Star Wars musings

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think Luke's ability to have family and friends that he cares about, yet his ability to master himself, reflects the balance discussed in the prophecy, yes. I would argue that he is even able to fall in love, start his own family, etc, though there's no canon indication that he does.

[Nicadymus]

No canon indication, true, however, he does do this in the novels, so I have been told as I have not read that portion.

So I just had an interesting thought...is this kind of like what the Luthern church did to the Catholic church...or should I not approach it in that way due to a severe lack of PC?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

her name is Mara Jade, and she tempts you to the dark side known as the EU because she's a potentially interesting character... and a hottie with red hair. We still reject her because from what I can tell, bad handling, unrealistic character development, and well... EU. That pretty much says it. So, since my arguments stick to the movies, with possible allowances for the Clone Wars series (and hte upcoming TV show), then I'm going to have to stick with the no indication that he actually does fall in love.

I think it's a fair analogy. I think taking hte analogy too far is dangerous, as even if Lucas meant you to think of it (after all, the Jedi are more or less a religious order and are very comparable to monastic orders and their vows), I don't think he developed it enough to draw a sustained metaphor.

[Nicadymus]

One additional question along these lines...how do the mitichlorians fit in with all this balance stuff?

(side note:  I did not like this part of trying to offer a scientific definition of the force).

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I don't think it can even really be considered a "scientific" explanation. I don't even think that's what Lucas was driving at. *shrug* I think it was just a convenient way to predict potential power in the force without closing one's eyes and going "hrm... I predict much force in this one"

[Nicadymus]

Interesting thought... I had never considered it in that light.

To tell you the truth, though, I still think one of the Masters just saying, "The Force is strong with this one," would have been enough.  At least it was enough in IV, V, and VI.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

and you're probably right. That was the established method and was enough for most people. However, You can measure Midichlorians, so you can trust a relatively inexperienced Jedi like Obiwan when he says it's more than Yoda. So there is a logic to it, esp since that had to happen before the masters see him.

[Dex1138]

Which brings up an interesting question:
If Jedi were not allowed to love, how did they determine which children should be tested? Since midichlorians are in the blood, it would be an inherited trait, but Jedi shouldn't be having kids...Was it some kind of government thing where they would just take a blood sample from every kid they could find and keep logs?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

it isn't necessarily inherited, considering that Midichlorians are organisms, not genes. Plus they're self-willed, or collective-willed at least, so can choose, possibly, if they were to be passed on.

There's a lot of possibilities, all of which are speculation, but my theory is that Jedi can detect their presence, so when a Jedi detects their presence in a child, he has the kid brought in for testing. Which is why force-users on in the outer fringe can be missed, but it's less likely in the core of the galaxy.

[Nicadymus]

As far as the mitis go on the measuring and their general existence, I agree with SE.

[Master Xaio]

I would also have thought that the Midichlorians were invented by Lucas to provide a specific way of measuring how strong someone is in the force; a jedi master can sense someone and say, "he/she is strong/weak in the force" - but I don't know how accurately they can do that.  This provides a convenient way.

Thats my tuppence of thoughts anyway.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

That's what I said. It makes it quantifiable and believeable even when measured by someone who's not in the upper echolons

[Entsuropi]

It might also be said that this is why the Jedi demanded iniates be so young. If you are going to train someone to have no emotion, then you want them young, before they spend lots of time using those emotions. After all, Luke was trained and he was in his 20s - but they did not try to train away his emotions.

Might also help to explain Anakin. He is trained to have no emotion, but because he was so old, he was used to having those emotions. So either he tries and fails to suppress them, or he doesn't try and feels like a reject for it. Combine that with his prodigious talents and you get a pretty bad mix, especially for a teenager.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Here's a similar but unrelated note:

Vader claims that he "MUST obey" his master. He actually emphasizes the word "must." What is it that compells him to obey the emperor?

[Spriggan]

The Emperor had photos of vader hanging out with Jar Jar, just think of what that would do to Vader's "bad guy" image if those got out.