The prophecy, balance, the awakening...

Quite the prophecy worthy accomplishment, huh? “A child, born of the Force, will destroy the Sith and bring balance . . . for a couple decades or so.” SO LET IT BE WRITTEN!!

 

I just chalk it up to some Jedi being bored and writing something down on a napkin and it became some sort of prophecy.

Meh, whatevs.

It was a silly story idea in the first place, and just complicated Anakin's story unnecessarily....and now it complicates the entire understanding of anything. Sometimes bad people do bad things. That's usually enough for a story to 'happen'. But alas, here we are dealing with a silly plot device from a movie with an amphibian Goofy.

 

The Force exists in, and is created by, all living things. The darkside is fueled by fear and suffering and anger. It’s not that the Empire or FO were led by a darksider alone. It was the fear and suffering and anger they were bringing to the people of the galaxy as a result. The same can be said of organizations like the Huts. Morality is irrelevant. They perpetuated the darkside just the same. That’s the sort of threat the Jedi were meant to combat and was allowed to flourish in their absence.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 8, 2018, Original Post Date: Jan 8, 2018 ---

The ‘prophecy’, like the ‘rule of two’, was really little more than a plot contrivance for Lucas, intended to better underscore the finality of ROTJ. GL wanted Episode VI to be viewed as the definitive ending to his saga, just as Episode I was supposed to be the definitive beginning.

Anakin’s defeat of Vader and Sidious wasn’t just an act of personal redemption anymore, it was now the fulfillment of a destiny long foretold. It’s what he was “chosen” to do. Maybe why he existed at all: to beat the bad guys. The bad guys were beaten - the end. But how do we know the bad guys were really beaten? Couldn’t there be more out there? Nope. There’s only ever two. It’s a rule. Tada!

It’s the same reason why a montage of celebrations were added on to the Special Ed. It was meant to communicate to us that the bad guys had definitely lost and good guys definitely won. The story was over now and everyone had lived happily ever after. Now close your eyes and go to sleep. Episode VII wasn’t supposed to happen. Now they’re trying to work it out so it all makes sense and, naturally, there’s some loose threads.

 

I had a long post, but I'll just get to the point...Heroes and villains who inherit their power through birthright = SUPER LAME.

Enough with the chosen ones, siblings separated at birth, prophecies and convoluted family histories. When ANH came on screen it was about a nobody who found the power inside himself to defeat evil and save the galaxy, not because he was destined to by bloodline or a prophecy, but because he believed he could do it. That's what Star Wars is actually about, IMO. I'm really glad the prophecy of the chosen one is gone like a fart in the wind now. Someone needed to do it.

 

I appreciate the sentiment, but doesn’t Luke only sign up because of who his dad was?

 

That's a reasonable point. It's true that his father being a Jedi played a part, but the only reason he signed up? I dunno...He wanted to join Biggs in the fight against the Empire before meeting Obi Wan and learning of his father's past. He got Leia's message and chose to go after Obi Wan to help her just because she was a rebel...and also cause she was beautiful and Luke is DEFINITELY single...He risked being captured by the sand people to seek Obi Wan in an effort to help her before he learned of his origins. He refused Obi Wan's call when he gave him Anakin's lightsaber and told him his father was a Jedi. When the Empire killed Beru and Owen, that's what made his final decision.

IMO, Luke was crafted as the everyman character and that's the reason the story is seen through his perspective. The audience is supposed to see themselves as Luke. The message of the film is that heroes can come from small beginnings, that's why Star Wars was even a success in the first place. ANH is never about Anakin Skywalker after that scene, it's about Luke tapping into a mystical energy force that flows through ALL beings. Han Solo doesn't have the force because he doesn't believe, not because he can't. I always used to believed that anyone in the Star Wars universe could tap into the force if they had the proper training and state of mind...I mean let's be real dude, that's why I'm grown man who still doodles x-wings.

The reveal that Luke is Vader's son in ESB is a great moment, but that was what caused everything to fall apart. Ever since the "I am your father" moment, Star Wars has been trapped inside itself, trying to tie every story arc together. They tried to top it in ROTJ, then explain it all in the prequels, and out of all of it came this notion of pre-determined force sensitivity, this heavier importance on 'fulfilling your destiny', which is one of the biggest bummers about the current state of Star Wars.

The message of TLJ, both in the context of the story and beyond the 4th wall to us as fans of the franchise, is that we have to let go of our expectations and embrace the new generation of Jedi and the new direction the story is going. JJ Abrams created Snoke to play off of our expectations, and the reason Rian Johnson killed him was because he was a low hanging fruit and a weak character. Good for him, I hope JJ gets that and doesn't bring him back as DP.

Consider this...the prophecy is wrong. The prophecy is bantha poodoo. The Jedi's version of balance is a universe that is entirely light. But that's not balance, and balance isn't a "grey Jedi" either. Balance is light and dark in conflict forever. Inside of each good person there's a darkness that could consume them and inside of each evil person there's a bit of good that could save them. Anakin wasn't the chosen one who somehow restored balance, the force balances itself through the rise and fall of dark and light. "Darkness rises, and light to meet it...powerful light, powerful dark." You know, yin and yang, etc.

In the next episode, we will see some sort of conclusion, but the story will not be over and one side will not have truly conquered the other. I do believe that 7-8-9 will be the prequels to 10-11-12, made many years in the future. Consider older actors playing Kylo, Rey, Finn, Poe, etc. I don't really look at these as the end of a 9 part arc, but parts 1-3 of a second 6 part arc and so on. The story will likely continue forever, that's why it's called "Star Wars" and not "the Skywalker Saga". It needs to move forward and not look backwards. That's the way I see it...And I'm excited about that, bring it on. The movies have only been getting better.

 

Actually, Biggs had left to join the Imperial Academy just like Luke was planning. “And if these new droids do work out, I want to transmit my application to the Academy this year.” Our little farm boy was all set to enlist with the Empire before fate intervened in the form of an old man giving him the hard sell about fathers and Jedis and the Force. After that, and some conveniently toasty foster parents, Luke was a convert. “I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.”

I absolute agree with all the points you’re making, but the idea of dynasty was definitely something that was there all along. It was given more weight in later installments, but it was ever present. Luke certainly does what he does from a moral core of what he feels is the right thing to do, but it’s also equally colored by honoring the legacy of his family. That’s an inseparable aspect of the saga. Luke isn’t a nobody, he’s the son of a great hero who he hopes to emulate and somehow make proud. That’s how I see it anyway.

 

Agreed, it was there all along you are right about that. I just think the shift to that being the main pillar of the saga is the root of so many weak and overcomplicated plot threads, especially with all the movies taken at into account. After the prequels he's not just the son of "a" Jedi knight, he's the son of a force created being prophesied ages ago to restore order to the galaxy. The story needs to get away from that, not retcon something else to tie everything together.

 

This.

When “evil is everywhere”, the Force is out of balance. The Sith, The Empire and now The FO create this imbalance by spreading darkness.

The role of the Jedi is to work out how to defeat these evil forces and bring parity between light and dark in the galaxy.

Anakin brought balance but Vader’s legacy meant it was short lived and now the FO and Kylo Ren have risen and once again evil is everywhere.

 

Yeah, I’m definitely on the same wavelength. It’s just a tricky task. Lucas, when he started this thing, had envisioned something malleable and sprawling. He wanted to hand it off to other story tellers and see what they would do in his sandbox, like olden bards sitting around a campfire. At some point he reigned that back and decided this was a finite narrative with a beginning and an end. So he deliberately made the stakes specific and exclusive – this was the Skywalker saga now.

His original vision has strangely come to pass though, but is awkwardly hindered by his own retooling. We’re only a few movies in so far. So who knows what happens. I wasn’t exactly in love with what Johnson did with this movie, but I’m still pretty optimistic about where he takes his trilogy. That might be the new playground I’ve been hoping for - a return to a galaxy of endless possibilities.

 

And make sure not to write down the part where the Chosen One destroys like half of the Galaxy before fixing what pretty much he caused...

Agreed. It was purposely insterted into the saga to make the prequels important somehow... If you ask me it only causes contradiction.
Even before the ST, some dark side user was inevitably going to come along... I mean, all you need for a sith is midichlorians and some training. Nothin Anakin did in RotJ was anything speical in the grand picture of the Force. He didn't permanently destory the sith or anything.

 

I think a question we'd have to answer before answering yours is... exactly what is the Force now?

Before it was some power that certain uses can lead someone down a path of abuse and corruption (absolute power and all that) but now it seems more sentient, or godlike (Godlike). It is more of an active participant (this is as much the PT's fault as that of the ST). Furthermore, we'd have to figure out what is important to the Force. Is the Force concerned with slavery? Sexual abuse? Exploitation? Or is it more concerned with how its power is used, or how those who can use the power use its gift? Maybe it believes itself above those who can't tap into it, or maybe it doesn't even realize there are issues with slavery or the like as it has no comparable concept in its experience?

So yeah, having the Jedi come up with prophecy kind of opened the door to this. Now they're running with it.

 

This is why they need to get away from the Skywalker family, ASAP, or else we're just going to continue to wonder about 'balance' and the Force's volition.

 

The Force is fluid and confusing on purpose.
We're not supposed to actually fully understand it, and it's supposed to seem contradicting, paradoxical, and hypocritical because that's how universal powers are seen in all religions of ancient times. Look at our own history.

The Force was also created around the idea of communal value - originally written as 'The Force of Others'.
It's an idea of ebb and flow between one and all in a spiritual "woowoo" sense.

It expanded into being this and the universe's sentience or sense over time more clearly because that was there vaguely at the beginning, but not spelled out very well.

All life connects to the Force, even half-brained morons. However, attuned folks (midichlorian count people if you go that route; "in tune" people if you don't) can engage with it more directly to connect with the universe's Force by opening up to the will of the Force of others and letting it flow through them. If you're dark, you push a connection onto the Force.

The imbalance is subjective to the universal Force.

What is imbalance?
It's not morality.
It's nature vs. machine.
Recieve from the Force vs. Take from the Force.

Each imbalance is a condition of this.
In the PT and OT it is the putting of man outside of nature - everything become removed. So removed that they build their own artificial "moon" which can be lived on in perfect artificial order, void of natural dependence. Juxtapose this with Endore and Ewoks, for example.
All of the Jedi ways are themed around nature, except in the PT they go just the opposite.
The fall of the Jedi was done by their hand as they progressively moved more and more away and started relying on their own power as power and as the story went, they lost more and more of their high plastic and metal world of the scienctific and political Jedi ways until we're in the OT where they are back to their roots and all is nature again for them.

In the ST the issue isn't removing man from nature, but instead taking nature, boring out its core and twisting it to bend and yield to your will.

That's what the Starkiller was a symbol of.
They twisted the soul of life of a planet and star into being a killer at the whim of man.

Both are an imbalance.

Now we're also in an awakening of the Force so it appears to have cranked up the power dial for some reason.

We don't know that reason, or if there isn't really one but just a long cycle the Force goes through.

If you take the (pseudo-)sentient view, then it seems the Force may take issue with you shoving your hand into its heart and forcing it to breath fire from deep inside against its will.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

You could argue that was also the intent with Rogue One highlighting the harvesting of kyber crystals to power the Deathstar’s laser. Perverting an element of nature, in harmony with the Force produced by life, in order to take life on a scale otherwise unimaginable.