In 1999, “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” raised questions that fans have been mulling over for years. Was Anakin the Chosen One? What does it mean to bring balance to the Force? How is the Force out of balance? What is this Living Force that Qui-Gon Jinn keeps talking about, anyway? Why didn’t he disappear when he died? To answer these questions, we need to understand a little background. Keep in mind that this is only my interpretation and has not been approved, endorsed, or even read by anyone at LucasFilm.
The Old Jedi Order
While I have yet to find any evidence of George Lucas explicitly saying so, the Old Jedi Order is based largely on the Guardian class in Plato’s “The Republic”. Potential Guardians candidates throughout the land are tested at a very young age (consider that Anakin, at age nine, was too old), brought up by the Republic as servants for the Republic. Attachment is forbidden, possessions are forbidden, and compassion is central to the life of a Guardian. Even the phrase guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic is taken almost verbatim from “The Republic”.
All told, the Old Jedi Order is a rigidly structured organization based on rules, codes, and procedures. When Qui-Gon tells the Council that he will take Anakin as his Padawan, Master Windu tells him the code forbids it. Qui-Gon was always a bit of a renegade Jedi, though.
The Force
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field that surrounds us, penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi – Episode IV
The Force is based on elements in Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Taoism. It is a simplified, mystical version of the Tao. In Lao Tzu’s “Tao Te Ching”, the Tao is described many times as a river, stream, or other flowing body of water. It is fluid, always changing, growing, adapting, and evolving. It cannot be contained or forced.
A central tenet of Taoism is wu wei, which, directly translated, means acting without action. It is non-doing, riding the Tao, floating like a leaf on the river of life.
Conflicting Philosophies
The rigid structure of the Old Jedi Order is incompatible with the fluid nature of the Force. The Council wanted the Force to answer to it, to follow their rules. They saw the Force as a reflection of the Order. Qui-Gon Jinn saw it differently, and the Council was dismissive of her point of view. He saw the Force as a living entity with a will of its own, unbound by rules and codes. As a follower of the Living Force, he was more inclined to follow the will of the Force, even without the approval of the Council. In following the will of the Force, Qui-Gon saved Jar Jar Binks, to the chagrin of Obi-Wan and millions of Star Wars fans, wagered property that was not his, and bartered over human life. The Jedi Council would never have allowed any of this to transpire. They almost did not allow young Anakin Skywalker to be trained as a Jedi. Qui-Gon’s view of the Force would eventually become the basis for the New Jedi Order, but he would have to die to make that happen.
One with the Force
When Qui-Gon fell to Darth Maul’s blade, he did not disappear as many people anticipated. In Episodes IV and VI, when Obi-Wan and Yoda passed away, their bodies disappeared, and it was assumed that disappearing is simply what dead Jedi do. In Episode II, something interesting and wholly unique (within the context of the overall story) happened. Anakin Skywalker returned to his home on Tatooine to save his mother. He found her bound, gagged, and severely beaten in a tent at a Tusken camp. He held his mother in his arms as she told her only son, now a grown man and a Jedi, that she loved him. When she died, Anakin was filled with anger. The Tuskens killed his mother. They had to pay. Overcome with rage, the Chosen One slaughtered every man, woman and child in the camp.
At the same time, Yoda was meditating on Coruscant, and he felt young Skywalker’s pain and possibly the suffering of the slain Sand people. He also heard familiar voice, one he had not heard for ten years. The disembodied voice of Qui-Gon yelled, “Anakin! Anakin! No!” Yoda learns to commune with the ghost of Qui-Gon, and at the end of Episode III (or shortly after), he shares the secret with Obi-Wan.
The Episode III novel went into greater detail. Qui-Gon appeared to Yoda in voice only. He told Yoda that he had discovered the path to immortality and limitless power, a path that Anakin had struggled throughout the story trying to find. Yoda became Qui-Gon’s apprentice, as did Obi-Wan later on. Not only does this allow for the “disappearing trick” to be explained, but it illustrates Yoda’s acceptance that the Council was wrong. He had once told Qui-Gon, “An apprentice you already have. Impossible to take a second.”
What is the “disappearing trick”? How does it work? How can Qui-Gon be a ghost but not have a body? There is no real trick. Qui-Gon’s spirit was one with the Living Force. Internally, he was in the right place. Externally, he was bound by the Jedi Code. His spirit was free to follow the will of the Force, but his body was not. When his body died, he did not resign himself to death. He resigned himself to the Force, and since he was in tune with it, his spirit was absorbed into it. He knew that the way of the Force lay in giving up attachments and acting out of compassion. His compassion is self-evident, and he gave up his only attachment – his body – for the greater good.
Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin needed to forgo their attachments as well. But first, they had to recognize them. Yoda was loyal to the Republic and the Jedi Order. At their fall, Yoda fought to keep them alive and failed. The Republic and the Old Jedi Order gone, Yoda’s only attachment was to his own body. He held on to that as long as he could, long enough to see the return of the Jedi. Obi-Wan had a strong attachment to Anakin. He loved him. They were like brothers. When Anakin was consumed by Darth Vader, Obi-Wan was devastated. Obi-Wan brought young Luke to Tatooine to keep a watchful, but distant eye on him. He knew that acting like a father figure to Luke would have ended badly, so he took on the role of eccentric uncle. During his exile on Tatooine, Obi-Wan watched over Luke and communed with Qui-Gon to learn the ways of the Living Force. Yoda did the same on Dagobah. It should be made clear that neither Obi-Wan nor Yoda took Luke under their respective wings out of love. They knew he and his sister would be the last hope for freedom in the galaxy and to destroy the Sith. They trained him out of duty.
About twenty years after Anakin fell to the dark side, the Galactic Civil War was underway, and it finally reared its ugly head above the lonely backwater planet of Tatooine. R2- D2 and C-3PO ended up in Luke’s hands, and Luke ran into Ben Kenobi, the old hermit who lived across the dune sea. The only attachments Luke ever knew were killed by the Empire, so he joined Ben on his journey to Alderaan with the Death Star plans. Ben, it turned out, was a general in the Clone Wars, and he went by the name of Obi-Wan. He was a Jedi Knight and close personal friend of Luke’s late father, Anakin. Obi-Wan, of course, told Luke that Anakin had been killed by Darth Vader, who was now the Emperor’s right hand man. Not long after their chance meeting out in the Jundland Wastes, Kenobi ran into Darth Vader again after twenty years. Vader was still angry and filled with hate. Obi-Wan and Vader duel one last time. Vader wanted revenge, while Obi-Wan wanted to stall him while Luke and company got back to the ship.
Before he fell, Anakin Skywalker was obsessed with power and immortality. Obi-Wan knew this, and he had found a path to both. He knew he was at an end, so he sacrificed his body, his final worldly attachment, and became one with the Force. Vader was confused.
A few years later, on Dagobah, Yoda knew his long life was reaching its end, and he too finally gave up his last worldly attachment and became one with the Force as well. Shortly thereafter, Darth Vader and Luke fought. The Emperor saw Luke as a potential replacement for Vader, but his plan backfired. When Luke refused to turn, the Emperor took it upon himself to destroy him. As Luke writhed in agony, Vader was forced to choose. On the one hand, there was Emperor Palpatine, his master, longtime friend and confidante, the one man he had been loyal to his entire life. On the other hand, his son, the son he did not know he had until just recently. Not only was Luke the son he never had, but he was a living reminder of Padme, the love he inadvertently killed out of anger after selling his soul to save.
There was conflict. For years, Vader had been working under the assumption that he was completely lost to the Dark Side of the Force. His angry quest for unlimited power kept him alive. It was all he knew. Suddenly, he had a son. His initial idea after finding out was to turn Luke to the Dark Side. Then, they could overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy. Luke did not want that. Luke just wanted a father. All his life, Luke wondered about his dad, and it was only relatively recently that he learned of the mighty heroic deeds of the late Anakin Skywalker. He, like his dying mother, believed Anakin could be redeemed. As Luke writhed in agony on the floor of the Emperor’s throne room, Vader, Anakin, felt conflict.
If there was conflict with the Dark Side in him, then the Light Side must still exist within. If the Light Side still exists in his soul, then he is not completely lost to the Dark Side. Anakin saw the tiny glimmer and knew that there was goodness in him, but if he did nothing to save Luke, he might lose that last tiny shred. Anakin hoisted Palpatine up and flung him into a bottomless pit, absorbing all the Force lightning in the process. Anakin Skywalker was still alive, and the man that fueled his rage was now gone. As he lay dying, Anakin wanted only one thing – to see his own son with his own eyes. Everything he had loved was gone, and he was finally able to let them go.
Balancing the Force
Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One because he brought balance to the Force. Balancing the Force is not simply a matter of the number of Jedi versus the number of Sith. That would only necessitate thinning out the Jedi ranks until only two were left. At the end of the story, only Luke was left, and he was a Jedi. Anakin brought balance by destroying the Sith. Remember the principle of wu wei and the imagery of the leaf floating on a river. For around a thousand years, the Old Jedi Order acted as guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.
The Old Jedi Order felt like they had a monopoly on the Force, that it was theirs alone, and that they could control it. Over time, the Old Jedi Order became stagnant. Mace Windu epitomized the Old Jedi Order. He was arrogant, uncompassionate, set in his ways, and reluctant to believe that the Sith could have returned, that Count Dooku could be behind an assassination attempt, or that the Senate could be under Sith control. The Old Jedi Order was much the same way. It was a large rock in the stream, forcing the water to break against it and find its way around.
The Sith were at the other end of the spectrum. They, too, used the Force as a means to their ends, and they also thought they could control it. Rather than being stagnant, though, they pushed forward for faster, easier power. The Sith were like a speedboat, tearing through the stream, destroying everything in its path.
After the Jedi Purge, only Yoda and Obi-Wan survived. The Old Jedi Order was gone, and the Sith ruled the galaxy. Luke began his Jedi training under Yoda’s tutelage, but not in the style of the Old Jedi Order. Luke learned Qui-Gon’s brand of the Force. He was not concerned with codes, regulations, and midi-chlorian counts. His only concern was following the will of the Force. When Yoda passed away, he told Luke to pass on what he had learned.
Anakin made a choice to save the life of his son, and, in doing so, he turned away from the Dark Side and destroyed the Sith. Upon his death, the final remnants of the Old Jedi Order were gone forever. The age-old, galaxy-wide conflict between Light and Dark and the power struggle between Sith and Jedi were over. Only Luke remained, and with him, the beginning of a new, balanced Jedi Order.
- Not George Lucas
No comments:
Post a Comment