Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 5, Certainly a lot to Learn about Pirates.(Spoilers!!!)

Jod Nanawood has finally decided to show his true colors or has he? Lets see what the evidence says.

This Episode was very revelatory, kind of like yesterdays what if episode, maybe it is actual similarity because both are after all creations of Disney, or perhaps it is my mind finally unravelling under the weight of all the excessive blog writing I have been doing, I mean it is not my fault exactly, Is it?

Regardless, I speculated a lot about who this ship's last captain could be, and whether it was Jod and what not.

Turns out I was wrong, because Jod didn't recognize the ship in episode three, I misread the scene, he simply couldn't believe how bad his luck was that, now when he had actually finally found a ship and it is this broken and tattered.

I guess it is a coincidence that this ship looks a lot like the one Jod Captained in the beginning.

Or is it, I don't Know, because if there is one thing Jod has proven about himself, it is that he cannot be trusted, our very first interaction with him was when he got one of his crew thrown out of the ship into the emptiness of space for disobeying him.

And right before his big betrayal of the children where he challenges Fern to a battle to the death, he pours a vat of acid on his previous crew.

And yes, that is his previous crew, the giant black dog like alien is leading his previous crew post mutiny.

And while yes, Jod has been taking care of these kids and always done his best to defend them even at his own detriment often, he is doing pretty well enough for himself, besides, he needs them to get to At Attin, one of the old republic mints, that you could use to theoretically create infinite wealth.

And it is upon learning this information that he finally flips and challenges Fern for captaincy.

And through out the episodes we have met a lot of people that constantly remind us to not trust him as they have been betrayed by this man, a man of many names.

So that's it right? Jod was evil all along.

But hold on a second, if Jod really is the evilest of evil guys, why did all of these people trust him in the first place? You don't just trust someone who is obviously out to hurt you.

And granted, the episode does go to some lengths to explain this discrepancy, I think we have all met that one manipulative person who knows what to say at all times but beneath all of the pretty words and the beautiful promises, they are always looking out for themselves, and will betray you at the turn of a hat.

Someone who has both a high degree of Empathy(i.e. an ability to understand others emotional states.) and therefore emotional intelligence but also a high ammount of Dark Triad Traits, You Know Narcissism(i.e. a focus on one's own needs to a high degree often at the expense of the needs of others.), Psychopathy(or an inability to gain happiness from others happiness and other social interactions and often hating social interactions.) and Machiavellianism(or otherwise deliberate manipulative behaviors.)

A Dark empath so to speak.

But the thing about Dark Empathy is that it is unstable, one eventually either falls completely to the Dark Triad traits, or completely to Empathy, because understanding others emotional states while actively hating them is a very difficult thing to maintain.

This kind of personality arises mostly(in my experience.) when someone with a high degree of Social Awareness comes into a situation where everyone is constantly at each others throats and always looking out for themselves and you either kill or be killed, so as a general rule having traits that fall in Dark Triad category are generally favored.

Because the thing about these traits is that they are very good, at giving someone short term gains, but you know eventually the mask falls off, or the lies come out and everything they have built comes crumbling down.

This kind of Empathy also Arises, when someone who is a Dark Triad member finds themselves in a situation where everyone is interacting peacefully with everyone and happy about it. In this situation, if they try to hurt and harm their way out of it, they will very quickly attract the ire of everyone all at once.

So what then, well generally people try to resist change, so many a times people are very likely to return to their original state the moment they get the chance, but if this game between the two opposing forces of Dark Triad and empathy continues for a long enough time what we are becomes blurry, so the longer this state is maintained, the more likely it is that they choose the side they originally were not on.

Eventually this probability is almost fifty fifty.

In this long game, it is almost entirely up to the person to choose how to move forwards, because they have seen both the sides and learnt a lot of the pros and cons of both the sides.

So what does this choice depend on?

Before going forwards I would like to emphasize that all I am showing is what would make one or the other choice more appealing. Predicting with any certainty what choice someone will make is next to impossible. You know society is a chaotic system, i.e. small changes blow up over time, making prediction over a long period impossible.

Ah yes Qui Gon Jin but Pirate, of course.

So generally, what a person originally was is more appealing, but the contribution that factor makes falls off over time to an almost fifty fifty chance, what environment they are in plays a very huge role because that determines which pros and cons they learn and what is the event that finally causes them to choose?

So let's go through the list as it applies to Jod, he is a force sensitive, so highly likely he developed as an empathetic person first, he is in an environment that tells him to choose being a Dark Triad member, and what is causing him to choose is a scenario where he must choose between his own self gain and some kids.

Now let us have a look at the kinds of people he betrays, well, a bounty hunter, his old crew who were proven to be just as bad if not worse than him when it comes to screwing people over, And rich bureaucrats, I mean damn it is really funny that the banking clan just survived the two very big wars that shook the Galaxy that being the Clone Wars and the War against the Empire.

We have seen in shows like Andor where these same people would pass statements like, I forget, Empire, Republic, its all the same, meaning both sides make sure that they are the best served.

Even I would betray them, it is kind of interesting that these white collar criminals took over a planet that was previously known for its piracy leanings, I think someone is sending a message here.

So it seems some part of Jod absolutely loathes the life he has had.

So it would seem all these people telling us to not trust him, are actually proof that he might eventually make the right choice, and he could perhaps have tried a more rough approach with the kids, but he is not, he lets them have their way. Even when they put Baby sitting protocols on him.

You see there is a different interpretation of the scene where he betrays everyone, once he realizes what is at stake here, he realizes that all of the people who are after them will stop at nothing to take it before they do, and so, now, he can't leave the control in the hands of these kids who have shown repeatedly that for all their resourcefulness they don't really have a full grasp of the situation.

So he needs to take command, so he challenges Fern, and tries to do it in a way that she doesn't get hurt, I mean it is almost interesting how hard he tries for them to not get hurt, what does he have to gain from keeping them alive, nothing, he has everything to loose.

If treasure is his only goal.

I am not saying that he will definitely one hundred percent try to defend the children, but I am saying it is more likely, due to all that I said before.

What I think going forwards will happen is KB, will call Kh'ymm to get out of the sticky situation they are in, and Jod will try to make his way to the planet of At Attin.

But he will still have the intentions of finding the kids, no matter how much he would like to not have them.

All the while, the parents on the Planet will try to find a way to breach the barrier so they can finally find their children, and the thing is, that planet will be able to do next to nothing to stop them, because these guys are high level bureaucrats themselves.

But what will end up happening is that either Kh'ymm will be forced to trust Jod, or she herself will turn out to be worse like all the others.

Why am I so sure of this? Well, episode five is still quite early to have the reveal of the main villain, Jude law is too expensive for him to play a one off villain, because lets be honest, if he is a villain, he has to be disposed off so everything doesn't go to shit, both story wise and lore wise.

And it is simply not good storytelling to come out and say, hey he is untrustworthy and then have him be untrustworthy.

It's like, duh, the floor here is made of floor.

Another thing that makes me think this way is, this show constantly has Jod quote the Jedi in order to justify his pirate lifestyle, I mean the point is pretty clear, these teachings can so easily lead to evil.

And while showing him wielding a lightsaber and the force and quoting the Jedi to do ghastly things is a good way to get the point across.

What's even better is to show him reject these ways and then actually do some good, also this lines perfectly with the way Disney's star wars is leaning in terms of its critique of the Jedi order, which you know, I do not necessarily disagree with, but I guess this is a more tasteful and entertaining way of doing it innit.

But the truth is, it could go either way, and that is what makes this story interesting, that we have to wait and see how it pans out and we wont know until we know.