The Force is an energy field created by all living things, except it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with living things. Is it just a collection of Jedi superpowers, or does it mean something more? What is the ‘Dark Side,’ and can there be balance with it? Why would the Jedi ever want to ban feelings? We talk about all that and more in this episode, which we hear can have a strong influence on the weak minded.
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It was already implied in the Original Trilogy that not everyone can use the Force, that some are stronger in it than others (Luke says “the Force is strong in my family”). It was never said that everyone can use it (and this idea isn’t negated by the idea of midichlorians, since everyone has midichlorians, so everyone can use the Force to a degree).
And again, midichlorians don’t “explain” the Force, the midichlorians AREN’T the Force, just the way it connects with living beings. And they were created at the same time at the Original Trilogy, so they weren’t created just as a plot point. They aren’t a level of Force power either, more a potential.
Also, the balance of the Force doesn’t seem to be a balance between the Light and the Dark, the way George describes it seems to mean the absence of the Dark Side (“he brings balance to the Force by doing away with the Sith and getting rid of evil in the universe…”).
The jedi being arrogant and the fact that their code is flawed is definitively intentional.
The idea isn’t really that evil people are all on the same team, but more that they’re always trying to betray each other (Vader tries to betray the Emperor, and the Emperor tries to get Luke to kill Vader).
I think it’s weird to make a podcast about the Force without mentionning the Clone Wars series.
Something I found odd in the EU is General Grievous was a part of a failed experiment to transplant midichlorians from a Jedi (Sifo-Dyas) into a non force user in the hopes of giving them force powers. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sifo-Dyas/Legends
I found the force vampire! And it’s marvelously as edgy and wannabe as you’d expect xD
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_Vampire
That’s amazing. Thank you for this.
The Last Jedi presented the Force in ecological terms: life, light, growth; and death and decay, fuelling new life. If you consider the light and dark sides of the Force in those terms, a balance between them makes perfect sense. It also means a balance between them doesn’t have to extend to a balance between good and evil – at the human scale, drawing on the dark side can still be wrong, in the same sense that just because death is a part of nature murder isn’t ok.
About Luke’s temptation at the end of Return of the Jedi, I thought the idea was that if Luke gave in to his anger and tried to kill the Emperor he would somehow become a slave to the dark side… the Emperor, or the Emperors spirit, would gain some control over him.
I got the impression the only way to attempt killing the Emperor directly was to fully give in to hatred and thus inadvertantly become his puppet. It’s a trap.
I think it was a trap, yes, but a little different. The Emperor guessed he would either keep his servant (Vader) or gain a new one (Luke), essentially just exchanging the father for the son. He knew Vader would step in at first, so either he’d be rid of a new Jedi or Luke would dip deep into the dark side to defeat Vader and then take his place. His actions after Luke refuses to take that route show he essentially never was in real danger of being defeated or killed.
Quick note. This doesn’t matter to your point but you mixed up dark energy and dark matter. Dark matter holds the universe together. Dark energy pushes it apart.
Mixing up fundamental aspects of the universe does sound like something we’d do.