened. Probably nothin's gonna undo what happens later because of somethin' you did or didn't do. Kinda makes it... difficult sometimes, to get over it an' forgive yourself for it. But if you can't do that much, then you can't exactly function again, either."

Especially when you know you're just going to turn around and make the same bad mistakes all over again. And again. And again. Ad infinitum.