Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

Yes.

 

The Force is described as having a sense of humour - which could be a prerequisite for a good personal relationship

 

Oh, I'm sure there's someone, somewhere that has some strange obsession with magnetic fields or something

 

The "There is no dark or light side" interpretation was a good example of this - the belief that the Force is truly neutral, with no morality, agency, ability to guide, etc.

Some authors did suggest that "Yoda was talking about the light and dark sides of people's own personalities" - the LoTF: Inferno round-robin interview had an example.

 

Shouldn't that be, "strange attraction to"?

 

They're called physicists.

 

When has the Force ever not been just an energy field?

 

Interesting stuff on super-powerful magnetic fields:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar

As described in the February 2003 Scientific American cover story, remarkable things happen within a magnetic field of magnetar strength. "X-ray photons readily split in two or merge together. The vacuum itself is polarized, becoming strongly birefringent, like a calcite crystal. Atoms are deformed into long cylinders thinner than the quantum-relativistic de Broglie wavelength of an electron."[2] In a field of about 105 teslas atomic orbitals deform into rod shapes. At 1010 teslas, a hydrogen atom becomes a spindle 200 times narrower than its normal diameter.[2]

 

Children of the Jedi was the first source to have a Jedi quip that "The Force has a sense of humour" - and the Knights of the Old Republic comic (book 1) has Padawan Zayne Carrick say something similar "My master says that I'm living proof the Force has a sense of humour".

 

Yeah, but the will of the Force is the equivalent of the Dao, or for a more western way of looking at it, fate or destiny. It's the idea that the universe is ordered in a specific way to progress toward certain outcomes. It doesn't require an intellect to be that way: the Force is above and beyond that.

You seem to like eastern mysticism and spirituality from what I've seen when it comes to the Jedi, e.g. attachment, so I'd recommend reading up on Daoism, Buddhism, and Advaita to get a perspective on the Force in that way.

I mean, when you really break it down, the Force is the collective soul (omg 90s rock) of all life in the universe. Is that sort of aggregate soul identical to the micro, with its own intellect and sense of agency? Look at when Jacen and Barriss break down the barriers on their souls and achieve unity with the ubersoul. I'm using western nomenclature here to make the point more understandable, I think the more apt language would be Atman and Brahman to describe the individual soul and the Force, respectively.

I don't know about the sense of humor but it's probably not canon anymore. Granted, so is Jacen and Barriss shooting up on bota.

 

What I find fascinating about the force is that it is "created by all living things." That potentially makes the force far more dynamic than most of us conceive of it to be. The "personality" of the force may be very different when Sidious is one of the "living things" it is being created by.

 

It kinda reminds me of Discworld in a way.

 

Or it's exactly the same. All is one.

When I say "intellect," I mean "personality." But I'm suggesting that the aggregate life energy isn't a personality; or alternatively, all is one, and it's exactly the same. Atman is Brahman.

 

Anyway! Sentience or lack thereof of the Force aside, here's the whole panel of The Force Awakens at Celebration Anaheim (just spent the last hr or so watching it, had a few drinks)



Anybody notice at the end the music chosen for the Grand Photo Op is the love theme from Episode II? I always found that piece of music to be moving yet sad. Dunno what the context of it is herein in the photo op session. Also, Carrie Fisher's line about being the only one who thought Star Wars would be a hit is funny. Also Daisy Ridley's back of her outfit is blue in stark contrast to the pink front. What up with that? Oh, yah, and I'm pretty sure she spoils that Luke is known as a grand, intergalatically famous figure for destroying the Emperor somewhere around the middle of her comments. And Boyega saying that he didn't tell his parents he was in Star Wars until after the cast reading photo came out was kinda funny. And BB-8 is totally a real thing that moves. And I kinda love the hype man at the start of the video going all "WHAT UP, CELEBRATION ANAHEIM 2015!!!" while a EDM trance Star Wars theme remix is playing.

 

Western nomenclature would be "Over-Soul" and a redirect to Emerson, anyway.

 

Back when I read philosophy, I also saw a parallel between the "will of the Force" and Rousseau's "general will", so it's not without its Western parallels.

 

Commie.

 

Episode 1

 

I suppose Jar-Jar's victory over the battle droids qualifies.

 

There is no conflict.

 

No conflict? Pfft, only Sith deal in absolutes.