The Philosophy of Kreia: A Critical Examination of Star Wars

Where have the other great and original videos on the channel gone?? (It's a shame I didn't download it) (I haven't been on the channel for about a year)

The main strength of Kotor 2 is character writing and ability to roleplay any kind of Exile you want. Kreia's philosophy is interesting, but i think a lot of her stance towards the force comes not from the inside the world, but from the meta perspective of the observer. In the Star Wars universe force would be just another, well, force, a natural phenomenon constantly moving certain equilibrium. It's like someone taking a philosophic stance and trying to destroy thermodynamics into our world. Makes sense from meta point of view, but a bit silly if you immerse yourself into Star Wars world.

Force isn't an intelligent entity that enslaves or binds everyone. Force is another cup that gives shape to being. Realization to that is terrifying, sure, but you are never truly unlimitedly free. Freedom is to degree what you CAN do, as in physically capable, compared to which standard you seet to freedom. There's always something that will steer you. Kreia is mad at the world and at herself, but blames Force.

Kreia is the best villain ever. The villain literally gave the heroes, the Jedi council a second chance by bringing the Exile to them, to show the Sith had return. And they were gonna Exile (her/him) again. And Kreia came in the room and the hood was down! She killed Vrook and the others. I love her so much. Thank you KOTOR 2, and most importantly, thank you Kreia.❤

Obiwan loved Quigon as Quigon loved him (parent son)
Obiwan loved Anakin (brother partners)
Anakin loved Padme as Padme loved Anakin (romantic)
Anakin loved Ahsoka as Ahsoka loved Anakin (more than friends romantic)
Luke loved Leia as Leia loved Luke (brother sister semi romantic pre revelation)
Leia loved Han (romantic)
Finn loved Rey (brother sister)
Rey loved Leia (guardian)
Rey loved Luke (father daughter)

Compassion AND Passion are the dna rules for each person who are connected through eachother and the force and also is the unity of The Force!

I love Nihlus the best of the 3 villains in the game, as he is the main villain of the kotor 2 game and is terrifying and engrossing and investing and as thats the best final battle of the game!

3 years after I found this video and it feels like every 3-4 months I rewatch it again

You know, it's fascinating, Kreia became everything she despised. She did an excellent job of exposing the failings of the Jedi and the Sith as both wrong and inadequate paths. And yet, she failed to reveal or exemplify where a truly better path lay. In the way that she lived, she was like a Sith, but simply with more subtelty. Her goals were her own, but every life around her was no more to her than a means to her end.

She hated the force because she believed it was manipulating the people of the galaxy and sacrificing so many of their lives for it's own ends. But she manipulated people on a massive scale, intending and willing to kill as many people as it took, even if it was most of the galaxy, to destroy the force she hated.

And in it all, she never seemed to consider the possibility that perhaps it was not the force after all that caused such destruction. Perhaps it was people like her who truly manipulated the galaxy and caused mass destruction and ruin. Perhaps the force was merely a means by which it was accomplished. Perhaps, it was simply the natural course of human nature when it is corrupt.

Such is the hypocrisy of subjective morality. She wanted what she wanted because of her own feelings and experiences and perspective, and she would sacrifice anything and anyone to accomplish it, not for others, but for herself; and she treated people as no more than tools, the very thing that she hated the force for seeming to have done.

Her example was one of manipulation, of teaching some if it suited her purpose, and throwing away the lives of others if it achieved her goal. It was the kind of concept of freewill that scorns the idea of objective right and wrong, and so is willing to do anything to anyone to get what it wants. Desiring revenge for all pain caused to her, but willing to cause such pain to anyone else if it suited her aims.

She is a lesson. A lesson of the kind of destructive hypocrisy one falls into if enforcing what you want becomes more important than truth or right. A lesson of how corrupted wisdom can be used to destroy, instead of to heal. And a lesson that perceiving the failings of others does not mean you have found truth yourself.

One of the great masterpieces in her tale is perhaps that her story is even more tragic than that of either the Jedi or the Sith. For she saw the failings of both, and yet herself failed to find the way that was better, but instead fell into a path no less empty. Manipulation. Betrayal. And corruption. And in the end, she was still lost.

Came back to watch this after watching the Ahsoka show and hearing Baylan talk about the endless cycle and pondering a way to end it. He's certainly not like Kreia, he doesn't seem inclined to kill the force or anything so extreme, but the fact that another former jedi is pondering such questions is immensely cathartic. Sadly I doubt his quest will yield any answers, let alone results, but its just nice to see that now Kreia isn't the only character in Star Wars (That I've seen) to take issue with the cycles of jedi and sith and the eternal conflict. Alas for both of them, its an unsolvable problem since the nature of sentients and the nature of the force, and the resulting interplay, pretty much guarantees the cycle remains eternal.

Usage of any post-lucas footage earned you a dislike

It is absolutely terrifying how much of her philosophy can be applied to our own world...
Just replace "the Force" with nature.

Kreia is one of my all time favorite video game characters & fictional characters in general.
I sympathize with her disdain for the Force... because she is right. Think about it. Does anyone in Kotor 2, Exile in particular, offer any ideological answer or rebuttal to her arguments for galaxy being better without it? The whole franchise borderline outright supports her side of the things & I can't think of many instances across the history of Star Wars, where something even remotely argues against her point. Granted, I think case for her being wrong (in objective world defining sense, not in sense of her being wrong in her reasoning behind seeing the Force the way she does) could feasibly be made, but I've just never seen that happen.

Beautiful video btw, one of best KOTOR analysis videos out there, for sure. I've come back to it every now and then.

I just really dont like Kreia. While I agree that the jedi order has some serious flaws, and the sith likewise. But I cant see how she claims to be so high and might when she takes pleasure in manipulating others for her benefit, and acting as if its just or intelligent. Also, she does not stop berating the exhile for anything they do. No matter which dialog option you choose she will always pick it apart and try to impart her so called "knowledge". And when morality is brought up, she simply says "do not pretend like you care about it" which is an extremely flawed ideology. A society can not subsist without morality or moral code, if we didnt we'd be no better than the feudel ways of the sith.

I love coming back to this video as well as to Kreia character.

I think the force affects the mind of it's users in a way we can't understand. It invades the mind and take control like it guides it. I think the lore is messed up.

i suppose the video of critics of grey jedi is deleted? cant find it anywhere

this video is fantastic both as a star wars content video and as a philosophy expansion i would never watch a video of this length without losing interest or skipping parts, however i watched this entire video with great enthusiasm, and that definitely required much compromise from the creator, thus i wanted to congratulate you for such honorable work

author, please tell me your thoughts on darth gravid, who went mad after combining the light and dark side at once

Your video about grey jedis is gone ?

There is no death. There is the force.
Wow, something tells me there is some truth to that.

I will honestly never be able to think about Starwars the same way.

Я просто скажу, что филсофия крэи это просто пафосный понт. Философия Креи не только в том что Джедаи бывают не очень светлыми так скажем, а ситхи не очень темными. А именно в том, что нет разделения силы на светлую и темную и что по сути есть просто сила. Но это бред потому что и так ясно что Светлая СТОРОНА силы это часть некой одной большой силы. как и темная стороноа. Только вот это две ЧЕТКО РАЗДЕЛЕННЫЕ стороны этой силы которые отвечают за абсолютно разые аспекты мироздания и вселенной. Проще говоря Светла сторона не дает вам эгоизма и подобного, а другая сторона не даст вам вдруг совести. В этом как бы и кроется конфликт джедаев и ситхов. Ситхи думают что поступишвшись моралью, завуалировав это под освобождение от оков, станут сильными и добьются чего-то. Джедаи говорят что мораль это кране важно, и да тут боятся эмоций, потому что эмоции это еще и желания чего либо, это привязаности и это может толкать как искушения к тому чотбы преступить мораль. А человек претупающий мораль веротяно поступает во вред окружающим. Всё просто - есть четкое разделение на добро и зло тут - зло в лице ситхов считает что благо окружающих это не так важно и думают лишь о своем благе, часто оставляя за собой выжженую пуустыню по сути. Окружающих в бедах. Добрые считают важным благо окружающих и всех в мире, и хранят это благо, борются с теми кто пытается разурать такое благо и учат других людей как это благо сохранить. Тут нет никакого баланса и серой морали, какой-то там супер пафосной философии Креи. Крея просто персонаж которого придумал пафосный автор чтобы показать какой мир насамом деле серый а взгяд на джедаев как на добрых людей и ситхов как на злых = это наивно. Вся филсофия Креи сводится к тому, что надо позволить себе и быть подонком иногда и быть добрым потому что люди немного подонки и немного добрые всегда. Только вот рано или поздно человек выбират что считает важным в мире из этого постепенно. Готов человек поступаться благом окруащих или же это кажется человеку непрпавильным. И делая такой выбор все чаще человек так или инче стаовится или добрым ОСОЗНАННО или злым точно так же.

In the history of mankind, hitler, chairman mao, ghenkis khan etc were all helped by other stupid and greedy accomplice and caused huge suffering to the society. It will happen again and again

I like to think of Kreia as an inversion of Obi-Wan from the original trilogy.

Interesting

Kreia? Isn’t her name traya?

Nar Shaddaa is a moon not a planet.

The jedi created the sith and what they did expect not them to fight back when they started the war themselves is ironic 😂

So what happened to that video of what was wrong with the "Grey Jedi"?

bruh this is legit the best video on star wars ive ever seen what is this???

Excellent essay, I just keep coming back to it over the years.

So, dear Author, let me teach you the Lesson of Mind. Please, tell me - have you learnt why the Exile could not pass Kreia's teachings onto next generations?

Kreia is mad because she suspects (correctly) that she's a character in a story written by someone else. Like anyone would be.

На самом деле вопрос тысячелетней давности - КАК поступать людям с МАГАМИ. По сути все, что предлагают фильмы и игры на протяжении минимум 30 лет это держать одаренных ВНЕ общества. Этот страх ни к чему не ведет и более того не эффективен. Что джедаи что ситхи - крайности. Должен же быть простой средний путь. И мечта Креи вообще отказатся от силы - является ИДИОТИЗМОМ :)

This is a bible for SW fan fiction writers such as myself.

Still coming back at least once a year to listen to this masterpiece of a video. Thank you.

This is one of the greatest videos I have ever seen in my life.

As a buddhist i've always found the jedi to be quite interesting as it seems like buddhism without Upaya. Upaya is the best way i can explain is useful or skillful decisions and thoughts based on circumstances. The jedi always seem to be following their code and for the most part do not practice Upaya. Even without Upaya, the jedi are also lacking in their practice of the 8 fold path. This imo separates the jedi from orthodox buddhism or theravada buddhism. The jedi as well seem to actively try to suppress emotions while failling to teach padawans awareness to them but simply the potential consequences. One of the important things we learn in buddhism is mindfulness and being mindful and aware of emotions and suffering is key to embracing it and being at peace with it. We do not suppress emotions but we can recognise where they come from, we can recognise how they control us and we can recognize we can be free from them.

That being said very little on buddhism is considered orthodox these days, there are many dogmatic temples today no different from the jedi temple in star wars. Many of these places are blinded by pride, greed and others. They do not use Upaya because they expect others to follow their fold, they have became entitled and comfortable with their place and standing in society. Its such a quiet thing to fall but far more terrible is to admit it indeed. Many of these temples have been quietly corrupted and they apply a corrupted idea of the 8 fold path, upaya and other concepts to their agenda to justify some twisted good they think they are doing. This may be a hot take but i find this particularly prevalent in the zen tea schools in japan, a taint that has persisted for centuries now to the point we still have texts and letters from Baisao 売茶翁 (The buddhist teacher that popularized Sencha) and his heavy critiques and challenges to the zen tea schools. He spent much of his life challenging the decisions and hold these teachings had on japanese society and politics.

Great video, watching it 6yrs later, but koror 2 has always had a way of being fashionably late, so much depth.

Dude you're wrong. Evil is just a point of view. The Sith know that with the help of the power of the force something can be accomplished and so they do. While the Jedi are far from the Light Side of the Force. Only if you press them they show that it is easy to get off course Ashla and use illegal means that are allowed for the Sith.

Interestingly enough, the story of the death of the force/magic has now been done in FF16

How can i acces rika blog?

Where the hell is your grey jedi vid?