My Own Theory About The Force

By Alrik Fassbauer


?Well, I might be a rogue Jedi, but I have my own opinions on the Force. I believe differently, because of that I belong to the ?Lost Twenty?.

I might be a rogue Jedi, but I have my ways and reasons.?


This might be said by a character I created for (so far unwritten) stories reflecting my own opinions on the Fore in Star Wars, Balacing and all this stuff. I think I?ve even made my own philosophy on that.

In this text, I?ll try to explain it to you.

Basicaly, it?s Jedi = good and Sith = bad. That?s the cliché. But I believe in the Grey Jedi, and they are in the middle. Luke is one of them.

Why ?

Well, Luke definitively uses Dark Side Powers in the Gamorrean Guards - that is, as long as the same powers used by Darth Vader on several high-ranking Imperials (like Admiral Ozzel) is considered a Dark Side power. No-one has ever raised the question if this is really the case. It might also be a ?skill? that is known by both Jedi AND Sith and therefore not ?Dark Side?. But since Vader is definitively a Sith Lord, everyone assumes that this kind of ?skill? is a ?Dark Side? thing.

On the other hand, Luke is a Jedi. Definitively. He stumbles, struggles (especially in the Great Tree on Dagobah), but is finally deciding towards the Light Side when facing the Emperor (and after almost killing his father).

So, I assume Luke is something different.

But I have some more reasons for that, and that has to do with Balancing.

My current scheme goes like that : There are thousands of Jedi (I assume) out in the Galaxy, but only two Sith. The Balance is not established, but the board is heavily leaned towards the Jedi.

But the Force wants Balance. No matter why.

The thing goes then that thse several thousand Jedi must be eliminated to give Balance back - which happens, seemingly. Tarkin says to Darth Vader that he is ?the last remains of that ancient order? (quoted from my memory) - which by the way shows that he doesn?t understand the whole concept - so we must assume that every Jedi is dead at that point - except those we know : Obi-Wan & Yoda. And there are two Sith. Vader & the Emperor. ( I assume that the Emperor is a Sith, because he is Darth Vader?s Master - apart from spoilers.) We know that there must have been an ominous ?Jedi Purge?.

At that point the Balance is established.

But Vader kills Obi-Wan. I don?t really know why, but Obi-Wan let himself be killed - in the end he didn?t stop Vader from doing so.

With that deed, the Balance has gone again. One Jedi (Yoda) & two Sith.

Luke is trained to become a Jedi, to re-establish the Balance.

Later, Yoda dies - again the Balance is lost.

To cut it short, in the last battle high above Endor Luke faces two Sith. One of them actually becoms a Jedi again through the deed of killing the Emperor, and dies.

One one remains.

Here comes in my thought from above : That Luke is indeed a ?Grey Jedi?. He in himself incorporates both Dark Sid and Light Side - assumed I?m right (Gamorrean Guards & Jedi Training). So he is the first of a ?new breed?, so to say.

That is, unless George Lucas has planned another Episodes for that (I heard of 9 parts), in which Luke might be facing a Dark Side guy again - for Balance reasons.

-----------------------------------------

Okay, that was part one of my theory, part two is even weirder.

At one point I wondered about the Force itself - and when a Jedi is a (true) Jedi.

Everyone would agree that the Jedi are Light Side Force users. That means they protect the weak, don?t destroy life and keep everybody happy, so to say.

The Dark Side is in my opinion the opposite : Struggle for power and might, not caring about the environment, people, friends, anything. Only hate, power and might seem to count. (Actually that?s only an attempt by me to understand what drives Dark Force users on. I really cannot understand it, due to my RL character layout.) A person driven by hate is willing to destroy anything that?s hated - and if that?s the last thing that person can do.

 

Very interesting thoughts.
Nice thoughts about the EU, but those specific ones should be discussed in further details in the Literature forum.

The way I've always seen it is that it is a vast spectrum of white one one end and black at the other. The middle being filled with various shades of gray. Everyone, whether they are a Sith or Jedi is somewhere in the gray. No one is purely good or purely evil, though there are various degrees. The line between good & evil is drawn by those in the spectrum. Those of the lighter shades consider a line on the spectrum which divides them from those of the darker shades. It is therefore possible to cross the line at any time and later return.

Sure we've seen good act in an evil manner and evil act in a good manner. Anakin Skywalker is a man who journeys across this gray spectrum.

"But Vader kills Obi-Wan. I don?t really know why, but Obi-Wan let himself be killed - in the end he didn?t stop Vader from doing so.
With that deed, the Balance has gone again. One Jedi (Yoda) & two Sith.
Luke is trained to become a Jedi, to re-establish the Balance.
Later, Yoda dies - again the Balance is lost."

I don't see balance to the force as a physical balance between the number of Jedi and the number of Sith. I see it as a very complex matter where the force goes through cycles in time. There will be cycles of good and that of evil and in the end everything balances. While that is an interesting thought that it is physical, I don't think it is. For the reason that after Vader and Sidious are killed, balance is restored. It is only at the very end of Jedi that balance is established. I don't know all the details of how balance works but I don't think it is a physical balance.

Obi-Wan killed himself because it was time for him to go. His mission was to transport Luke off Tatooine and into the vast galaxy. It was Yoda who would train the boy, Kenobi was just there to help him along the journey. Luke would have to stand alone, his journey was not a guided tour (as it would have been with Ben around) it was a lonely dark road that he had to walk alone.

"A few weeks ago I spoke with someone in Berlin over that matter. He believed (as far as I?ve understood it) that Love leads to anger and to hate and threfore should be forbidden to Jedi - like all emotions are forbidden to Jedi. With good reason, he said."

I'll have to disagree with him there. Yoda sums it up best by saying that fear leads to anger. What is forbidden is attachement. If Anakin loves Padme, that that love gets in the way of his duty to the order and galaxy. It prevents him from making sound decisions (as seen in Attack of the Clones.)

Good luck in the development of your story. Once you finish you can always post it in http://boards.theforce.net/Fan_Fiction/c10051/

Those guys love reading new and original fanfics.



-Seldon

 

" Yoda sums it up best by saying that fear leads to anger. What is forbidden is attachement "

Thats an accurate assessment Seldon and pretty much the message of SW in general much as it was the message to the American people at one time. " The only thing we have to fear is fear itself ". Have truer words ever been uttered? I think not.

 

Nice thoughts about the EU, but those specific ones should be discussed in further details in the Literature forum.

Yes, I was indeed unsure whether I should've posted it here or anywhere else. The "Literatur" Forum was one of these places, apart from the "Fan Fiction Resource".


By the way, one imho *very* interesting thing about "Jedi Paths" can be found in the ANH Novel : There is a very short sentence mentioning "Jedi Scientists" ... To me this is just another indicator that there must've been several different "Jedi Paths" except the Warriors we are used to know.

Alrik.

P. S. : By the way, fear and anger and "being whole" imho leads into beliefs I fragmentarily know from Buddhism and other asian belif-systems / Religions. I also have my own influences on that, for example Reiki.

 

I don't think that Luke is a grey Jedi. Like you said, he used the Force to choke the Gamorrean guards in Jabba's palace, which would probably be considered a dark side act, seeing as how Darth Vader used this power but none of the Jedi in the prequels have.

However, a few of the books of the Expanded Universe, specifically the Thrawn Trilogy, describe Luke thinking about whether some uses of the Force would be considered dark side acts by Yoda and the other Jedi of the past. Therefore, my opinion is that Luke didn't know whether using the Force to directly harm another being was accepted by the Jedi. It seems his intentions were always to follow the guidelines that Yoda would have used, even though he knew very few of them. As an example, Luke actually refrains from using the Force to control the minds of enemy pilots in one of the Thrawn Trilogy books, thinking that it was not correct for a Jedi to use the Force in such a way.

To sum it up, I believe Luke is a light side Jedi, but may sometimes perform actions that the would be considered dark side acts simply due to the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda didn't have time to teach him everything they knew about the Force.

 

I don't think being a gray Jedi is a bad thing, as I've stated I believe all Sith and Jedi to be in the gray spectrum. By calling Luke gray, it doesn't make him any more evil then Obi-Wan or Mace Windu.

The Jedi Order does allow aggressive acts as is seen with the very concept of aggressive negotiations. Using a lightsaber for defense or calling on force powers is fine, as long as the Jedi is in control of his anger. I think that is the key point, or as Yoda said,

"control, control, you must learn control."
I think that is really key, that a Sith releases the anger while the Jedi remains in control over it.

-Seldon

 

Well, I used the term "grey" assuming that the Light Side were the Jedi and the Dark Side the Sith - meaning that the thing bettween both would be "grey".

I didn't have the concpt of different shades at that time involved, insofar this discussion has brought me some new insights.