Discussion Ok, Star Wars nerds... (a scene from 'Revenge of the Sith')

[mikeymikec]

The joke in the meme aside, it made me think. The job of raising a child mostly involves taking one feral miniature human and attempting to make them more civilised. The semi-feral children at this point logically still have behavioural issues, they probably get pulled away from every conflict (because that's the jedi way), they probably have poor control over their force powers, and then along comes someone who threatens a whole class of them at once, someone they know they can really let rip on, *and* the kids have access to kiddie-sized lightsabers.

I suspect what should have happened is either that Anakin would have realised this, backed out of the room quietly and done something else like gas the room instead, or he would have been trying to detach one kid gnawing on his shin while another kid jumps on his back and ignites a lightsaber while pointing it into Anakin's ear.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I will just add this :

 

[Quintessa]

I suspect what should have happened is either that Anakin would have realised this,...

From a practical standpoint, he either needed clones with blasters; or, as you said, something impersonal like sealing the room and flooding it with gas.
The idea of "youngling berserk mode" is hilarious, though.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

The joke in the meme aside, it made me think. The job of raising a child mostly involves taking one feral miniature human and attempting to make them more civilised. The semi-feral children at this point logically still have behavioural issues, they probably get pulled away from every conflict (because that's the jedi way), they probably have poor control over their force powers, and then along comes someone who threatens a whole class of them at once, someone they know they can really let rip on, *and* the kids have access to kiddie-sized lightsabers.

I suspect what should have happened is either that Anakin would have realised this, backed out of the room quietly and done something else like gas the room instead, or he would have been trying to detach one kid gnawing on his shin while another kid jumps on his back and ignites a lightsaber while pointing it into Anakin's ear.

One critique: 'feral' implies learned behaviors that are antisocial/incompatible with established social structures, like feral hogs un-domesticating, feral cats not integrating well with 'house' cats, etc. Kids aren't feral, they're just underdeveloped and usually pretty dumb. That said, Anakin would annihilate a room full of those untrained idiots, even if they all had lightsabers and didn't freak out as soon as the blood and limbs started flying. They might have had a chance if they just all turned on their lightsabers and just threw them all at him at once but even then he'd probably just force push the deathwad through the window and send the little morons with it.

 

[mikeymikec]

One critique: 'feral' implies learned behaviors that are antisocial/incompatible with established social structures

Nope. It's about an animal that acts on impulse, emotion and instinct, plus what you said about lack of socialised behaviour. Without proper parenting, children will do exactly what they want to do with little regard for consequences. Most parents will happily acknowledge their kids can be little shits, now imagine such behaviour plus a stabbing weapon and force powers: The shitty things kids will do while growing up but with those extra elements of chaos on the mix, and in this scenario they're pretty sure they're going to die if they don't defend themselves.

The Harry Potter universe at least goes into the idea a bit that Hogwarts has an infirmary which can house at least 50 people precisely because kids with magical powers will do incredibly dumb shit all the time!

IMO you're thinking of the outcome in the context of a fight between a trained adult vs largely untrained kids, whereas I'm thinking a multitude of magical children at best deciding to 'Home Alone' their last line of defence, or at least not giving consideration to the building's structural integrity before force-throwing something at Anakin

(More seriously, yes I concede that a lot of kids are going to panic)

 

[nakedfrog]

I think you're over-estimating the younglings and under-estimating Anakin's bloodlust.

 

[mikeymikec]

I think you're over-estimating the younglings and under-estimating Anakin's bloodlust.

Meh. Even with my 2020's era cynicism regarding the stupidity of humanity given half the chance, Anakin's fall to the dark side is still pretty weaksauce. It would only help your argument slightly if the younglings were covered in sand.