How do you interpret the prophecy of the chosen one

Just a very simple question around the chosen one, in most movies that involve a chosen one trope there is a counter part that from the evil perspective could also be called the chosen one.

Are Luke and Vader each the chosen one for there respective corners, Good and Evil?

 

No.
I go with George Lucas' explanation: Anakin Skywalker was always the only chosen one.
Even though he turned to the dark side, he was still the chosen one. You could say that Anakin was the "good" chosen one and Darth Vader was his "evil" counter part. But at the end Darth Vader became Anakin Skywalker again and fulfilled the prophecy ("to destroy the Sith").

 

I'm just in the process of making a video to highlight a few point around this.
I too, like Georges view on this subject, and you would be unWise to dismiss his intent and treat solely as interpretive works of art, whether this be his original intent in creating the O.T or the Prequels he created thirty plus years later.

George clearly states Anakin was the chosen one and even when he fell remained the chosen one.
I disagree with one small thing though, I do not think Vader became the chosen one when he killed the emperor, I think he was returned to Anakin.

Luke created the change that resulted in both the death of the emperor and the death of Vader
To atribute lukes actions to vader to claim this one deed constitutes him being the good chosen one I find hard, it feels abit like accrediting the light sabre with being the chosen one for committing the final act?

It does raise a question of whether the chosen one and them being inherently good is implicit in the title, do we excuse Anakin killing a whole generation, essentially the converged collective force users of the galaxy and spending the rest of his years tracking down Jedi like obi-wan and killing them?

I will post the video later when I have finished it.

 

@Ninjabeans

 

Unfortunately for my eyes I have spent the last few days reading and re reading through this thread.
It became apparent there is a alternate approach to the chosen one theory.

If you are happy with Georges intent thats fine, this is just an alternate view.

If you believe Vader was the chosen one because he was redeemed by Luke, you kind of have to over look every thing he did while a Sith.
Killing the next generation of Jedi, hunting down the last surviving Jedi after the Jedi purge and living for over 30 years as a ruling Sith.

Attributing the credit to Vader on the basis of Luke deeds "he was redeemed by Luke" also seems a stretch.
Is Vader redeemed because Luke makes him feel love again, or because in Luke arriving to face Vader he sets in motion a chain of events that lead to Vader choosing his son over his Sith master.

I ask this question because either option seems to point to the actions and bravery of Luke.

Vader lives his live as a Sith from the moment he is knighted so to speak, he commits acts of huge consequence, far exceeding any achievements he attained as Anakin.
As the Jedi had scoured the galaxy for any and all force users, Vader's strike on temple destroyed over 30years of next generation Jedi younglings

These are the actions of a special Sith, considering there are little if any more than the emperor left at this point, known any way.
the minute Anakin becomes Vader, the Jedi are destroyed. and Vader reduces there number ultimately down to one.

I think Anakin is the chosen one, for the Sith, he is ultimately redeemed by Luke back to the light, but his life is lived as a Sith chosen one, who immediately brought balance to the force.

The whole point of the O.T was Luke had to ultimately face and defeat his father, if Luke redeemed Vader (after he defeated him) the victory is luke's,
but this is irrelevant if Vader was the chosen one, not through his redemption but through his deeds and whole life as Lord Vader.
The ultimate redemption of Vader is then still Luke's victory (as should be).

I would even go as far as saying Luke defeated Vader in battle but he redeemed Anakin.
Anakin who was an average Jedi, defeated by Dooku and obi-wan, but as Vader he was the ruler of a galaxy restrained by nothing, only ever defeated by Luke, in a way the person responsible, inadvertently for his fall, its like poetry I guess - it rhymes

 

I think you’re ascribing more to the ‘chosen one’ role than is readily viable. Whether dark or light, good or bad, someone was going to destroy the Sith and restore balance to the Force. Being a champion of virtue or an emissary of evil was irrelevant. The prophecy only says that a certain thing will be done by a certain someone at a certain point. That someone was Anakin. That doesn’t necessarily make him a hero of any particular side. He’s just the guy that did the thing.

 

Dooku did defeat him on multiple occurance I will agree with you on that, but Anakin Killed Dooku not Vader.

Anakin was still Anakin when he killed Dooku, not Vader.

You also say that Anakin was a jedi when he was defeated by Obi-wan, in what example are you using? Obi-wan defeated Vader at in of ROTS not Anakin.

 

At the time Anakin killed Doku he was acting under the influence of the Emperor.
Certainly out side the scope of his Jedi brief

You are correct on the second point

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 1, 2016, Original Post Date: Oct 1, 2016 ---

Yeh I understand your point, the prophecy was

That was all that was ever put to screen, later the Jedi began to equate balance the force to mean kill the Sith. An interpretation Yoda himself doubted. As expressed in ep 3.

I think George describes Vader's actions as "Vader kills the Sith and is then redeemed by Luke" making Anakin the chosen one, but Vader was defeated by Luke, he then died while killing his master. There was no concept of Vader destroying the Sith, he was protecting his son. If George means he killed his master inadvertently making him the chosen one, I am arguing that the chosen one as a trope comes with certain conditions to be met, one act alone does not constitute meeting those conditions.

Vader only makes sense as the chosen one if seen as a chosen one of the Sith.
Luke perfectly fits the chosen one criterion, Vader as his dark chosen one counterpart.

the point I was trying to make before, until you kindly corrected me was Anakin didn't do things that are typical chosen one tropes, Vader did but he did independently of the final act of killing his master - also a typical death for a Sith master to be killed by there student.
He killed the galaxies next generation of force users when he killed the younglings, who have not returned until Rey and Kylo Ren, a feat fitting of the chosen one, he reduced the Jedi down to few, he literally brought balance to the force.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 1, 2016 ---

@eeprom
small video on why the prophecy is so important to the whole saga

 

How do I interpret the prophecy of the chosen one?

Jedi hubris.

 

Yeh raises some interesting points, it might be to implausible though to explain an absence of that magnitude.

 

I interpret it as GL did...the prophecy of the chosen one was always ANAKIN/VADER..

 

Do you make any distinction between anakin's achievements and Vader's ?
For instance what did Vader achieve as the chosen one?

You could also argue as Vader was the last to die, the Emperor fulfilled the prophecy by killing Vader the last Sith, which is humorous

 

Vader was never the chosen one...he became and fulfilled the prophecy by destroying the sith and bringing balance to the force when he killed vader and palpatine...vader and anakin were to different people in the samebody
..

 

I believe the "chosen one" is a being who is an personified expression of the Force's imbalance between The Ashla and The Bogan. Though the chosen one is NOT a savior I don't think. The Jedi Order of intergalactic numbskulls, just believed that because of their narrow doctrine that forbid them from seeing a larger view of The Force. In short Anakin was the chosen one because he was a Humanified version of the Force itself nothing more, nothing less.

 

Vader reverted to being Anakin the moment he picked up the Emperor's body, so Anakin, not Vader, threw the Emperor into the reactor, talked to Luke with his mask off, etc.

 

I have a few ideas about this.

One) The Darth Plagueis created Anakin theory. If Plaguies created Anakin through the Force, then I would say Anakin is a 'fake' Chosen One. Because the Dark Lord forced a baby to be born of the Force. The Force itself would've impregnated Shimi with Anakin, not being forced to create a child of the Force through Dark Side powers. This could've been a ploy to bring about the destruction of the Jedi Order. Meaning the true Chosen One hasn't been born yet. However, Anakin did fulfill the prophecy by destroying Palpy, sooooooooooooo...

Two) The Jedi misinterpreted the Prophecy. The Light had become the strongest it ever has. The Republic and Jedi Order was at its peak, too strong, creating disbalance between the light and dark, when there is too much light. Anakin created balance in the Force by snuffing out the Light to an equal playing field as the Dark and also destroying the Sith, doing a 'refresh' button of sorts.

 

Yeh, sure, The Emperor killed Anakin, Vader ceased to exist. Interesting

 

Nonetheless, I did find your joke about the Emperor being the Chosen One amusing.

 

I interpret it as that Anakin did fulfill the role of "The Chosen One". It states that they would bring balance to the force and he did - for a while. There was unbalance in both the light and dark sides. Evidence of this is that Anakin was mislead ultimately falling to the dark side but played with both sides - there's no rule that the chosen one had to be a Jedi or light side user of the force, just had to bring balance to the unbalance of the 2 sides. The Emperor had created a huge unbalance and Anakin fulfilled the proficiency by destroying the emperor.

However has it seems that 30 yrs on there is a new unbalance that has created "an awakening" and this prophecy has not necessarily been fulfilled yet. Though the force awakens was never really in Lucas's vision. He did try to tie up the trilogy's.

 

It's a difficult question, and I've actually been thinking about it for a while. The Force is meant to have 'balance' and when there is balance in the Force, there is meant to be peace. But let's think about balance literally for a moment. When I think of balance, I think of a set of old fashioned scales. Perfect, complete balance is when there is equal weight on each side. The exact same amount on each scale. But if we look at it that way, then the Force was in perfect balance during the reign of the Empire. There were two Jedi (Yoda and Obi Wan) and two Sith (Vader and the Emperor). So if that is balance, then you cannot have peace whilst there is balance. Maybe 'balance' refers to equal power held by the Jedi and the Sith. But when you think about it logically, the Sith and the Jedi couldn't rule the galaxy together. Each side has completely different values. But when one side has more power than the other, the galaxy descends into war. Even with the Jedi Council, the Republic became corrupt. And of course the Empire eventually fell to the Light Side. In TFA the endless game of tug-a-war teetered back towards the Dark Side with The First Order snatching back control from the New Republic. And so we are left with a stalemate. The Chosen One is meant to bring balance to the Force. But is balance what the galaxy needs? Maybe balance does not refer to balance between the Sith and the Jedi. Maybe the Force was thrown out of balance when the Sith religion was created. But as we've seen, even when you destroy an evil Force user, another one will rise to take their place. Maybe to create ultimate balance in the Force there can be no Jedi and no Sith. If Jedi stop training Force sensitives, there isn't a chance for them to turn to the Dark Side and mess up the galaxy. Perhaps that's what Luke was trying to do. Maybe he was trying to find out the true meaning of the prophecy, and maybe he realised that to create balance, the Jedi and Sith cannot exist. If they can't exist harmoniously, they can't exist at all. Maybe that's why Luke went into hiding, and it would definitely explain the conflicted expression he had at the end of TFA.

As for the Chosen One, I think originally it was meant to be Anakin, and I would agree with that. But now I feel the Chosen One has taken on a deeper meaning about true balance in the Force, and there are plenty of characters (both light and dark) who could take on the role.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.