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eldstunga · 7 months

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Maintain your focus. Cheeky lil' Commission of a Cathar jedi...meditating.

Thank you so much for commissioning me!

#star wars #cathar #jedi #character portrait #commission #my art #swtor #edge of the empire #OC #return of the wrenchiest wrench #and a...focal aid.#do or do not #there is no vibe

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pratchettquotes · 4 months

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"Mister Lipwig, the world lives between those who say it cannot be done and those who say that it can. And in my experience, those who say that it can be done are usually telling the truth. It's just a matter of thinking creatively. Some people say 'Think the unthinkable,' but that's nonsense--although in your case, sir, I think you have the nerves for it. Now, don't let me detain you."

Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam

#havelock vetinari #moist von lipwig #raising steam #discworld #terry pratchett #uberwald #trains #railroads #train schedule #progress #invention #do or do not #impossible #pressure #deadlines #unthinkable #creativity #creative problem solving #you have the nerves for it

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thecleverqueer · 6 months

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Ahsoka: Have you kept up with your training?

Sabine: I try.

Ahsoka: You WHAT!?!

Sabine: I do! I DO!!!

#star wars #ahsoka tano #sabine wren #ahsoka series #the jedi the witch and the warlord #such a jedi #do or do not

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captainhaisley · 3 months

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They reached directly through the Internet to me specifically and asked for this and I was compelled.

Now the question is do I do the rest of them? If so, is school girl next? 🤔

#smosh art #smosh games #smoshblr #shayne topp #courtney miller #arasha lalani #spencer agnew #yoda #yodainatuxedo #smosh #smosh fanart #do or do not #head trip #cards against humanity

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adragonsfriend · 5 months

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Do or Do Not, There is No Try

I have seen, I think, the full gamut of misinterpretations of this phrase, so, I'm going to take a crack at breaking down its meaning, and also look a little at its impact on Luke, because someone once tried to tell me that Sidious couldn't've conquered the galaxy without Yoda, and I'm here to say that that's *so funny*, because actually Luke couldn't've saved Anakin without Yoda's teachings.

Let's look at another, simpler example first, to establish my method of analysis. Pretty much, it's about context. Lets take the sentence,

"Hey, don't cry, don't cry."

Let's ask some key questions:

Who would might be saying this and who might they be saying this to? An adult or older child might say this to a young child.

When might this be said? When the child is distressed, and either crying or potentially about to start crying.

What might the older person's intention be in this scenario? Comforting the child.

What is the cultural context? Crying can be caused by a wide variety of intense emotions, but (in modern western culture at least) it is most strongly associated with sadness or pain, negative emotions. There are sometimes negative attitudes about crying being a sign of weakness, but that's not a uniformly held idea, and young children generally get a pass on this.

We can debate about whether saying "Hey, don't cry, don't cry," is the best way to comfort someone who is crying and whether it does or doesn't reenforce negative ideas about crying, but phrased the way I've phrased it, and said in a generally comforting tone and accompanied by other comforting actions, it doesn't literally mean, "I command you to stop crying immediately."

It means, "I see that you're sad/hurting. I wish that you weren't experiencing those negative emotions that are causing you to cry, because I care about you and how you feel. You're going to be okay and this is a situation that we can handle."

(If anyone has, like, specific trauma around this phrase, please note I'm not saying you're not valid for having whatever feelings you have about it, I'm looking at it in the situation described above where intentions are all around pretty positive)

See? Context.

Now let's look at our phrase,

Do or do not, there is no try.

First, a list of common misinterpretations, some of which (I believe) come from people trying really hard to make sense of this phrase but coming at it from the wrong lens, some of which take it very literally, and some of which are cop outs:

it's not just advice about how to use the Force

it's not saying that effort doesn't exist, or that trying really hard is stupid

it's not saying that putting in your best effort is worthless if you don't succeed

it's definitely not saying to only do things you already know you can succeed at

it's not a meaningless platitude, and it's not totally open to any interpretation you'd like

So, context questions:

Who is saying this? Yoda, a life-long teacher of the Force, of lightsaber dueling, and of philosophy. Also a life-long leader, humanitarian, and warrior. He is also a Jedi.

Who is Yoda saying this to? Luke, his student, who aspires to face defeat a terrible evil--the empire--and generally help people where ever he goes. He intends do so by becoming a Jedi.

What is Luke doing when Yoda says this? He is talking about how he really needs his X-wing to not sink into the swamp so he can get off the planet, at the same time as he's saying, "But I don't really know if I can do anything about that so I'm gonna half-try and then give up," and, "My X-wing is very important but I can't have it but I need it so I'm not going to seek out any other solutions to my problem either." In this moment, Luke is whining, and not facing up to his problems (he got it from his dad).

What is Yoda doing when he says this? He's lifting Luke's X-wing out of the swamp with the Force, thereby solving Luke's most obvious outward problem--his dependence on his ship for transport. He's a teacher showing his student the capabilities of the Force, addressing another of Luke's outward problems--his lack of knowledge of the Force. He's also, because this is how both movies and teaching work, addressing Luke's main inward problem: his lack of perseverance and conviction. In this moment, Yoda is helping, and teaching.

So it's a phrase that, along with Yoda's demonstration, is meant to teach Luke something about conviction and effort. Well, we probably already knew most of that, so let's ask some more questions:

Is there a larger context of this phrase? Yes, this phrase is being said in a movie, and so Luke isn't it's only intended audience, and Yoda isn't the only one saying it. The other audience is us, the literal audience, and the writer is George Lucas. All the cues in the movie tell us the audience that Yoda saying this is an important moment we should be paying attention to.

What are his opinions of/intentions for Yoda and the Jedi? Extremely positive. He does not say they are perfect--the conclusion of RotJ says that Yoda and Obi-Wan were wrong about something--but he does say that Jedi are people striving very actively to help others and to be their best selves. These are characters through whom a lot of his beliefs about what goodness is and how people should live are being transmitted. So as this idea of Yoda's is not the one challenged by the conclusion of RotJ, we can assume it is meant to be interpreted positively.

What were George Lucas' cultural inspirations for Jedi culture that relate to this phrase? A combination of christianity, buddhism, and his own unique ideas. To oversimplify: Christianity gives us the light vs. dark, true evil and true good both exist and we should strive for goodness part, buddism gives us the mastery of self, non-attachment, and meditation parts. I am not an expert in any religion, and definitely not in buddhism--I was at least raised christian--but even I know enough to know I'm about to make some sweeping generalizations, so grain of salt, if you please. But disclaimers aside, I believe his phrase, and the way it is phrased, are and indication it is being inspired more by the buddhism side of things. The way christian texts, specifically the Bible, are written typically goes "here is a story/parable about some people doing something, and here is how big G god and/or Jesus reacted to that." There are plenty of metaphors sprinkled in, but they are mainly there to clarify points for readers. Buddhist texts on the other hand (and lots of other easter belief systems as well, like daoism, hinduism, etc. It's an important note that these belief systems don't necessarily conform to the western idea of what a religion is, and often their original languages don't even have a word which is equivalent in meaning to "religion") use metaphor and poetic language in often deliberately contradictory ways, to both express and make the reader/listener (lots of these "texts" were (and still are) oral traditions before they were written down) think about things which are considered impossible to fully express in words and which defy description in other ways as well. The ongoing, unresolved struggle to reconcile contradictory descriptions is the point. Importantly, this doesn't mean those texts can be interpreted however a reader would like. There may be more than one right interpretations, but there can also be wrong, or lacking, interpretations.

Our phrase has a positive/useful message (you can debate whether you agree with that message later, if you'd like), it can't just be about the Force since a very non-Force having audience it meant to gain something from hearing it, and it's not meant to be taken entirely literally.

From here, it's me taking the context and running.

Do or do not, there is no try.

Yoda is making a statement about being decisive, about commitment, and about the unexpected power that can be found when you really put all your effort towards a goal.

Yoda is giving a lesson much more important than 'How to lift things 101,' and much more relevant than how to use the Force.

He's telling Luke to stop whining and make a decision about what it is that he really wants to do, and telling him that when he does know that that is, he needs to put all his effort behind that goal.

Star Wars is telling all of us to stop whining. To decide what we believe in and to act on it.

(If there are any Doctor Who fans who've made it this far, there is a really similar theme across Doctor Who, especially for the 12th Doctor--my personal favorite. Yoda and the Doctor would make wonderful chaos friends.)

And guess what? Luke takes this advice to heart. He decides he's going to redeem his father and he puts aside all doubt, all hesitation, everyone--Yoda, Obi-Wan, Leia, all of rebel leadership--who would tell him it's impractical or foolish or not worth his time.

Do or do not?

Luke is going to do this.

He's not going to say, "Eh I'd really like it if my father redeemed himself, but I don't know if I can do it or if I should try or how I should go about trying."

He makes the decision that he's committed to that path and then stakes his life on succeeding.

He may be going against Yoda's specific opinion on Vader, but he's absolutely doing so in accordance with the commitment which Yoda helped to teach him.

#star wars #sw rant #luke skywalker #yoda #do or do not #jedi philosophy #religious philosophy #literary analysis #star wars yeeteth

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roguetoo · 2 months

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#star wars #x-wing #yoda #do or do not #there is no try

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january-summers · 8 months

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I kinda have a weird relationship with "Do or Do Not, There is No Try" but that's a "context and my interpretation vs everyone else's"

Whenever I hear it from other people 'DoDN, TiNT' always seems to be read as "don't try, DO." which is like, you have no option but to succeed because that's what you've been told to do. Trying isn't good enough if it's not perfectly successful.

But I've always seen 'DoDN, TiNT' as more of: Luke was there with like a "well, I guess I'll try (but I'll probably fail)" attitude, and Yoda was "You'll either do it or you won't, but don't think about the maybe, because the maybe is self doubt. the maybe is secretly no."

When you start a task, there's two outcomes: something gets done or nothing gets done. There isn't really a middle ground there, it's something, or nothing. You can manage a lot of something or a little something, but it's still something verses nothing.

But that's not how people want to say it, not what they want it to mean. They want it to be all or nothing. In which case something becomes the middle ground they want you to believe doesn't exist.

And that's kind of bullshit. Very few things can be completed 100% the way you set out to complete them, there's no real perfect. Like sure, jigsaw puzzles have an exact number of pieces per, and that's something that has a perfect solve, but other things, things like basic chores, aren't like that.

You have a list of eight things you need to do but only managed 5? 3? 1? Congratulations, that's not an "I tried" that's an "I did." You managed something.

Saying "Do or Do Not, There is No Try" to mean "anything less than a perfect 100% completion means nothing" is bullshit.

Everyone one's abilities and stamina are different, don't go in assuming you'll completely fail, any effort made, even if it's not perfect, means you've accomplished something, you have done.

Any effort is success.

Sorry, for the ramble, I have feelings about this phrase and saw another post mentioning it, got halfway through this though train and realised I did not want to hijack that one, because it would have been a complete derail, and rude to boot in the face of how much "DoDN, TiNT = All Or Nothing" folks have used this to hurt people including them.

#just blog stuff #mental health stuff i guess #do or do not #do or do not there is no try #interpretations

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curatorsday · 11 months

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Sunday, May 21, 2023 - Talk Like Yoda Day

Years ago I worked for a military college. Its motto was “I will try.” That never did sit well with me because, as Yoda said, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Happy Talk Like Yoda Day!

Image by martin from Pixabay

#celebrate every day #talk like yoda #do or do not #there is no try

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oxzebi997 · 2 years

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I have ideas, fun ideas I’m excited to plot out and get together

But god they’re far away from where I’m at in the story

#ao3 writer #star wars #ao3 #pokemon legends arceus #archive of our own #fanfic #pokemon #writers on tumblr #detour to my heart #alone in the universe #vode an #do or do not

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therealjediknight · 2 years

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✌️

#star wars #cosplay #this is the way #the mandalorian #do or do not

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mayhemchicken-artblog · 7 days

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in the hour or so it took me to draw this op turned reblogs off

EDIT: reblogs are STAYING OFF. op was right and correct and i have never regretted making a post as much as this one. if you want to reblog my art you can reblog something else from my blog. or commission me, lord knows i deserve financial compensation for the nightmare this post has put me through

#art #i had to block multiple people because of this post and i easily could have blocked more #do you guys have any idea how exhausting it is to hear 400 people make the exact same unfunny joke each thinking they're being original #or worry that another person might get harassed over a post i made because of the way people are talking about them #or be harassed/insulted YOURSELF because some people don't know how to fucking behave #you guys don't get reblogs back. you should be grateful i'm leaving the post up at all.

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powdermelonkeg · 29 days

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