Hey Jimmy and Jason,
The recent The Clone Wars episodes, Overlords and Altar of Mortis have been outstanding and have certainly changed our view of the Force. I believe I have determined the basic outline these episodes have helped establish in the Force and I thought I would drop you guys a line in case you, or your listeners, were not completely sure of the concepts these episodes established.
Essentially we all know Star Wars takes bits and pieces from different religions around the world, sustilling them down to their essential motifs. This of course makes the Force incredibly individual amalgamated – and somewhat universal – philosophy which doesn’t strictly adhere to any religious movement. Because of all these bits and pieces from Judeo-Christian teachings to Eastern Philosophies we have been unsure of how they could possibly ‘fit together’ in one unique philosophy (because they contradict each other). However the recent episodes of The Clone Wars have given us a somewhat ‘definitive’ view of the Force.
I’m going to try and explain this in terms of how it was metaphorically done on Mortis:
Firstly, the Father gives the impression that the Force in inherently good (Judeo-Christian) however this ‘inherent goodness’ means that there must be both ‘good aspects’ and ‘dark aspects’ (the human differentiation) to create, in nature, a singular Force (Taoist view). This suggests that the Force’s ‘inherent goodness’ is not found in the complete absence of what we humans consider ‘dark aspects’ but rather the natural balance of both light and dark aspects. This would further suggest that both the Son and Daughter are, initially at least, good and must be balanced with eachother because it is the natural balance of nature to have them equally present. This is essentially a Yin-Yang standpoint mixed with some Judeo-Christian ones creating something unique.
The Father himself represents this balance idealistically within a human being; he is a good man who has good and peaceful intensions, however he maintains the darkness within him to be used when necessary, thus creating a completely balanced being. This is somewhat like the Jedi.
However these episodes have not completely discarded the concept of evil within the universe. Essentially it is important to note that the ‘dark aspects’ which the Son represents initially and the Dark Side of the Force are two separate entities. This is reinforced by the fact the Son is ‘falling’ to the Dark Side in Altar of Mortis which his Father condemns. This thus illustrates the Dark Side of the Force, not as the natural ‘dark aspects’ consisting the Force, but rather as an unnatural mutation of these things. This unnatural mutation thus creates evil and happens for the same reasons as it happens to anyone; Greed and Pride. As such dark aspects (which the Son is initially) represent the balanced dark aspects required in nature (and, by extension every person), whilst the Dark Side of the Force is representative of a mutated unnatural ‘cancer’ creating evil (which the Son is falling to). To put this into perspective, a wolf uses ‘dark aspects’ and kills as dear for the continuation of nature, however this does not make the wolf evil. Instead evil is the separate ‘Dark Side of the Force’ which is an unnatural state where these dark aspects corrupt.
As such when the Son falls to the Dark Side of the Force he creates an unnecessary imbalance because he is now to powerful for balance to be maintained. This makes the Son allied with the Dark Side of the Force, which unlike the essential ‘dark aspects’, creates an evil and cancerous mutation which is unnecessary in nature.
Summarized:
- The Force, naturally, is holistic and has no light and dark; intelligent beings make these distinctions
- As such it exists naturally ‘in balance’ (when human differentiation is taken into account) with equal ‘light and dark aspects’
- If you have to many dark (and possibly light) aspects you will fall to the unnatural state of the Dark Side of the Force
- The Dark Side of the Force is a cancer which creates Evil in the universe and thus imbalance
As such the Force can be illustrated as follows:
The Force
Light Aspects Dark Aspects
|-------------------------|-------------------------|
|-------------|
The Dark Side
I hope that helps explain the concept of the Force now prevalent in Star Wars. I am unsure of how the ‘Mortis’ arc relates to the ‘temporal world’ (whether it is literal, metaphorical or reflection), however I’ll form my opinions on that following the last episode of the trilogy.
Hopefully you guys can find a way to get this ‘definition’ to the listeners, because if you don’t understand the concept it could understandably create misunderstanding and discourse.
Thanks for reading,
DarthPhilosopher (TFN Forums), IndianaKenobi (Rebelscum Forums)
