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The Force embodies inner struggles in Star Wars, symbolizing the conflict between light and dark; it reveals characters’ moral dilemmas and drives their fateful decisions.
The most pivotal aspect of Star Wars is, without a doubt, The Force. Working as the central spiritual connection of its universe, binding all living things together. Both Jedi and Sith alike are able to manipulate it as tools for either peace or destruction. Despite being the central piece holding the Star Wars narrative together, much of The Force persists in being widely unexplained. Audiences are used to hearing philosophies such as the light and dark sides of the force, and its origins are still unknown to both audiences and inhabitants of the fictional universe, even its versatile ability to shift and being able to be manipulated is quite unfathomable.
Now that Lucasfilm announced a new New Trilogy, audiences will be able to experience the exploration of The Force away from The Skywalkers’ involvement. The first attempt of such was made on ‘The Acolyte’ because of contradictions to the already established canon alongside the intentional choice of including writers who had consumed little to no Star Wars content before and a lack of Study, which became a huge underperformance and disappointment for the fans. Research is a very important aspect of storytelling, especially in the Star Wars Franchise, where it primarily fuels of its universe are lore and history. As the canon keeps expanding The Force will as well, understanding it opens the doors for more immersive narratives that are faithful to its rules and mythos.
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One With The Force
Across the series, The Force has been portrayed in various ways. The most common ones are seen in the abilities that Force-wielders possess. Abilities such as Prima Vitae, also known as life detection or Force Projection, used on the light side, and Force Rage or Kyber Crystal bleeding, as seen on the dark side, highlight the dichotomy of The Force, yet these are just the surface of the depths of The Force.
A significant way The Force is manifested throughout the saga is as a sort of Internal Equilibrium. The Jedi, for example, use it as a guiding tool as a means of achieving inner peace. Qui-Gon Jinn is the perfect example of this; he deeply embraced the concept of the Living Force, which refers to the energy that resides in all life forms. He focused on feeling and flowing with the Force in the present moment rather than manipulating it. This allowed him to become the first known light-side Force user to achieve immortality through the Force and become a Force Ghost, an ability later passed to his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Jedi Grand Master Yoda.
When its dark side has a stronger presence, The Force has been shown as something closer to internal conflict. The Skywalker Family being a great example of such. Anakin Skywalker is the most prominent despite The Jedi Order’s attempts against the fact, especially with the strict teachings in the Jedi Code, he still managed to find and keep extremely emotional attachments and grasp a severe fear of loss, allowing him to be manipulated into the dark side. His son, Luke, has tapped into the dark side multiple times. This makes sense as, unlike his father and predecessors, he did not have proper Jedi training. His struggle with anger and fear in ‘Return of the Jedi’ is the most well-known. From his appearance to his duel on Death Star II against his father, although he withstood the temptation of the dark side, especially with Palpatine present. Luke still came extremely close to killing his own father, proving that despite the darkness inside us, there will always be a brightness to overcome it, no matter how dim it is.
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Beyond The Screen
Even though the Legends continuity is not considered part of the mainline canon, storytellers can still draw from it for inspiration and understanding. Legends has provided a deeper exploration of The Force, especially back when it was known as The Expanded Universe.
In Legends, The Force is seen and treated in a more metaphysical and spiritual way; it is more potent and versatile, providing users with a wider range of abilities than seen in Canon, allowing for a more complex understanding of its connection to all living things and how it can affect the non-living ones. The lightsaber is one of the latter. The thought of its blade’s color having some relation with The Force has been around since ‘A New Hope’ with blue representing a tighter grasp on the light side and red showing a mastery in the darkness; these were expanded with the introduction of green in ‘Return of the Jedi’. Yet Legends delved deeply into the concept, introducing six of the eight existent lightsaber hues. Set hues shift depending on the user’s connection with The Force while in Canon, they are primarily determined by the natural properties of the Kyber Crystal.
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Even the sparingly practiced philosophy of The Unifying Force was deeply yet mysteriously explored in legends, especially in ‘The New Jedi Order’ series. Appearing firstly in ‘The Phantom Menace’ novelization and later dived into on James Luceno’s novel ‘The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force’, sees the Force as a single, unified entity rather than as energy of life itself.
Eventually, as the years went by, insights like these inspired or even pumped Canon. Especially towards the latter years of the ‘Prequel Trilogy’. Then Disney chose to introduce a new canon that included set prequels, but completely chose to decanonized the 26-year-long parallel universe, rebranding it under the folkloric term of “Legends” on April 25, 2014. This action caused contradictions within the canonical timeline that became more evident as Disney added their own plotlines, some with their own altered visions of Legends material. Although the pre-Disney canon and The Expanded Universe were never truly connected, they still existed as Alternate realities, each canonical in its own way. A multiverse that fueled and inspired each other, with The Expanded Universe working as the Lore of the mainline narratives.
Dance of Light and Dark
The fundamental conflict across the whole Star Wars Franchise is the light side of the force against the dark side. Despite this, the primordial concept of the IP maintains to be the balance between these. The true meaning of that balance remains a mystery, with multiple contradicting examples throughout the series, yet there have been instances where characters demonstrate a closeness to that balance.
Mace Windu stands out greatly; after all, he is the first force user to wield a purple lightsaber in canon. Windu alongside his former Padawan Master Depa Billaba were the only known users of the 7th form of lightsaber combat named “Vaapad”, commonly referred to as “The Ferocity Form” due to being regarded as the most aggressive and unpredictable form. This form was developed by Windu in order to address his tendencies towards anger by controlling his inner darkness, it consisted of direct and powerful attacks, forcing its user to utilize their emotions to fuel their offense for it to be truly effective. Yet, Master Mace Windu stood as the second-in-command of the Jedi High Council due to his exceptional skill in the Force alongside his resilience and commitment to the principles of the Jedi.
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Another great instance is the beloved protagonist of the ‘Force Unleashed’ series, Galen Marek, more commonly known under the codename Starkiller. He trained as a Sith under the mastery of Darth Vader. After his brief turn to the light side and his untimely death, his first clone, who took Starkiller as his name, also turned to the light side and trained as a Jedi as a Padawan of Master Rahm Kota. Despite his 3rd clone made by Vader staying in the Dark side and later becoming known as ‘The Dark Apprentice”, Marek’s genes still turned to the light side in two different instances, showing us just a tad bit more of how The Force works in mysterious ways.
Throughout the last almost 50 years, The Force has evolved and adapted to the inhabitants of the galaxy. The Force is a property of life, yet life could not exist without The Force. In the absence of the abilities and purpose it provides to the Jedi, life would have been deprived of protection from the countless threats of the universe, leading to a rather fast end as seen in Legends aftermath of The Yuuzhan Vong War. The Force works as a sort of Yin and Yang, as seen in the Prime Jedi mosaic, what we know as human consciousness. The Force reminds us of the potential for self-improvement and the ability to choose between good and evil in ourselves and the world. Teaching us that through mindfulness and understanding, we have the capacity to adverse our limitations to become the best version of ourselves despite the inherently continuous darkness within each of us.
By Mario Martinez Ignacio
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Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
