SPECULATION The Great Mystery Revealed

I don't remember where but I read something in the old-EU that the reason Palpatine was so powerful is because he wore a kyber crystal around his neck to enhance his force ability.

 

The idea of “Force absorption” sounds similar to the idea of “essence transfer” that is written about in James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis [Legends].

Darth Tenebrous, Plagueis’ master, mastered essence transfer, which is Sith magic and sorcery. In a way this is the Sith version of a Jedi’s Force Ghost. Through essence transfer, though, dark side users can only transfer into objects of the corporeal world....reality…the Physical and Living Force. They cannot move or transfer into the Cosmic Force as Jedi Force Ghosts can. Furthermore, Darth Plagueis mastered cheating death by manipulating midi-chlorians (so as not to disrupt the balance of the Force). The Force prevents midi-chlorian tampering for personal gain. And interesting quote from the non-canonical novel:

Research had long ago established that blood transfusion from Force-sensitive individuals did not confer Force powers to recipients, though blood with a high midi-chlorian count could grant temporary strength and resiliency. Experiments in absolute transfusion had gone horribly awry for recipients, suggesting to some that the Force exacted a toll on those who attempted to tamper with it. An individual's midi-chlorians seemed to know to whom they belonged and become unresponsive outside their dedicated vessel. While midi-chlorians appeared to resist manipulation of a sort that might imperil the balance of the Force, they remained passive, even compliant, in the case of a weak-willed being manipulated by one who was strong in the Force.​

And an interesting quote on the implications of manipulating the Force from James Luceno’s Tarkin [Canon]:

And [Darth Sidious] would not allow himself to be sidetracked from his goal of unlocking the secrets many of the Sith Masters before him had sought: the means to harness the powers of the dark side to reshape reality itself; in effect, to fashion a universe of his own creation. Not mere immortality of the sort Plagueis had lusted after, but influence of the ultimate sort.​

As for the Force Tree written about in the Shattered Empire comics, they might function like magnets. They could draw Force power close to them in high concentration. Do they radiate that power? Repel? Attract? Like the blood transfusions mentioned by Luceno, the trees may offer temporary Force abilities, but probably not permanent. Poe Dameron, who grew up around one of the trees, exhibited no apparent Force abilities in The Force Awakens.

 

One thought I've always had - why did LST wait so long to contact the Republic with the map?

Or did he? If the opening crawl is taken literally, he'd just recently found it and contacted Leia about it, so she sent Poe...

But if that's the case, and he didn't have the map for all his time on Jakku...then why was he there?

Ordered by Luke to watch his baby gurl?

 

It doesn't seem like he's had the map very long and he's only recently retired so it seems like he hasn't been on Jakku for long.

 

Maybe the Crystal is in Rey's staff.

 

a good point.

 

yep, after the "event" LST went to Jakku.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 7, 2016, Original Post Date: Sep 7, 2016 ---

Btw. do we have an explanation on why (and how) the map was split in two parts?

Another thing, (lets use some logic here), LST has the missing piece right? Luke wanted to find the first Jedi Temple right? So Luke needed that map piece to get to Ahch-to, this means the map piece was in possession of Luke. So how did LST get the map, simple, Luke gave it to him before he went to Ahch-to. After the "academy attack" Luke went to Ahch-to and LST to Jakku. the map piece is therefore on Jakku and so is Rey.....

 

but still the biggest question stays, why did Luke just leave? I mean he could have searched the temple and return from time to time to help his sister or at least keep the contact etc. I really hope we will get a fitting answer to this.

 

Interesting is also this dream or nightmare of Leia in Life Debt novel:

"Phantasms pursue her. She dreams of Han, dead in the snow. She dreams of poor Chewie in a cage somewhere. She dreams of herself on a table, dying as her child—no, children—are born. Then comes a vision of Luke, lost among the stars, searching for something and failing, never returning. She dreams of being lost in a forest, and then of being lost inside the Death Star—she and Luke and Han are fleeing stormtroopers, trying desperately to get back to the Falcon after Obi-Wan powers down the tractor beam controls, but now she knows the dread truth: He failed, he died, and the ship is still anchored there, and even if they could find their way out of the tangle of passages, they’ll never escape…"

 

It is said that R2 has the rest of the map which he downloaded from the Empire archives when he plugged into the first death star, so the map was already fragmented back then.....

 

The opening crawl indeed states that, but can't it just be that LST kept it away all the time and give it to the right people when the time is right?
Also, Luke and LST did search for a lot of lore together so it wouldn't surprise me if they have found the missing piece together. Maybe they already had the piece in possession before the "event" so Luke went to Ahch-to directly afterwards. We know that Han says "Luke went searching for the first Jedi Temple" but does he know what really happened?

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 7, 2016, Original Post Date: Sep 7, 2016 ---

Good point, maybe we see something like that happening in Rogue One, that would be interesting and tie the whole story together.

 

I do agree with this, despite that this is a kind of 'kryptonite' for Luke. Because what chances do you have to create some tension when you have a superpowerful Luke, who can destroy every enemy. It would also be interesting to see a Luke struggling with a lack of power and maybe he will get his power back after destroying this weapon and defeating Snoke.

 

Yep, it would even explain the titel of the movie, because after this event (using the force weapon against Luke, the force itself became weak or corrupted, maybe even for the darksiders). And in TFA the force beginns to awaken.

 

Yes, why did he go to Jakku.
All we know is LST was a follower of the Church-of-the-Force, and the small settlement on Jakku was also inhabited by CotF followers.
There are to many "coïncidences" going on regarding Jakku:

• Rey is on Jakku
• LST is on Jakku
• Falcon is on Jakku
• Emperial research facility was on Jakku
• Luke's severed hand + saber was going to land on Jakku (cut out during editing)

Forgot something?