SPECULATION Was the prophecy fulfilled?

@TheGreyandTheRed

This is y at 1 point many fans latched on 2 the Rey is Anakin reincarnated theory. To "finish" what Anakin "started" & finally bring balance.

It also explains y Vader is no longer showing up in ghost form or when KR is seeking guidance/a vision from Vader.

[Note] I dont support this theory.

 

This is a great piece, thanks for sharing. But you really should credit the author / give a link, because that is the jedi way

It isn't clear which parts are based on canon, but I feel like this is the interpretation of the Force and Balance they are officially going with. Actually, I am just now reading the Legends of Luke Skywalker book where a Force (Tide, in their culture) user argues with Luke about this very misconcepsion.

 

I would say that there was nothing in the prophecy (which was never communicated in canon) that said it was a one and done situation. If anything Qui-Gon mentions that Anakin is "a" vergence in the force. This implies a special but not wholly unique position. Further some religions have multiple events and or important figures. Jesus is set to come again, the Hindu gods show up in cycles and will continue to do so as they have many times.

 

I think so yeah. The prophecy never said there would't be new threats to face, right?

 

The prophecy was just a prediction about a future event that came to pass. It didn't have any value beyond that.

The chosen one himself was potentially born to do one thing - bring balance, but he had free will and as we see he nearly rejected his destiny. There might've been no peace at all.

Nothing other than our expectation says that the balance should've lasted longer. Star Wars is about destiny but it's down to the individual to choose their destiny and make it happen. After Anakin brought balance, and he did bring balance, it was up to Luke to maintain it and he failed.

Weighing off Vader's deeds vs Anakin's redemption is worthless. It has no baring on him bringing balance nor in the decision to "forgive" him. We cannot morally say there is a way to measure the amount of peace that should come after he brought balance based on his evil deeds. You just have to accept he brought balance and forgive him. Would another 100yrs of peace make up for the death and destruction he caused? How many years of peace per life he took would be right? There is of course no answer to such questions. We can only look at what happened:

He turned back to the light, he destroyed the Sith, he was forgiven by his son and friends and he joined the Force. What happens after that is a new chapter and although connected to his past actions, is down to the other characters to sort out. The point of this trilogy it seems is that (although important), balance is just one part of a bigger picture. It's not just about bringing peace, but maintaining it. Anakin did his part in the end, but keeping the peace is an equally difficult challenge and one that Rey will have to work out in this trilogy...

 

Ok lets put it another way. Jesus comes back. The devil is defeated. Heaven on earth. Etc, etc.

Then 30 years later a mysterious guy shows up who kind of acts like the defeated devil & starts a war & Jesus just sits on an island.

U may say what was the point of t/ Second Coming. Thats y many r questioning The Prophesy.

 

Again, there was no point in the prophecy other than it being a prediction about an event that took place. The prophecy didn't say: "and there will be everlasting peace".

 

I do not see anymore the Dark Side as before , after Maz Kanata talk about Light, that was here always, and after reference in Aftermath that Force is like a River, and Dark side is artifficial selfish taking from that river like making a dam to make Dark stagnating lake....so I don't see Dark side of the Force been other half of the principle of the Force anymore. The Light was first, than came the darkness- probabaly even started by..Snoke?

So in that way Anakin is chosen one who defeated dark side in eternity, from certain point of view, however the actions of Dark Side are continuing, and is ultimately defeated by Anakin's ancestors,it has been decided by birth of Anakin though,without him there would be no second generation Luke and Leia, and third generation Ben and Rey.

Anakin's bloodline brings the balance, and balance means releasing flow of the Force, river that the Force is, from the polution,from a "parasyte", from stagnating lake that was redirected once in the past from that river, that became Dark Side.

New concept of the Force.

 

"This will begin to make things right. I've traveled too far, and seen too much, to ignore the despair in the galaxy. Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force". - Lor San Tekka.

I believe the underlined part is the most important piece of this bit of dialogue, in regards to what we're discussing here.
Once again, it tells us what creates the imbalance: "despair in the galaxy". This mirrors the opening crawl of RotS where it says:
"Evil is everywhere".

"The Force is an energy field created by all living things".
The Jedi and "Sith" have the greatest influence upon the galaxy, but it is all life that creates the Force and thus all life that is connected to the balance of the Force.
When the Jedi fail, or indeed are not around, darkness rises. And when darkness spreads and takes over, there is despair across the galaxy.
Thus all life across the galaxy is affected by this and the energy they create that joins the Force, their collective consciousness, is on the side of dark rather than light.

But the point, that Snoke eludes to in the trailer, is that when light or dark is most powerful, the other will rise to meet it.
And so when Anakin returned to the light and destroyed the Sith, he lifted shroud of the dark side off of the galaxy as a whole.
More than anything, hope returned. And this restored the parity between light & dark in the galaxy.
Some people think that it was about "destroying the Dark Side altogether", heck, I think Lucas once said he "did away with evil in the universe". But I don't think that is the case, nor would it make sense to be. For the dark side is a vacuous concept if it isn't the natural darkness within us all. If kept unchecked it will take over and we will do evil things. But for most people, they can find the balance between light & dark, selfishness and selflessness.

The Jedi represent the best of us, in our best moments: showing how selflessness leads to happiness. We cannot attain such levels of greatness, but the Jedi and their journey's towards Jedihood, show us how to be the best we can be. The Sith are the opposite and show us the worst of ourselves and the unhappiness that brings all round.

So the Dark Side will always exist. It will always be there. There will always be the threat of evil taking over the galaxy and if left unchecked, regardless of any grand prophecy or expectations of peace, if the light isn't there to meet it, the Force will slip out of balance again. That is what happened when Ben Solo turned to the Dark Side - Luke went into exile and in the absence of the Jedi, the First Order rose to power. That is why the balance, if indeed it has been, is lost again. Vader's legacy lives on, regardless of Anakin's final great deed - and now the new hero of the saga needs to not only defeat those who empower the Dark Side, but find a way to bring a greater, stronger peace to the galaxy...

 

If (along the new interpretation) the Light side means listening to the Force and flowing with it, and the Dark side means using and bending the Force to your will and benefit, I think the unbalance maybe had started even before TPM. The Jedi order had started to use the Force to do good deeds and battle evil, bending it to their will, which could have similar effects on the Force as the Dark side, even if driven by compassion.

I am not sure what exactly the underlying philoshophy and message would be, but it would be in line with the end of the OT, where in the end, Luke wins by stopping fighting and using the Force at all.

 

The alternative is that many of the central plot points of the PT is thrown out. It utterly diminishes the Tragedy of Darth Vader.
Lucas always said that the ST would be about rebuilding the Republic and the difficulty in doing that. I think the ST is staying true to that - the balance is one piece of a bigger picture.

That line by Ren indicates how he is clearly missing the point - Vader was killed and Anakin returned to bring balance. Ren is ignoring that and wants to continue what Vader was doing before that. Now he could think that this will "bring balance" in some twisted way but he is wrong. Anakin did bring balance already - it's just been screwed up again.

At the end of the day we are getting a new villain and the new heroes have to have their own purpose. I think they're just showing that good and evil always exist and that as a result there will be a cyclical element to the balance.

I think there is definitely a case to be made for the idea that the balance started to slip before TPM. The Sith were already behind the scenes up to no good of course, so that would've begun the rot. And the Jedi had been tied into the corrupt Republic for some time now. So yes, I'd say it was definitely slipping before TPM. I'd also point out to those that go with the "Force Jesus" Anakin story, that it would make better sense for the Force to create Anakin if the balance was already slipping at the time - else it would've created him based on an uncertain future of the balance being destroyed.

The fact is, the Jedi were good people but they did make mistakes. And in fighting the Clone Wars they aided the Sith agenda. Had they been more in tune with the living force they might've understood that they were pushing the Force more out of balance.

 

When I first heard the ST was being made this was my fear. My greater fear though was that they would ruin what came before.
There is definitely a compromise - but I think the evidence points to them sticking with the balance being restored and this being a new chapter - the start of showing a bigger picture. But yes, agree to disagree, at least for another 35 days!

 

i've gotta ask bro.. if you think that Anakin fulfilled the prophecy of destroying the Sith and bringing balance to the force, does this mean that you no longer think that Snoke is the dark lord of the Sith.. Darth Plagueis?

either he destroyed the sith or he didn't... surely? if Plagueis has been around all this time then Anakin surely was not the chosen one?

 

No, it doesn't effect that. You see, the Sith don't cause imbalance by just existing. It is their actions that bring about the imbalance.
And so if Plagueis did survive (and heck, he'd do a Maul and wouldn't be Sith anyway), the idea would be that he is sat about in the UR for some time recovering.
So when Anakin kills the Sith, there isn't anyone else influencing events that cause imbalance.
Only after the events of RotJ does Snoke begin to emerge - so that ties in with Plagueis being forced to re-emerge because of Anakin's actions and slowly pushing the Force out of balance again.

Again to make it clear - the balance isn't about the existence (number of) Jedi and Sith. It is about their actions. So Snoke can easily be Plagueis without impacting the balance during that time.