In the past thirty-four years Star Wars has gone from the small fledgling science fiction film that even the studios thought was, well, dumb to the self sustaining ever growing behemoth of a universe that can nurture your inner child like a mother koala that is Empire Strikes Back or tear your dreams apart like the rabid grizzly so appropriately named Episode One.
In this multi-part in depth look at the wonderfully intoxicating and cruel mistress that is Star Wars, some things will be revealed that George Lucas himself probably didn’t even realize but upon learning of their existence immediately insist that he intended to have Ewoks riding ton tons in the background the whole time.
Part I: The Sith isn’t actually evil, the Emperor is.
If you watch and/or are familiar with all six Star Wars movies you will find that there is a rather important common theme that spans all the way from Qui Gon Jinn drinking tea in an embargo ship to Ewoks dancing around Mark Hammel and all those other actors whose careers have gone the way of the Alderaanians. Yes, that’s right, the Force.
As Obi Wan Kenobi once so eloquently put, “It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” Get it? No? Hmm, well, that is a bit of a vague way of putting it. So then, what is the Force?
Here’s the deal, Lucas, in his infinite wisdom, leads us to believe the Force is a universal constant that throughout the movies is apparently completely out of whack because everyone keeps saying that Anakin a.k.a *spoiler alert* Darth Vader is supposed to bring balance to it. But does he?
Let’s find out.
On can’t even be sure if George Lucas had this all straight when he wrote it down the first time but by the looks of the prequels he had as about of a much grasp on his own concepts as a T-Rex wearing boxing gloves does on a greased watermelon.
The Force as a whole is taught and practiced by two “opposite” groups. The Sith and the Jedi. The Sith are supposedly evil while the Jedi are supposedly good. Get it? They’re “opposites.” But if the Jedi exist and the Sith exist at the same time then the force is balanced right? That should be the case except that every Jedi ever keeps yapping about how balance needs to be restored to the force even though there is a Sith presence to counter balance them. How were there was like seven masters on the Jedi High Council and none of them figured this out?
The only way to explain this is to realize that the Sith darkside isn’t inherently evil, just a complimentary way of using the force. The REAL problem is that the Emperor is evil and using the Sith as a method to conquer the universe thus knocking everything out of whack.
Think about it this way: chocolate and vanilla ice cream are opposites right? Well sort of, they are different tasting and all sorts of people will go to the grave defending the individual appeal of each flavor but that doesn’t make one bad and the other good they are both just different ways of enjoying a universally awesome thing: ice cream.
Its actual opposite probably wouldn’t be any sort of ice cream at all but something horribly different like pimento loaf bouillon cubes. The same can be said for the Force. It encompasses both the Sith and the Jedi but neither of those are direct opposites nor an evil or good version of the Force, merely a part of it. The opposite of the Force or its evil incarnation is actually something else entirely, my guess is it is also pimento loaf bouillon cubes.
So DOES Darth Vader bring balance to the force?
Yes, but…briefly.
In the end Darth Vader finally fulfills his prophecy when he mans up and destroys the Emperor by throwing him down a bottomless industrial shaft. Open and unguarded maintenance shafts seem to be a common weakness of the empire. In that instant all traces of evil within the players is destroyed and the Force is once again balanced with one good Sith Lord (Vader) and one Jedi Lord (Luke). See that ratio? 1:1 balanced.
But soon afterward Vader’s mechanical mech-suit of doom can’t take the excitement of everyone’s hand having been cut off and he dies, leaving the Force and the universe unbalanced again. After hundreds of years of prophecies, six movies and over fifty years cinema time of a lone character’s personal growth, Luke and Vader are able to make everything right in the cosmos for less than ten minutes.
But still…what a ride eh?
You liked what you read didn’t you? SEARCH YOUR FEELINGS! YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE! If that IS the case, then check out Monkeywithamonocle’s other articles:What your first Pokemon says about you. & Top 5 WORST Green Lanterns
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(+4 rating, 6 votes)
Well done!