Saga What do you think is the nature of the Will of the Force?

What do you think is the nature of the Will of the Force?

The idea was largely absent in the OT, besides a vague reference to the Force guiding all living things, but also obeying commands. It's underlined in TPM, and the EU basically elaborated that "following the will of the Force, or collaborating with it, not imposing on it or dominating it" = "the good/light side" = "balance." While the dark side is basically imposing your will on the Force and/or the wills of other lifeforms.

But what is the nature of the will of the Force?




Is it closer the idea that gravity can be said to have a "will"?

Or like how the Tao is described in the Tao Te Ching, with comparisons to water?






Or could the Force actually speak directly to someone if it wanted, person to person? (I think some works even say that's what Force Ghosts actually are... the will of the Force taking form of a Jedi who completely surrendered to its will, so the Force can use their appearance and voice and personality to communicate in a more intimate way.)






Is it somewhere in between?

What is the true nature of the will of the Force?

 

Personally, I never want to find out really.

 

I have long wondered this and, after 15 years of being a Star Wars fan, I feel like I'm no closer to having an answer. I have heard others suggest that the balance of the Force (which might be distinct from the will of the Force, but surely the Force wills itself to be balanced) is not the elimination of the dark side, but a balancing of light and dark. When I first heard this idea, I was steeped in the EU explanation of what balance meant as described in the opening post and I therefore found it very distasteful. It didn't seem to make any sense.

That's why I strongly disliked the Mortis trilogy when it first came out. It seemed to enshrine the idea of balance mean a balance of light and dark. As time has passed, I've begun to see the merits to this interpretation, especially given how the Jedi are portrayed in the PT. The Sith are all about passion and self-centredness and the Jedi are about self-control and selflessness... yet the PT era Jedi, and even Obi-Wan and Yoda in the OT when they insist that Luke must kill Vader, seem to be following an imperfect ideal. Yes, they are masters over their emotions, but they seem cold and detached, to the point where they have forgotten how to love. And what is love? A passion.

There are still problems with this idea and I think certain Star Wars stories, especially in the EU work better with a balance equals elimination of the dark side framework, but the balance of light and dark seems to be what Lucas was going for. I highly suspect, we would have seen that in his ST. Even Colin Trevorrow's Episode IX would have had this idea and it's possible he took it from Lucas's treatments.

 

I definitely think his ST would've explained/implied that the will of the Force is the will of the Whills, since they are basically the puppet masters of the universe.
As George explained to James Cameron, the Whills pretty much ARE the Force... but they also feed off the Force. Compare this with what Qui-Gon says to Yoda - that the Living Force feeds into the Cosmic Force...

Also keep in mind what Obi-Wan says in ANH: that the Force controls your actions but also obeys your commands. I think that applies to the big picture as well.
The Whills communicate with the living through the midi-chlorians ("They continually speak to us, telling us the will of the Force") and if we're attuned to the Force, they can guide us toward our true destiny (our destiny being our place in their grand plan for the universe) - but they can never take full control of us, since everyone has a will of their own. It's a collaboration between the will of the individual and the will of the Whills/Force.

 

Well the story of Mortis shows that the Father was wrong to believe dark and light could or should exist in balance. And it's idea of the dark and light seemed different from the dark side and the light side, because the Father warns the Son in the second episode about how he should not "fall to the dark side." I don't think light is absence of passion. The Jedi were detached and wrong in several aspects, but their mistake wasn't being "too light," it was being too robotic and bureaucratic and affiliated with a corrupt and decaying government. As Lucas says, the Sith are like a cancer slowly killing the host for their own benefit, not knowing it would eventually destroy themselves too.

 

I agree with @Libs. I would prefer not to know, lest it make it seem as though the actual characters have no effect on the plot and it's all guided by some mysterious Force. I think that George's trilogy would have explored this much more, but I'm not sure to what extent.

 

It's the balance between the dark and the light.

Spoiler

''Perhaps it's the will of the Force that the Jedi and all your kind perish.''

Bendu: serves the will of the Force. He chooses no sides, not dark, not light. He uses the both. He is the one in the middle.

 

"Perhaps"

And he was rather arrogant and preachy in those last few episodes. He was supposed to be equated more with a hurricane or force of nature than Voice of God.

 

For me, the Force represents nature itself . . . including the spirit. And as I have noticed over the years, there are both positive and negative aspects in all forms of nature. Sometimes, what seems to be on the surface positive can prove to be negative. And what seems to be negative can prove to be positive. It all depends upon the moment, so to speak.

 

The Will of the Force seems to be like the fulfilment of destiny or something meant to be, the best possible outcome from a situation.... It was the will of the Force that Qui Gon found Anakin... The will of the force for Leai's ship to get captured over Tattooine and bring Luke and Obi Wan together...? The will is for important events that change the course of history to take place in it's simplest form perhaps?

 

Bendu and the Mortis gods provide us with valuable insight, but I think it’s important to remember that they are themselves characters with their own interpretations of the Force. To me, they, along with the Force priestesses, are survivals of Force cults so old that they predate the Jedi, the Sith, and the galaxy’s known history. But though their power and wisdom is great, they are potentially as fallible as the Jedi and the Sith have been in their interpretation of the will of the Force.

I think the will of the Force is mysterious and unknowable in its fullness. Not even the ancients had that level of wisdom. But the best a Jedi or a Sith can do is learn to listen. The Jedi, to follow, the Sith, to manipulate. But no mortal can ever know the fullness of the Force and its designs for the universe.

In terms of the Force speaking directly, I think it does so all the time, though never in the sense of being itself personified. But every grand miracle of the Force, like spirits or visions, as well as the lesser ones, like coincidence or intuition, is a message from the Force.

 

None. The Force is a field of energy, larger than all dualities and contrasts, that even in principle is fundamentally unknowable. What Force-sensitives call "the will of the Force" is a metaphor, just like how someone ignorant of gravity would say that it's "the will of the river" to flow to the sea.

 

1. Could be The Whills as Lucas wanted to make another trilogy dealing with them.

2. Since life is a part of it it's sort of like life has an influence at an unconscious level.

 

This is my interpretation. That the will of the Force is the collective unconscious will of all beings - which is inherently altruistic by virtue of including the thoughts and feelings of everyone.

 

Do they though?

Yoda only says that Luke must confront Vader, he never says anything about killing him. It is Luke who says that he can't kill his own father, to which Obi Wan replies that the Emperor will have won if that is the case.

One can certainly read it in the way that Obi Wan thinks that Vader needs to die, but it is also possible that he merely means that Luke needs to be at peace with whatever outcome will happen, even killing his own father.

 

I feel that the nature of the Force's will is a combination of chaos, ambiguity, truth.

 

I always felt that there was just...the Force, as a singular constant. And whether someone uses it for good or bad. And the idea of the force being 'out of balance' is that someone is 'pulling' in the opposite direction from good (I use the word pulling loosely just to describe my thought). I've never agreed with this idea that I've heard many say, that there's essentially a light force and a dark force, and the two have to be ultimately "evenly measured."

 

Interesting but then why does the dark side of the force corrupt like it does?

 

I think that Obi-Wan feels this way cos he himself learned later (after Mustafar) that he failed to do it. So essentially it was a job of his left undone (not to mention the second Sith he presumed to have killed, who actually survived). As for Yoda, I think he thought Vader needed to be killed too. But mostly cos he probably didn't see another way, or see a possibility Anakin could be redeemed. After all, he was quite resigned to it in ROTS. IMO saying he only used the word 'confront' rather than 'kill' is just mincing words really.

I just see it as the Dark side uses that same force, but in an unnatural way-which is resistant against those trying to use it for good, or simply connect to it. And each side sees the OTHER side in the same way-a disturbance in the constance of the Force's energy. So to me it's not about separate forces, it's separate USES of the same force. And depending on what is in one's own heart, one way of using it or the other may look more attractive to someone.

 

I don't know...Yoda describes it as a separate thing. "That place is strong with the dark side of the Force." Otherwise it would just be strong with the Force. I know he says only what you take with you but he specifically says the dark side of the force.

 

Perhaps...the Force leaves energy echoes in places. And it would be stronger if something more intense happened there. And obviously the energy would echo the way it manifested there originally. So if the Force was used for some great evil there, that would be the kind of echo Jedi would sense.

 

I wonder what happened there? A murder maybe.

 

So I actually have a crazy idea based in physics about the Force which is that the purpose of its existence is to stop the heat death of the universe. That every universe is ultimately doomed to become cold and empty but in a kind of cosmic natural selection, life in the Star Wars universe has found a solution by creating the Force, thus counteracting the effect of dark energy and slowing down the expansion of that universe.

When Obi-Wan says it's an energy field that binds the galaxy together, it's not just a philosophical statement about connection, it's literal. The Force is literally keeping the galaxy and perhaps the universe together and the more life is allowed to flourish, the stronger the Force becomes and the better equipped it is to slow and stop the expansion.

Now this isn't anything Lucas has ever mentioned, it comes strictly from my own crazy imagination so feel free to reject the concept.

But if we follow through on it just a bit, what of the Dark Side? If the Force in its natural state represents the light and is doing what it's supposed to do, what if the actions of the Sith and the pushing of the Dark Side corrupts the Force and stops it from holding everything together? What if an ultimate victory for the Dark Side would mean a weakening of the Force to the point where it can no longer counter the effect of dark energy, the expansion of the universe speeds up and results in heat death?

Again, it's a crazy idea, one that is rooted more in science fiction than fantasy but I think it's an interesting idea.