Does the fact that there are "prophecies" about the Force point to something much greater??

Hey everyone,

Don't know if I've created a thread about this before, but I figured I'd give it another try if I have.

Alright, by now we all know of Mace Windu's now infamous line:

You refer to the prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force...

Now, according to dictionary.com:

proph·e·cy: An inspired utterance of a prophet, viewed as a revelation of divine will.

In Christian theology, the prophets are those human liasons with God whom deliver His will to the people, i.e. Moses.

They are also given fantastic powers to achieve their goals, i.e. Moses. This sounds alot like Jedi Knights and their ability with the Force, to me.

In other series of sci-fi/fantasy, prophets and prophecies are almost always (Simply because I haven't read every series of this genre ever, I can't say for absolute certain) the messages/messengers of a higher power, providing instruction, and oftentimes, glimpses of the future to the characters of the book. i.e. Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind) Mallorean/Belgariad (David Eddings) and Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan).

So what is my point with all of this? Well, there seem to be two schools of thought about the Force on this matter. One, that the Force is the end of the chain. There isn't anything greater than it. And second, that the Force is only the tip of something much greater.

The fact that there is a "prophecy" seems to me, to indicate that maybe the Force, if not just the "tip" of some greater sentience, at the very least has a sentience of it's own. What do you guys think? Am I crazy? Or what?

JMA

 

This is a pretty interesting topic. To me the Force has always seemed like an entity. Think of all the references to "The will of the Force". It would be interesting to learn more about Jedi prophecies.

 

"The will of the Force".

Exactly. Does the Force not have to be sentient to have a will? Maybe the Force is the higher power, and not just an energy field.

JMA

 

Well, guess is only appropriate I'd respond

In Balance Point we see Jacen have a vision from the force, about how the galxy is tipping to darkness with the Vong invasion. This is nothing new, because Luke had his first vision back in ESB, and others since then.

Maybe the force gives Jedi these messages about the future, and they have to decide if they are going to attempt to change it because that's why they received them, or not and let the force continue to flow.

When Anakin was meditating when he built his second lighsaber in Conquest, he really got in touch with the force. He didn't see it as a tool, or as just the end of everything, but he saw it as one piece of the puzzle in the big picture of the entire universe.

 

Remember that when giving definitions such as prophecy, as far as I recall the books are WRITTEN in English but the characters are not SPEAKING English. Hence prophecy may simply be the closest analogue in English. I know that this is a truly, TRULY nit picking thing to say considering it's all fictional and was created by English-speaking real-life people... but it's at least worth considering there's no underlying symbolism... (so basically that there's just the Force... nothing else... no "tip," just the end...)

 

Well, I'm not sure about the sentience part, but I can think of two SW prophecies that came true, though one is still being debated. The first being the prophecy of the one who would bring balance to the Force, this is the one being debated. Personally, it did come true, though it took the Battle of Endor to make that finally happen. The other was from the ToTJ Era concerning the rise of the Sith. That one did come true, there can be no debate about it.

 

Eh, its just an energy field. Like electricity. Or gravity. No sentience, no will. Just the latent ability of life to create and exist in its own, pure form of energy. There's nothing more to the mystical "Force."

 

Qui-Gon (among others, I?m sure) would disagree with you, Risste.

 

Just the latent ability of life to create and exist in its own, pure form of energy.

How does this explain things such as Force-visions and prophecies however?

JMA

 

How does this explain things such as Force-visions and prophecies however?

I guess one explanation for a non-sentient Force being able to allow visions of the future is if we think of mitichlorians as non-linear molecules. Like if there was the same amount of Force in the universe at ALL TIMES (although concentrations could form in individuals upon birth, etc.) and those molecules of Force existed from the beginning of time to the end. So that because you were guaranteed its existence in the future, the Jedi could subtly manipulate their connection to THEIR mitichlorians to act as a conduit to those particular mitichlorians in the future to try and read the future. Since there's no guarantee that those mitichlorians will still be together, that's why it's a hazy read. As well as since the mitichlorians would have to be present in ANY GIVEN future, that could be an explanation for "always in motion, the future is."

Does that make any sense? (as much as fictional temporal mechanics could?)

 

The word prophet actually means spokesman (when used in the biblical sense).

For example, Aaron was called to be a prophet unto Moses, and later is referred to as his spokesman. Usually, in the Bible, a prophet is a spokeman for God.

In that frame of reference, who would be the likely spokespersons of the Force? I don't know. Possibly a Jedi Master.

Kimball Kinnison

 

2 theories on how it brings balance to the force is
1. That there ends up being only two Vader and luke. not counting their masters ie yoda and palpi.
2.it destroys the old way of jedi but brings in a new one with luke and his whole jedi academy.

im not saying these are true just ideas on how to explain it.

 

I just thought of something else.
What if anakin skywaklker wasnt the chosen one? What if Anakin SOLO was? Wouldnt that explain alot about how there really wasnt that much balance brought about by Skywalker.

 

What if anakin skywaklker wasnt the chosen one? What if Anakin SOLO was? Wouldnt that explain alot about how there really wasnt that much balance brought about by Skywalker.

It has been debated in the past that Anakin Skywalker was not the Chosen One, and that Luke actually was. I'm not sure how those arguments turned out though, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel on the topic.

JMA

 

Kyle Katarn was also a Jedi of prophecy.

 

He was, and that prophecy was given by a little floating bouncy thing. Are those creatures prophets of the Force?

JMA

 

Although it is unlikey, maybe we will learn more about this in the Force Heretic trilogy.