Well. Perhaps there's another character that's been overlooked?
Boss Nass.
He's stocky, loves obeisance, short-tempered, and a proud isolationist - he wants to keep his people apart from the dangerous world around them. Most importantly, Boss Nass works independently from the Royal House on Naboo. Could not the Interpreter Foundation be akin to giving the finger to the Royals in SLC? DCP has essentially created an ideological schism off the main church, and continues to act defiantly despite the church repeatedly telling its members to walk gently in the light of the Lord. That seems like a real Boss Nass kind of thing to do.
Most importantly, Boss Nass is renowned for swallowing his meals in a single gulp. Yep, he loves to eat and finds eating to be a signal of his status. I don't want to belabor DCP's obvious fixation with food, but it's been a clear sign to his readers that he likes to let people know he eats well, and often, because he's a bon vivant.
DCP is Boss Nass.
Hiring a part-time news entertainment anchor as SecDef, what could go wrong?
Makes one wonder how many drops of blood Jesus lost due to Peterson's sinful appetites and unwillingness to curb his passions and honor that little mark at the navel, if you know what I mean. Surely, Peterson must have caused Jesus a tremendous amount of grief as he hung from the cross being grieved over the appetites, passions, and cheeseburgers consumed by a single man.
Good call re: Boss Nass, Dr. Cam--I can definitely see the similarities. Plus, Boss Nass tends to fling gobs of spittle when he speaks, so there's that, too. And I can't help but think of this line:
Boss Interpreter Nass wrote:Mesa no carrrrrrin' about the Naboo. The Naboo think they so smarty. They think their brains so big.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's pretty much the exact same sentiment--one of the key insecurities--that's at the heart of Mopologetics. All the attention lavished on academia, and on degrees. The adoration of places like Cambridge and Oxford. The constant need to reference scholarly credentials. The very existence of something like "Mormon Scholars Testify" (which has basically been abandoned as a project--no new entries in *five* years) is due to feelings of inferiority and a need to "prove" to everyone that even people who believe in Mormonism are also "smarty" and have "brains so big."
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
At the risk of derailing this thread, I'm going to have to disagree with that last part. As Darth Sidious charged him; "Do what must be done!" Darth Vader did everything not out of a quest to wield power but out of a misplaced sense of duty.* This allegiance to duty is what allowed the Emperor to metaphorically lead him by the nose.
If so, it wouldn't have been out of spite or hatred, but only if he thought it must be done.
*To bring order to the galaxy.
Well, yes, to bring order to the galaxy and with a little luck he at one point hoped to destroy Palpatine and have Padme rule at his side. Remember that? In any case, Vader had a great deal of hate and anger pent up in his soul. After slaying the sand people who were responsible for his mother's death, Anakin made it clear that he killed all of them, the women and the children too, and declared, "I hate them!"
So how about Peterson? Is he ready to commit murder and blaspheme the Holy Ghost just to prove he's a badass? Has Peterson actually ever said he hates anyone in particular? Poor Peterson, he will do anything to get attention. He's an attention whore! Right?
I think you make a valid point, Shulem. The Afore is *not* truly like Vader for all kinds of reasons, but it's easy to see why he might entertain fantasies about being similar to Darth Vader: the overwhelming power, the fear he inspired in his foes, his mastery of the Force, and so on. Mopologists love the idea of being able to pulverize enemies. I'm sure the notion of being able to Force-choke someone is immensely appealing to them. But their evil is fundamentally petty and banal by comparison. Vader's story is ultimately tragic and redemptive, and you can't say the same thing about any of the Mopologists. (What, is the Afore's son ultimately going to best him in battle and successfully convince him that his long campaign of Mopologetics was evil?) So I think it's fair to say that the apologists get a "Mopologetic Chubb" at the thought of being Vader, but the more apt comparison is really with a character like Jabba the Hutt, or Boss Nass.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
At the risk of derailing this thread, I'm going to have to disagree with that last part. As Darth Sidious charged him; "Do what must be done!" Darth Vader did everything not out of a quest to wield power but out of a misplaced sense of duty.* This allegiance to duty is what allowed the Emperor to metaphorically lead him by the nose.
*To bring order to the galaxy.
Well, yes, to bring order to the galaxy and with a little luck he at one point hoped to destroy Palpatine and have Padme rule at his side.
That's incorrect. Once he became Darth Vader, he never showed any hint of rebelling against the Emperor--Padme or no Padme--until the end of his battle against Luke in The Empire Strikes Back.
Remember that?
No, because it never happened.
.
"When the Mormon God requires a PR crisis to act moral, we've clearly outgrown him."
Doctor Scratch wrote: I'm sure the notion of being able to Force-choke someone is immensely appealing to them. But their evil is fundamentally petty and banal by comparison.
Didn't Midgley claim to attack a classmate who then years later was strong in the church due to the attack? You'll need to remind me who were candidates for said choking, but wouldn't this not only include enemies, but other members of the church? Including high-ranking leaders like apostles? It's quite revealing that in another thread the apologist claim has come to light that the Lord used the priesthood ban as a kind of "force choke" against black church members that successfully stimulated harmony between black and white members.
"if you can't admire Joe Biden as a person then it's probably, you got a problem." -- Lindsey Graham
Well, yes, to bring order to the galaxy and with a little luck he at one point hoped to destroy Palpatine and have Padme rule at his side.
That's incorrect. Once he became Darth Vader, he never showed any hint of rebelling against the Emperor--Padme or no Padme--until the end of his battle against Luke in The Empire Strikes Back.
Remember that?
No, because it never happened.
I'm afraid you are incorrect, Dr. Shades. Here is the direct sequence of events that unfolded and show how Darth Vader (Anakin) did in fact have plans to destroy his master but all that changed after his terrible injuries in the lake of fire.
TIME STAMP: REVENGE OF THE SITH
PALPATINE: Good. Good. The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth Vader.
ANAKIN: Thank you, my Master.
PADME: Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can.
ANAKIN: Don't you see, we don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be.
So, as you can see, Darth Vader (Anakin) originally thought to betray his master and arrange things to be exactly how he wanted them to be.
Mm, dunno about that. A big plot weakness in Star Wars is how all the characters keep finding each other In. The. Galaxy.
Even if the galaxy far, far away is much smaller than the Milky Way, it has to be way too big for people to just keep bumping into each other like that.
But maybe all the events take place in popular resorts, and Vader likes cruises. That would raise the odds of meeting by a lot.
