right, that’s what i’m saying. what they did with the blurring of lines in tlj could have gone even further. what if there is no “light side”, it’s all just puritanical bullshit by a bunch of dried-up space monks that unilaterally decide what’s good or evil. they’re basically thought police.
one possibility i particularly like to consider, though…
is what if the force is all dark-side?
What if the so-called “light side” and all the jedi teachings exist solely as mechanisms of internal defense against a phenomenon that is inherently ontologically evil and absolutely would take any opportunity whatsoever to corrupt anyone it can?
I like to imagine that the force is, on the whole, a weapon. The way it fucks with probability on the quantum scale and can even rest an elbow on the scales of free will… look at all the technology we see in star wars: despite all its incredible capabilities, it’s all chonky, thicc, and analog. I for one think that digital microcomputing as we know it in our galaxy would be rendered impossible by the interference of the force… on purpose. my wacky zany headcanon proposes The Force was created to render a ‘grey goo’ nanite swarm inert and incapable of functioning wherever it is present, because it ruins the deterministic phenomena upon which nanoscale computational systems rely.
anyway, outside of that, even if it WEREN’T like that, i’m rather a fan of morality being something that sapient minds manufacture. Not to say that it isn’t real or valid or useful, but that the universe–or at least the living beings within it–benefit from the imposition of this abstract framework of right and wrong. it’s not intrinsic, but rather the gift that sapience delivers upon the causal volume within which it lives. the meaning of life being to create meaning, to put it another way. And when we take that abstraction too far into absolute/fundamentalist/puritanical extents, that TOO is an overwhelming imbalance that causes harm. Exploring the boundaries of benefit and harm in this environment we’ve created is itself a compelling narrative hook.
i do prefer the theory that it’s just a fifth fundamental force, with no inherent good or evil built in. which is why i like johnson’s nod to the fact that anyone can pick it up by themselves, rather than being trained for years. you’d still probably need training to focus properly but it’s not about “powers”, more about reading the world. less harry potter magic, more discworld magic.
there are certainly moral and immoral uses of a power like that, just like there are moral and immoral uses of… magnetism.
as for the more hard sci-fi stuff… eh. star wars doesn’t hold up to scrutiny like that. it’s a pulp space opera, sword and sorcery in space. a lot of the eu tried reeeeeally hard to lean into the science fiction aspect, but it really doesn’t work imo. i was really enthusiastic about shit like the space ship layout as a kid, still have all the “essential guide” books, but the fact is that nobody thought about that stuff when creating the world like in 90s trek, it’s all just rule of cool. once i realised that my interest sort of waned.
right, that’s what i’m saying. what they did with the blurring of lines in tlj could have gone even further. what if there is no “light side”, it’s all just puritanical bullshit by a bunch of dried-up space monks that unilaterally decide what’s good or evil. they’re basically thought police.
i love seeing others ask that same question!
one possibility i particularly like to consider, though…
is what if the force is all dark-side?
What if the so-called “light side” and all the jedi teachings exist solely as mechanisms of internal defense against a phenomenon that is inherently ontologically evil and absolutely would take any opportunity whatsoever to corrupt anyone it can?
I like to imagine that the force is, on the whole, a weapon. The way it fucks with probability on the quantum scale and can even rest an elbow on the scales of free will… look at all the technology we see in star wars: despite all its incredible capabilities, it’s all chonky, thicc, and analog. I for one think that digital microcomputing as we know it in our galaxy would be rendered impossible by the interference of the force… on purpose. my wacky zany headcanon proposes The Force was created to render a ‘grey goo’ nanite swarm inert and incapable of functioning wherever it is present, because it ruins the deterministic phenomena upon which nanoscale computational systems rely.
anyway, outside of that, even if it WEREN’T like that, i’m rather a fan of morality being something that sapient minds manufacture. Not to say that it isn’t real or valid or useful, but that the universe–or at least the living beings within it–benefit from the imposition of this abstract framework of right and wrong. it’s not intrinsic, but rather the gift that sapience delivers upon the causal volume within which it lives. the meaning of life being to create meaning, to put it another way. And when we take that abstraction too far into absolute/fundamentalist/puritanical extents, that TOO is an overwhelming imbalance that causes harm. Exploring the boundaries of benefit and harm in this environment we’ve created is itself a compelling narrative hook.
i do prefer the theory that it’s just a fifth fundamental force, with no inherent good or evil built in. which is why i like johnson’s nod to the fact that anyone can pick it up by themselves, rather than being trained for years. you’d still probably need training to focus properly but it’s not about “powers”, more about reading the world. less harry potter magic, more discworld magic.
there are certainly moral and immoral uses of a power like that, just like there are moral and immoral uses of… magnetism.
as for the more hard sci-fi stuff… eh. star wars doesn’t hold up to scrutiny like that. it’s a pulp space opera, sword and sorcery in space. a lot of the eu tried reeeeeally hard to lean into the science fiction aspect, but it really doesn’t work imo. i was really enthusiastic about shit like the space ship layout as a kid, still have all the “essential guide” books, but the fact is that nobody thought about that stuff when creating the world like in 90s trek, it’s all just rule of cool. once i realised that my interest sort of waned.