Saga Balance of the Force Explained

I've been thinking a lot about the future of Star Wars in the lead up to the Mandalorian season 2. It seems that the Disney+ / Live Action shows may represent an extension of the Filoni-verse, which is great! But the future of Star Wars on the big screen is in question.

To answer the question of where Star Wars goes next, we must first look to the past.

After the release of Revenge of the Sith in 2005, George Lucas described the story of Star Wars as the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. The six films together told a complete story of Anakin’s rise, fall, and redemption, placing him at the center of the narrative. Anakin is designated as the chosen one meant to bring Balance to the Force, fulfilling a long held Jedi prophecy. This task for which Anakin was uniquely qualified seems to be complete when the Emperor is destroyed and the Galaxy is redeemed.

Yet we know George Lucas, at the time he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, had written stories for a sequel trilogy of films focusing on the original trilogy heroes and the grandchildren of Darth Vader. So the question must be asked, what story remains to be told after the Force has been balanced? The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker were not based on those original drafts, so they don’t provide a clear picture of Lucas vision for the concluding chapter of Star Wars. If we can extrapolate a potential narrative and thematic trajectory for the story building from the balance achieved at the end of Return of the Jedi, we can then compare Lucas vision to the sequel trilogy as it exists presently, and then determine the best course forward for the Star Wars saga.

To understand the narrative and thematic arc of Star Wars, as imagined by George Lucas, we need to begin with an understanding of what is meant by Balance of the Force.

I recorded this in video form and posted on my youtube channel as well for those who would rather listen than read:



There exists in the Star Wars Galaxy a prophecy of one who is meant to bring Balance to the Force. George Lucas made clear his intent that Anakin Skywalker, later turned Darth Vader, was, as believed by Qui-Gon Jinn, in fact the Chosen One meant to fulfill this prophecy.

Though Luke Skywalker is the hero of the Original Star Wars trilogy, his character arc culminates in the redemption of his father, rather than the destruction of the primordial evil force in the story, Darth Sidious, or the Emperor.

Anakin was ultimately responsible for the destruction of both the Jedi and the Sith. George Lucas has confirmed that, regardless of his fall from grace and Luke taking up the mantle of hero, Anakin did not loose his designated role as the Chosen One, meant to bring Balance to the Force.

Yet the question remains: What does Balance of the Force means?


For the first part of this discussion, I’ll be focusing primarily on the prequel and original trilogies. For better or worse, the sequel trilogy as it exists was not part of George Lucas original vision for Star Wars. As Dave Filoni has said in interviews and commentary, George Lucas should be seen as the arbiter of anything related to the deeper lore and mythology of Star Wars, particularly in relation to the Force.

Perhaps if we can answer the question of what Balance of the Force means in the mythology of Star Wars as imagined by Lucas, we can better understand the manner in which the sequel trilogy fits narratively and thematically as a continuation of what was once a complete six film saga.

George Lucas based the mythology in Star Wars largely upon the Monomyth or the Hero’s Journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell in ‘The Hero With a Thousand Faces.’ Campbell was himself influenced by the work of Carl Jung, who proposed the existence of archetypal forces which emerge from the collective unconscious. These archetypes are ancient patterns of personality, distinct from the individual unconscious described by Sigmund Freud. They, manifest in the real world, taking different shapes or forms when filtered through the subjective lens of the individual.

Joseph Campbell’s writings on comparative mythology describe the emergence of these archetypal personas through myths, folklore, and religious stories from around the world. Campbell described the universal patterns and character types seen in the stories told in disparate societies across time as a manifestation of innate primal psychological forces. Though the names and faces vary, the forms are surprisingly constant. Campbell likened these archetypal characters to masks picked up and worn by individuals by whom they are manifest and given life.

George Lucas constructed the mythology of Star Wars by distilling these powerful universal motifs. The Force may be likened to the collective unconscious, a substratum underlying physical reality which both emerges from and gives rise to individual organic life.

The primary characters in Star Wars are modern variations of the archetypal forms including the hero, the mentor, and the shadow. We see these characters exchange masks at various stages in their lives. Notably, Anakin Skywalker, a representationn of the hero in the prequel trilogy, later dons the mask of the shadow through an experience of death and rebirth as Darth Vader. Jung described the archetypes as inherited potentials which take different shapes when actualized through the thoughts and behaviors of an individual. The Dark Side of the Force itself may thus be described as a representation universal ‘shadow’ archetype.

The 'shadow' is an inextricable aspect of an individual psyche. It is the archetypal persona with the potential to do evil things. Every person has a shadow. Jung wrote of 'confronting and synthesizing the shadow', meaning evil is unrealized potential that exists within the individual. To confront and synthesize the shadow is to recognize one's weaknesses, the paths that could lead one to act upon those ideas and manifest the 'shadow' archetype in the world. Darth Vader always existed as a potential within Anakin, which was actualized when he chose to put on the mask of the shadow.

George, in various interviews, has simplified the dichotomy between the light and dark sides of the Force as representations of compassion and selfishness respectively. So what then is meant by balance? An equal devotion to or manifestation of both good and evil, light and dark? At the end of the original six film saga, both the Jedi and Sith have been destroyed so many have speculated that total devotion to the light side of the Force was the primary flaw of the Jedi as was total devotion to the Dark Side a flaw of the Sith. But this interpretation would have no basis in any real world moral or ethic. It would imply that total devotion to good, to compassion, is a moral evil, a notion which is not reflected in any of our religious or mythological stories.

There are no ‘Grey Jedi’; Anakin balances the Force, not by embracing or blending the ideals of both the Jedi and the Emperor, but by wholly rejecting the Dark Side. The original trilogy concludes with the Return of the Jedi, the return of the light; achieving balance. Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia Organa remain to rebuild a New Jedi Order after the fall of The Empire.

But wait, what about the fall of the Jedi order? In the path to achieving Balance, thousands of Jedi were also killed. Weren’t they servants to the Light Side of the Force? Why was the Jedi Order destroyed? Was this the ‘Will of the Force’? Often we see in our religious stories, purgation of the religious institutions after they have been corrupted and deviated from their original mandate. The Jedi were devoted to the Light Side of the Force, but that does not mean their decisions and actions were morally aligned with the light.

Returning to Jung, if we consider ‘the shadow’, the Dark Side of the Force, to be an inextricable aspect of any individual or institution, it cannot be eliminated because it exists within all beings, as a byproduct of free will. The collective unconscious is an inherited trait. Call it original sin, passed down from primordial forebears. As long as good is a choice, evil is a possibility. This means that the light must continually confront and synthesize the shadow, the dark side – not by integrating and acting upon those ideas or desires, but by recognizing their existence, keeping them in check, and actively choosing not to manifest the dark side in the material world.

When balance is achieved, neither light nor dark ceases to exist. The light must be actualized, and the dark must remain unrealized potential, the byproduct of choice. To 'eliminate' the dark side, is to eliminate free will, freedom to choose the light, and thus the individual no longer has agency - and becomes an automaton. Imbalance.

I think there's evidence for this understanding - in the final arc of Clone Wars season 6, Yoda's journey leads him to a place where he confronts his shadow (visually represented as an evil form of Yoda), and overcomes his own darkness. Even Yoda has this dark seed within himself which has the potential to grow and emerge through thought and action if it remains unrecognized and it is only through recognition of that evil that resides in himself that he is able to attain the path to 'immortality'. Prior to this revelation and confrontation, Yoda believed himself to be devoid of, separate from the Dark Side. The shadow within himself was unrecognized.

You could apply this to the Jedi Order as a whole. Anakin is the dark potential, the shadow, of the Jedi Order, which the council fails to recognize. The Jedi serve the light, but don't realize the cracks in the foundation which ultimately allow Anakin's turn to Darth Vader. Qui-Gon (not surprisingly the first Jedi seen in the story to attain the path to becoming a Force Ghost, instructing Yoda from beyond the grave), is likely the one Jedi who could have prevented Anakin's fall. Qui-Gon was the father figure absent in Anakin’s life. That role was later vacated by Qui-Gon’s death at the hands of Darth Maul, and later filled by Chancellor Palpatine. Qui-Gon’s instruction to Obi-Wan in the opening scene of The Phantom Menace to obey the will of the Living Force signals his role as a prophet like figure to the Jedi Order. Yet the Jedi Council failed to head his words which served as herald for their impending destruction.

The Order had become rigid, too strongly set in tradition, to adapt to new ideas (evidenced by their initial refusal to train Anakin because he was 'too old', despite the fact that he very well could be the 'chosen one', which introduces a sort of Pharisaical allusion). They had too closely aligned themselves politically with the Republic and thus served as Generals rather than Peace Keepers during the Clone Wars. Evil commanded both armies, yet the Jedi chose a side. Neutrality was the only path that could have averted Sidious trap. All of these factors play directly into the events which result in Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader, the destruction of the Jedi Order, and the fall of the Republic. Essentially, there existed an imbalance in the Force. The Jedi's vision is clouded by the Dark Side - because their ideology has fallen out of alignment with the Light Side of the Force. They attributed this lack of foresight to some external shroud, failing to recognize that the dark potentia within their own ranks in the form of Anakin Skywalker, whose fall was in part precipitated by their own corruption.

Palpatine’s machinations were indeed a very real threat whose identity as the puppet master orchestrating the events of the Clone Wars remained elusive as a result of the Jedi Council’s clouded vision. The Jedi’s inability to recognize this evil Force in such close proximity The Jedi may be understood to mean the Force was not speaking to them because they weren’t truly listening. The Jedi of the Old Republic, prior to Darth Bane’s creation of the Rule of Two, fought to vanquish an external evil Force. For a thousand years, the Jedi believed they had succeeded in eradicating this external force of evil. Just like war, peace is a snare. Over time, their alignment with the light side of the Force drifted. In bright sunlight, high noon, contrast is reduced. The shadows become difficult to see. Only at sunset, the twilight of the republic, as the light fades and the shadows grow deep do they recognize the one they cast, following their own footsteps.

Balance does not mean equal parts light and dark manifest in the world, nor does it mean the eradication of the dark, but the proper orientation of light and dark, where the former is actualized in the world and the dark remains unrealized potential. The only way to maintain balance is to realize that the dark resides within. Any other path leads to imbalance. To view the dark side as something which can be eliminated, as did the Jedi, is externalize it and thus leave the shadow within unchecked, able to metastasize and overtake the light.

Consider that Luke, in his training on Dagobah, enters the Dark Side cave and confronts a vision of Vader, ultimately witnessing his own face behind the mask. He later learns that Vader is his father - thus Luke confronts his own shadow. Vader, the external evil he must confront is his own blood. Thus he must understand and come to terms with the knowledge that the very potential for evil which transformed Anakin Skywalker also exists within himself. Interestingly, this revelation is also what allows Luke to see the light remaining in Vader, inapparent to even Yoda and Sidious, which ultimately brings about Vader's redemption, the defeat of the Emperor, and salvation of the Galaxy. It follows that, if the potential for evil, actualized by Vader resides within Luke, the son, then so too must the good that is in Luke reside within Anakin, the father.

During the final throne room confrontation in Return of the Jedi, Luke casts aside his lightsaber, refusing to strike down Darth Vader in anger. Luke recognizes the shadow in himself, visually represented by his mechanical hand – the first step to becoming more machine than man. In the ultimate act of non-violence, Luke saves the Galaxy, not by destroying Vader, but by refusing to become him. He has no hope of defeating the Emperor. Luke recognizes his inability to destroy the Emperor, the external source of evil, yet understands he retains power over his own choices, the destiny of his own soul. Luke is willing to suffer, sacrificially to preserve that light in himself and thus brings Anakin back from the Dark Side of the Force.

Yoda and Obi-Wan mentored Luke, but failed to see this potential in Vader. Their advice to Luke was flawed. Obi-Wan told Luke that if he refused to kill Vader the Emperor would have already won. Yet, the Emperor failed because of Luke’s refusal to kill Vader.

Anakin ultimately was the instrument by which balance was achieved. He finally synthesized his shadow, Vader, when he saw the suffering of his child at the hands of the Emperor. Anakin, in the last moments of his life, refused the shadow, returned to the light, and defeated the Emperor, the symbolic source of imbalance. The mask of the shadow was at last removed and Anakin wass able to look on his son with his own eyes one final time.

Luke and Leia, twins born of a union unsanctioned by the previous Jedi Order, were left at the end of the Saga to rebuild this institution meant to serve the light side of the Force. Luke did not reject the teachings of Obi-Wan and Yoda wholesale. He integrated their instruction, but also followed the will of the Living Force, recognizing it was not the will of the light to destroy Vader.

At the end of the six film saga, Balance was achieved and harmony restored to the Galaxy. The shadow of the Jedi Order was confronted and synthesized. Anakin was redeemed and Vader returned to the ethereal plane of the archetypes, unrealized potential.

 

@Jedi Master Chuck By your assessment of the meaning of the unifying force, it seems like the Jedi are always resigned to defeat the darkness of their own creation. As seen from the early Jedi and the persecution of the Legions of Lettow. However, one would think that eventually, there would be an ultimate order. As It seems that by clashing with the dark side repeatedly, the Jedi Order "supposedly" becomes stronger, this is more Hegelian dialectics than the "Balance of the force." Hegalian dialectics is a philosophical argument that proposes the idea that once a "thesis" comes into conflict with it's opposite, an "antithesis," a new argument that is stronger than both halves is born, "Synthesis." However in the case with the Jedi this is false as the Jedi continously learn nothing each time they clash with the Darkness. In fact, with each Jedi purge the order gets weaker as knowledge becomes destroyed throughout these conflicts.

It is ironic however that it was the persucution of this darkness that led to the very sith that exist. As dark side users were at first the Legions of Lettow, a peaceful group that parted from the order without incident under the leadership of Xendor.

"Sometime in the 24,500s BBY the Jedi Order had grown weary of the dissidents' continued existence and decided to put an end to the Great Schism which had torn at the Order's fabric for too long. Forming a massive army, the High Council forced the Legionnaires into open combat. Reluctant to take up the title of general, Xendor hoped to avoid massive bloodshed by bringing the war directly to Ossus." - https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Legions_of_Lettow

"But that was not the tragedy of the First Great Schism. The tragedy was that the Jedi learned nothing." - Book of the sith, Page 13.

This ignorance was once again displayed after the final battle of Ruusan against the Brotherhood of Darkness.

"The Sith have been enemies of the Jedi for thousands of years, yet outsiders who viewed them as an inevitable- and even necessary- counterbalance to the light side were proven wrong after the Battle of Ruusan when the Sith order crumbled." - The Jedi Path , Page 148.


I am the believer in the notion that the author is dead, so no quotes from George Lucas nor Dave Filoni will change what I have interpreted from the events that have taken place in the books, comics, games, and movies. Evidence suggests that the chosen one prophecy is an overrated piece of Jedi fiction such was the Sith'ari prophecy and that the force, all-powerful and all-knowing it may be, is not all good. This cannot be refuted; only certain individuals that the force has favored will earn eternal life. Something which is not unique to Jedi as sith lords such as Freddon Nadd, Marka Ragnos, and Darth Bane have achieved this ethereal achievement. It is only through their arrogance that the Jedi think this power is theirs alone.

So what does bringing balance to the force mean? Well, it means to wipe out both the Jedi and the Sith, as the Jedi will rebuild, grow powerful, grow arrogant and then allow the "outsiders" to rise and bring down the order again. Let's face it the force wants both the Jedi and sith to die as both orders defy it's will.

 

The dark . . . the light . . . when are we going to stop using labels? When are we going to stop trying to categorize or subcategorize everything and realize that life itself is simply chaotic in one form or the other?

Why is it that everything that is "dark" is supposed to be regarded as negative or evil? And why is everything that is "light" is supposed to be positive or good? Why cling to these metaphors? They're so simple to me.

 

Not everything that ends up happening is the will of the Force. The Force does have a will, and people have the choice of following it or not by acting selflessly (light) or selfishly (dark). The destruction of the Jedi (the group of selfless people who strived to follow the will of the Force) wasn't the will of the Force. It only brought more imbalance (balance is a scale, it's not an on/off switch. The same way imbalance can grow, so can the balance). In the end, the will of the Force prevailed because balance was restored by Anakin, as foretold.

The Jedi weren't corrupt or corrupted, anymore than the senators who strived to fight for what the Republic was meant to be were corrupt or corrupted. The corruption that took over the Republic ended up affecting those that it had a (symbiotic) relationship with: the people, the senators, the separatists, the Jedi, etc. And because none of them are perfect or impervious to consequence, they were almost destroyed.

The advice wasn't flawed. It was sound. Obi-Wan and Yoda were warning about the reality of the confrontation, and Luke was refusing it, which he shouldn't have done. It had nothing to do with not having mercy and compassion towards Vader (or anyone else). But to accept the reality that by confronting Vader, there was the possibility that he would have to kill him:

"The mission isn’t for Luke to go out and kill his father and get rid of him. The issue is, if he confronts his father again, he may, in defending himself, have to kill him, because his father will try to kill him." ― George Lucas