The Force In Balance

An Essay on Episode 7

       I know that a lot of people were really mad about Episode 7. And the reasons that the movie states Luke had for going into exile. But! I recently ran across some clips from the making of the movie on youtube and the order in which I watched them brought something to light for me. I don't remember which videos they were but the first one I watched was Snoke saying something I think was actually from Episode 8, about how as Kylo Ren grew stronger in the Force, so too would his equal in the Light grow stronger also.

       The next was actually a clip of Ryan Johnson talking about how Luke had realized that as long as there are Jedi there will also be Sith, because you can't have one without the other. And how Jedi had only added to the suffering of the galaxy through that fact, a truth that has been tested for thousand of generations of the Jedi order. Literally since the beginning of the Jedi Order there had been people falling to the Dark side.

       Luke was trying to solve this problem by allowing the Jedi to die out. Ryan Johnson put it this way: "Luke was doing the only thing he knew how to do. Being selfless. In that he didn't make the mistake of going to help his friends like he did on Dagobah." (or something like that)

       The Force is made up of two sides, right? The Light and the Dark. Now the Jedi believed that the way to achieve balance was for there to be no Dark side at all. But somehow the Force always still had a Dark side and people who would use it. The Sith on the other hand didn't really give a damn about balance so long as they had all the power and killed all the Jedi. 

       Here is the catch tho. Picture a scale, you have Light on one side and nothing on the other. The scale tips. There is no balance. And the opposite is also true. You have Darkness on one side and nothing on the other. The scale tips. There is no balance. The Force prophesied the Chosen One. The One who would bring balance to the Force. The Force is trying to regain its balance. But It can't have balance unless its two sides are equal. 

       The original Jedi did have a clearer picture of this idea. In "Star Wars, Dawn of the Jedi" the birthplace of the Jedi order is the planet Tython. Tython had 2 moons, Ashla and Bogan. They were constantly pulling at each other and at the planet itself. Ashla represented the Light side, and Bogan the Dark. The ancient Jedi saw this as a symbol of how the Force existed. In balance with Itself. 

       There the Jedi learn pretty much how to control the Dark side without giving in to it completely. They use the Dark side and the Light side. They didn't shy away from almost anything the Dark side had to offer, so long as the user didn't surrender to the power of the Dark side and could pull themselves back from the edge. And thus avoid tipping the scale too far to one side.

       The "Modern" Jedi believed that balance could only be achieved by being closed off to the Dark side and open only to the Light. This tipped the scale too far in the opposite direction. The Force itself keeps trying to rectify the situation by always pushing to keep the Dark side alive. And as we saw in the original Trilogy, if the Dark side is almost successful in wiping out the Light the Force will "Awaken" another user of the Light side. 

       In Episode 7 Luke Skywalker was trying to solve the situation by letting the Jedi end. And in a way he kinda has the right idea. But not quite. The Sith were still out there. Luke's plan would only have worked if he had killed all the Sith and then cut himself off from the Force. Which he didn't do.

       Another solution would have been for Luke to realize that he needed to use both sides of the Force in equal measure to obtain balance. But after generations of Jedi and Sith fighting with one another, and the Sith destroying everything, and the Jedi rebuilding only to have the Sith destroy them again,  the Darkside would be very hard to see as ok in any way, shape, or form.

      One final solution would have been to literally end the Force. Spoiler Alert for KotOR2!  If you have played the "Knights of the Old Republic" games. Namly the second one, "The Sith Lords". In this game there is a character named Kreia. She was seeking for a way to end the Force. Which would theoretically be possible if a person had enough power like another character in the game "Darth Nihlus". He had the ability to feed on the Force and remove it from life. He would feed off of planets and people strong in the Force and remove the Force from them.

       The downside to this is that by removing the Force he killed everything that lived. Planets were left barren and lifeless. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, "Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."  So in effect the only way to achieve the end of the Force is to end all life. Bad plan.

       And since being balanced in use wasn't and option for Luke, he chose the only other path he knew of that might bring balance. Not ending the Force, but having no users of the Force at all. His execution of the plan was a bit flawed though. Because there was already Darksiders that were powerful, and he cut himself off then. The Force again tried to balance itself by "Awakening" Rey. Which just restarted the cycle of Dark wins, Light wins, Dark wins, Light wins, and on and on. The only 2 ways to end this cycle in theory are to have no Force users at all, or to have Force users who are actually balanced, using both the Light and Dark.

       So Ryan Johnson did have a very good plot point here. Having Luke realize that the Galaxy was caught in this cycle between Light and Dark, and trying to end it to help everyone by selflessly going into exile. This does align more with Luke's character than him just feeling guilty for Ben Solo turning to the Dark side.

       The underlying plot point was very good for the story. But the movie makes so many people mad because they didn't spend enough time explaining this deep philosophical reason behind Luke decision, and almost the only explanation we get from the whole movie is when Han says to Rey and Finn that Luke felt responsible for one of his students turning to the Dark side.

       In conclusion there was a good story here if you realize the underlying reasons for Luke's decision, but Ryan Johnson didn't explain it enough in the movie for people to understand why Luke would abandon his friends and family, or for us to even really understand the full meaning behind the Title, "The Force Awakens".