Why Disney understands the force...and Lucas didn't

That's fair.
It was a poor decision to try to demystify the force and if his actual intention (not the post-blow up theory or excuse) was to portray it as wrong, he needed to have a strong presence of belief in the mystical nature of the force to offer a counter to show that this isn't the new line.

 

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that bloodline playing a part in the force wasn't introduced in the PT

 

Lucas had always been working on trying to communicate the idea of symbiosis to the environment via the Force.
Part of the midichlorians was, as folks have noted, to highlight the distancing of the Jedi order from their intuitive stance with nature, but another part of it was that he didn't feel that folks really got the point he was after with the symbiosis of organisms back when he repeatedly plopped in all the talk about "in all things", "binds us together", etc...

So he pushed it even more to the front by giving an active biological agent of communication with the Force.
His idea wasn't that only the midichlorian steroided individuals had the Force; but that the more someone did have, the easier it was because they inherently connected. But he considered it that everyone had them to a degree of one kind or another - except machines.

"Obviously, people have a lot of different dreams of where America should be, and where it should fit into things. Obviously, very few of them are compatible, and very few of them are very compatible with the laws of nature.Human nature means battling constantly between being completely self-absorbed and trying to be a communal creature. Nature makes you a communal creature. The ultimate single-minded, self-centered creature is a cancer cell. And mostly, we're not made up of cancer cells.
If you put that notion on a larger scale, you have to understand that it's a very cooperative world, not only with the environment, with but our fellow human beings. If you do not cooperate, if you do not work together to keep the entire organism going, the whole thing dies, and everybody dies with it. That's a law of nature, and it's existed forever. "

-George Lucas​

When it came to the ST, Abrams had a long discussion with Lucas about this and decided to go with the more spiritual angle and lean on the PT having been more scientific because the PT Jedi were too full of themselves and their knowledge, which works just as well as Lucas did put that in the PT as well - they are very "gods on Olympus falling from grace" motif in that series, and start out at a place where they are very removed from nature - sterile, and existing in high rises in a purely synthetic world rather than in temples directly connected to nature. Basically, they're where the Empire is in the OT - synthetically dependent and removed, and by the end of the PT, they have fallen out of that synthetic high rise man made tree and landed back on the ground; forced to be with nature once again.

So it wasn't just about the hubris of the Jedi; it was also about trying to convey that the Force is a living organism in everything biologically - literally - not just spiritually.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

I must be the only Star Wars fan in the world who has no problem whatsoever with midichlorians..

 

No. There are literally dozens of us.

 

Doesn't bother me either. Then again I was in the 5th grade when Episode 1 came out and I owned and enjoyed watching the Pre-SE OT SW before that. As im older, it still doesn't bother me. I personally find Anikan and Padme romance scenes in Ep. 2 more offensive than midichlorians.

 

This is wrong. He discovered nothing, Newton discovered nothing - they're simply theories. If Einstein literally discovered something we'd have no need for Quantum Physics. Eintein's relativity only works on a large cosmic scale, and completely breaks down in the quantum. He merely crafted a language, equations, or understanding that closely reflects the objective laws of physics.

Semantics.

 

The Force might refer to something that permeates nature, midi-chors to the biological part of the ability to use the Force, and Jediism or other training needed to use it with precision and as needed.

 

Yeaaaah midichlorians are so "dreadful"....

 

Lucas introduced the Midi-chlorians as a scientific measure of how great a Jedi could be (to further explain Qui Gon's hype around Anakin) but I also believe that he introduced them to show the Jedi Order's arrogance.

The Jedi had become so scientific, that they were almost trying to play God to some extent. No longer was the order simply believing in potential students, but they were measuring them by what was the Order's equivalent of an IQ count.

Remember when Obi Wan told Luke to put the navigation computer away? How he'd told Luke to let go of his senses.. and put on the blinding helmet to spar with the training droid?

Lucas didn't let go of this stuff or "forget" what made the force so great. I believe Lucas used these Midi-chlorians to partially tell us that the Jedi had become arrogant with science.. and how this partially led to their downfall.

 

I'm not sure I understand the Disney angle here. RJ worked with the storygroup and they researched/used Lucas' unproduced material for force lore. Lucas' still has a tremendous amount of influence on how the force is used/explained in this saga.

 

I don't think it's Disney understanding the force more, just understanding what people like/want from it more.

 

In order of who understands the force "more."

Dave Filoni, GJ, Disney

 

Let's put it this way - my mother commented it was silly they forgot you can tell force powerful people "from their DNA", and "they should watch the first movie again".

 

How does Filoni understand SW more than Lucas and Disney combined?

 

More than Disney.

 

You know who knows everything about The Force better than anyone?

Spoiler: ...

Cheers,
Jayson