Do none Force users Matter

Well do they?

I was looking at a board on TOR official forums when I saw this

Originally Posted by ProfessorWalsh
but they have to understand that Star Wars does revolve around Force Users.


Well does it? Are all the none force sensitive characters, just filler and play-acting when the only one's who actuly matter are those who can use the force?, what do you think. Yes or No? Please give reasons.

 

They definitely do, Han Solo being all the proof you need. If he hadn't changed his mind, there would have been no Empire Strikes Back. If you want to expand that to the EU, Han is the one who kills Palaptine's last clone.

Jedi/Sith are really just one part of SW, in my opinion. I'd say the space battles in the films are almost as famous as the lightsaber fights. Everyone knows what the Death Star is.

 

Don't ever listen to Profesor Walsh.

 

To answer your question, not really.

Han Solo is the only real, non-forceuser/force-sensitive view we continually get. And eve he is barely relevant due to reason independent from him being non-force sensitive. Lando is lucky if the is ?in view? for five chapters, Talon Kaarde and Shada Dukul have been missing for a long time now, and Jagged Fel has been one dimensional for a while now.

To matter you need dynamic non-force using characters, which no one seems interested in creating.

 

Not Anymore.

Aside from Han,the only good non force sensitive user is Wedge, and only one author seems willing to use him on a consistent basis.

Back when the X-wing novels were coming out regularly, we had a whole bunch of non force sensitive users that made a difference. Sure, the weren't exactly A-listers, but the common man made a difference. Now with the new Wraith novel coming out, I'd wager that their would be some Jedi on the squadron. Because for all their failures, the Jedi are seemingly still perceived as the best at everything.

Even when we get an interesting non Jedi character nowadays, it turns out the they had force sensitivity all along, and just didn't know it. Isn't that right Crosscurrent?

Jedi are overrated, overused, and in real danger of becoming boring.

 

I would like to see Palpatine take over the galaxy without the Clone Army, to rule without the imperial beaucracy and for Luke to free it without the Rebel Alliance/New Republic.

 

One thing I like about KOTOR is its mix of force users and non-force users; it seems to stress that they are all important. In fact, I find Carth and Canderous far more useful than Juhani or Bastila.

 

Well, I'd argue that non-Force-users are actually more important in the sense that they more closely embody the Force's "intention" (for lack of a better word), whereas the Force-users, in particular the really powerful ones, are actually something of an anomaly. But if by "matter" you mean, are they relevant to anything that happens anymore? Not really; certainly not as much as they should be. But that's just sort of how the franchise is built most of the time. Rogue Squadron had a decent amount of steam as a brand, but the only reason they weren't a squadron of Jedi was because the context in which they were created disallowed it.

 

Jariah says BOOM

 

Couldn't agree more. It's a shame really because the Star Wars galaxy is HUGE- there's tons of untapped story potential within it. Unfortunately, some of the most interesting characters are non force users and are consistently overlooked unless they are paired up on some Jedi related mission. The publishers/ authors have so many opportunities to tell such great stories and explore the GFFA in the fullest, but they rarely do so. I'd love to read about Judder Page and his commandos, Pash Cracken and his Squadron, or the dealings of the underworld. But TPTB have decided if there's no Jedi then apparently there's no story.

 

Two words: Rebel. Troopers.

We've had Clone Trooper books, books from Stormtrooper POVs, but have we ever had a book from the POV of the common fighting man and woman of the Alliance to Restore the Republic? I demand coverage of the men and women behind the kickass clamshell helmet/flak vest/khaki outfit!

 

THRAWN!!!!!!!!

Seriously, he was the most badass villain ever.

 

Yes but that was one Guy, how many years ago? When was the last time we had a good non force using character?

Anakin Solo's Look alike? Mirta Giv? Jagged Fel? Any of them really stand out?

the Horn sisters? the Pilot, never struck me as intresting. The Spy girl with the oddly colored hair and the Tats? slightly more memorable.

 

Do they matter inside the galaxy, well of course they do, they make up like 99.99% (probably more but not much point typing a row of 9s) of the population. Most beings will probably never even see a force user face to face, let alone know one. However, there does seem to be the idea that only force users grab people's interests and more and more of late almost everything is focused on them.

As someone mentioned the X-Wing novels were great and generally well received, but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Their secret it seems to me was pretty much having no mention or involvement of any force sensitives (yeah ok, they Corran learnt his tricks, Tyria finds a force connection, but it's kept fairly brief and away from the main storylines), as soon as you throw in a Jedi or a Sith they seem to take the centre stage straight away.

I did a little test with a few of my mates who whilst they've seen the films and played a few video games, aren't EU fans, and asked them what the first thing that came to mind when I said Star Wars was, every single one either the force or jedi or lightsabres or something that was directly related to a force user. So I guess whilst to the fans who read the EU novels, comics and such the galaxy is a much bigger and far more diverse place, for those who've had just the basics of the films it to them does revolve around Jedi, Sith & the force (in my experience you don't find many real EU fans at the TOR forums).

If somebody could actually write a genuinely interesting, engaging and captivating non force user capable of taking a major role that would of course help, it's been a long time since Thrawn

 

Of course none Force users matter. Although Jedi and Sith do tend to be the central figures of many conflicts, that doesn't make everybody else unimportant. At least in a well-written story there are usually plenty of non-Force sensitives.

In the OT there are only like five of them (Luke, Obi-wan, Vader, Palpatine and Yoda) for the whole three movies. Then you have good comics like KotOR where Zayne's the only Force-sensitive protagonist, with an awesome supporting cast of "normal" people. Not to mention Legacy where though you've got Cade and Roan Fel's IKs as protagonists, you've also got Jariah, Deliah, the GA Remnant and the Moffs.

Even during the Clone Wars, there are quite a few influential Senators, although the Jedi are the main focus often. Its quite possible to have a good episode with little to no Jedi... but it also depends on the writer.

In theory the post-RotJ novels should be able to do plenty with non-Jedi characters. There are the X-wing novels, various characters like Kardde, Thrawn, Pellaeon, etc. Even more recently there are attempts like the Death Star novel and Death Troopers.

Sadly, the major novels fail horribly at using non-Force sensitive characters, at least as protagonists, like in LotF and FotJ, where basically all the good guys are Force-sensitive. Han's the only real major exception, and the authors aren't even sure what to do with him and Leia anymore. And during the times when Han has to fight, his old age and non-Force powers really stick out. Now, Han's still as clever as ever, but at his age? Sadly, NJO came up with at least several non-Force sensitive major characters, but most of them have been forgotten since then. There's Jagged, but his importance comes and goes (he was a sorta minor character for most of LotF, and its kind of hard to say he's important in FotJ), even as Imperial head of state, since he's not really doing much leadership stuff on Coruscant (not that we've seen anyway). All of the other non-Force sensitive characters in the novels are antagonistic or unimportant really.

And in theory brave Senators like Bail Organa and Mon Mothma and Bel Iblis founded the Rebel Alliance and led it, somewhat successfully, until its at the state we see it in in Episode IV. In theory, but after the first TFU game wrecked that idea, I'm not expecting good things from the second one either.

So yes, non-Force users matter, but it depends on the quality of the stories, as otherwise it just devolves into more Jedi vs. everybody battles, which get boring fast.