We’ve all done it. As fans of Star Wars, at some point in your life you’ve probably had a conversation like this. You are sitting around with a few of your friends talking about some minor aspect of one of the films and before you know it you’ve gone down the rabbit hole into a multi-hour philosophical debate over the minutiae that only us intense fans care about. You ramble, you change topics, you make some great points, and some not so great points, and then you look back and say, “what the hell just happened to the last few hours of my life?”

Well that is exactly what happened in a conversation between some of our staff members last week. A seemingly simple question turns into a long, in-depth, conversation about the nature of the force and ends with many open ended questions that could continue the conversation on indefinitely. So, in this slow news season as we await the return of Rebels and the release of Rogue One, we thought we’d share it with you so you could continue that conversation. Maybe you are bored of being stuck inside waiting for the summer heat to fade. Maybe you are desperate for any Star Wars content during the slow approach to the upcoming releases. Or, maybe you just like a good old fashioned Star Wars discussion.

If any of those describe you, take a read below and continue the conversation in the comments. As a word of warning, just like any conversation in this vein, it is long, it is rambling, and not always as coherent as it seemed in the moment, but it is real. There is no news here, no super secret spoilers slip out, and no new information is divulged, so if it is not your thing feel free to skip on past this one, but for those of you who may be looking to take a deep dive into the murky depths of Star Wars fandom, have a read and continue on in the comments.

Trevor:

Just a question for the staff here;

Does anyone think that we’ll get to see a “Force Ghost Anakin” in this trilogy?

Hard Case:

I’d put money on Yoda showing up. Anakin is more likely than Obi-Wan I think, but I’m skeptical on the likelihood that either of them will make an appearance due to Guinness being dead and Christensen having taken somewhat of a hiatus from acting.

Viral Hide:

What hiatus?

Hayden Christensen Joining Bruce Willis in ‘First Kill’ (Exclusive)

Rebo:

My thoughts after I saw this news yesterday is that there are three main possibilities here. The story about Hayden is very reminiscent of Mark Hamill taking the roles in Kingsman and The Flash pre-ST. Sort of a combination of knocking the rust off after a long hiatus and proving to Lucasfilm that he still has a bit of gas left in the tank and not to worry. Whether that is true or not, I guess we’ll see in VIII since he didn’t really have anything to do in VII.

I think the most likely scenario is that his agent, after getting laughed out of the casting room over at Lucasfilm when saying “hey, why isn’t my guy playing Vader in RO?” pressured Hayden to get some work on his resume so that can get some of this money Disney is going to be printing because of Star Wars over the next few years. They know there will be countless opportunities to do some work here, be they in movies, TV, voiceover, etc…so that agent has to be extremely frustrated owning the man behind one of the most iconic characters in the franchise, but who’s role in said franchise has been poisoned by criticism and his client’s subsequent retreat from Hollywood.

Alternatively, it could be that Lucasfilm needs him for IX and asked him to go rev up the engines elsewhere. I’m sure Disney would not prefer actors coming in cold like that, especially with so much money riding on it and Hayden’s past critical reception in the role.

Lastly, and I think least likely is, Hayden already filmed a cameo for VIII, and this is his agent trying to fan the flames in advance of VIII stoking the last dying ember of Hayden’s career. This may be his one chance to jump back in with a small, and hopefully quality, performance in the biggest movie of 2017.

DEKKA129:

Count me among those cranky old bastards who want Anakin and Hayden kept as far away from the sequel trilogy as possible.

IMHO, Lucas permanently screwed up that character by portraying him as a bitchy, foot-stamping boy-band refugee who was easier to con than a little old lady with a televangelist obsession. I’ve seen more than enough of him to last me six lifetimes and then some. Last thing I want is to see him d*uche-ing it up all over Episode VIII or IX, even as a ghost.

Truth be told, the whole notion of Force ghosts persisting for over 30 years strikes me as a bit odd to begin with. Seemed to me that Obi Wan’s, Yoda’s and Anakin’s task was done at the end of ROTJ, and I always thought that Tim Zahn got it exactly right in Heir to the Empire when he had Obi Wan’s ghost fade away once and for all after a decade or so.

But even if there is a Force ghost presence in Episode VIII, it makes far more sense for it to be Yoda. The impression I got of Kylo Ren’s “communing” with his grandfather in TFA was one of a deluded and rather disturbed young man gazing at the melted helmet of his grandfather and “hearing” what he wanted to hear from a spirit that existed entirely in his imagination.

Given that Kylo Ren is convinced that the spirit of his grandfather was showing him the ways of the dark side, the alternative would be that Anakin never really turned back from the dark side, which would make absolutely everything about Luke’s OT journey completely and utterly pointless.

So not only do I hope not to see Anakin in the ST due to my own personal preferences, but I also hope we don’t see him there for purely story-related reasons.

Yoda, I could live with. Anakin, not so much.

Hard Case:

I totally see your point and get where you are coming from with the example of how Zahn handled the Force ghosts. However, I feel that the line from Yoda about an old friend discovering the “path to immortality” in ROTS kind of negates the idea that a Force ghost would fade away over time. The word immortality carries with it a sense of the eternal. But I understand as a fan not wanting to see Hayden pop up in the ST. I’m just saying that with the established canon and continuity it is entirely possible.

DEKKA129:

Well, there is that. However, also bear in mind that Qui Gon himself was apparently unable to appear directly to Yoda or Obi Wan. Yoda had to teach Obi Wan how to reach out and commune with Qui Gon. So what also appears to be canon is that the “immortality” of retaining one’s identity after death does not necessarily mean that one will always have the ability to manifest themselves before the living.

In Anakin’s case, there’s also the added wrinkle that since he did not know of the techniques that Qui Gon taught Obi Wan and Yoda, it stands to reason that Obi Wan and Yoda must have actively helped Anakin to retain his identity after death, rather than Anakin doing it himself. So, working on his own, is he going to have as solid a hold on that conduit between life and death that Obi Wan and Yoda have? Doubtful.

And again, there’s the obvious story flaw here… if a ghostly Anakin is teaching Kylo Ren the ways of the dark side, then his redemption in ROTJ, shaky as it always was to begin with, goes away completely.

Rebo:

Not saying I agree with the choice to include an Anakin ghost, but the concept as they presented it I believe made it so “Vader” and “Anakin” were two different entities in presentation to the living. The midichlorians presenting themselves as both the redeemed Jedi Anakin to Luke and the fallen Sith Vader to Kylo.

I’m not a huge proponent of the return of Anakin, but I’m also not completely against it. But it does play into my own personal theory that the force ghosts are more a power of the living Jedi communing with the force and calling forth the personified presence less than a ghost who wanders the earth permanently.

In this case, Kylo would call forth Vader to speak to him and Luke would call forth Anakin. Qui-Gon’s teachings only enable this process, not initiate it, and that is why Obi-Wan needed to be trained to contact him.

DEKKA129:

When you say “the concept as they presented it”, do you mean that the Story Group or another LFL representative has mentioned this? Or are you talking about the schizo-Anakin concept as seen in The Art of TFA?

To me, this seems unnecessarily complex, and IMHO it tends to go against some basics that have been in place from the very beginning – namely, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

To me, that doesn’t sound like he’s saying that some cellular-level force critters will be able to use his image and voice to communicate with the living – it sounds a lot more like Obi Wan himself will be able to do that.

Granted, at first I did ponder the notion that perhaps the energy that embodied the Vader persona might imbue material objects that were important to Vader during his life (his armor, his lightsaber, etc.) in the sense that “Vader” was a coarse type of Force energy that Anakin let go of and left behind when he redeemed himself.

But as I’ve considered it further, this just seems to be a damned easy way to confuse the hell out of the audience, and I don’t think it would work that well as part of a film plot.

IMHO, the only way the Kylo Ren/Vader thing works is if a.) he’s deluding himself into believing that the voices in his deranged mind are that of his grandfather, or b.) Snoke is playing Kylo by making him believe that it’s his grandfather when it’s really just Snoke himself.

Rebo:

I’m trying to remember where I heard that. I think it might have been Pablo comments referencing the concepts in the “art of” book, or something along those lines. But I’m not positive and I can’t find it right now. I’m 90% sure it really happened, but 100% sure I hallucinate this crap sometimes, making me only so/so on if it was real or not.

Like I said, I’m not the biggest fan of the idea artistically to bring Vader back, and I see your point as to how it can be confusing. But I like the concept of materializing Vader’s duality into something physical in order to express the psychological. The two halves of his personality taking shape through the force.

If you take the force as a non-western god-entity and that there is no soul to ascribe a personality to but instead truly just communal energy force that “binds the galaxy together” then I don’t think that manifestation of his duality conflicts with anything plot-wise. Just two aspects of a single man illustrating themselves to two different people through the force. A spiritual split personality from someone who was not entirely at peace when he died.

DEKKA129:

LOL! Brother, that describes my life to a T. As Kesey wrote in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, “It’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.

As for the non-western way of looking at the Force, that’s really how I’ve always seen it – as an impersonal energy field. It was only when Lucas decided to go all techno-babble on us and give us a “scientific” explanation in the form of midichlorians that the waters began to muddy up.

One thing to remember about the Force as it was conceived in the OT is that one of the primary inspirations for it (including some of the specific terms Yoda used, such as “luminous beings”) was the work of Carlos Castaneda – The Teachings of Don Juan, Tales of Power, etc. I think this was largely something that Gary Kurtz brought to the table, if I recall correctly, but it may also have been something that Lucas himself was into reading at the time as well.

The idea that somebody who can perceive and control that impersonal energy field can also learn to retain their individual self after death, rather than merging with that energy (“Like… tears in rain”, to go all Blade Runner on ya for a second) is directly out of Castaneda’s work. I cannot remember which book or books focused on this, but in Don Juan’s world, it was one of the main goals of becoming a sorcerer.

But in that particular cosmology, inner conflict like what Vader suffered from does not split a person’s energy in two. It merely affects the vibration of that person’s energy body, much like a guitar with its strings out of tune. IMHO, this is also the most logical way to go with the Vader story in terms of what might have become of him after death.

Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that the people writing the new SW movies are necessarily the kind of readers who would delve into something like Castaneda’s books in preparation for creating the new stories. So we probably won’t get stuff that connects back to first principles like this, even though that would be the best way for them to proceed, IMHO.

Rebo:

I guess splitting is the wrong way to put it. Not an actual schism in his energy so much as two states of the energy in a neutral force reflected in the manner of the user.

The force being a neutral energy reacting to the living energy it is interacting with. Reflecting light when interacting with Luke but dark when interacting with Kylo just as it would allow for dark or light powers in a Sith or Jedi. The force doesn’t choose light or dark, it just is. The user of the force is what makes it dark or light. Once a Jedi becomes one with the force, they are no longer light or dark, they are just the force.

But you are right, looking for this level of philosophy in the new movies may be a fool’s errand. I get the feeling that the force, as it exists now, is just “magic” to them. I never hated midichlorians the way many do. I hated the way they were explained in universe, and how that ruined some of the mystery of the force, but in the end I don’t think it fundamentally changes the force to identify that aspect of it nearly as much as the way the Jedi used it in the PT, cartoons, and now ST has impacted its origins. The problem I see is that the force became a tool for characters to manipulate, use, or understand, which in the end removes much of the awe and significance.

DEKKA129:

I agree that we’re probably tilting at windmills here. SW has some good writers involved with the franchise these days, but what we’re talking about is probably a bit deeper and more nuanced than we can probably expect from writing geared toward our current 140-character culture.

As for the midichlorian thing, that was I think what really rubbed me the wrong way about it from the get-go. To me, it was obvious that it was the beginning of an overall cheapening and “videogame-izing” of the Force. It allowed the Jedi to assign a hard number to quantify each Jedi’s Force potential, which immediately reminded me of skill points or experience points in an RPG.

And then, of course, as you so aptly point out, the way the Jedi proceeded to use the Force in everything that followed as a tool – which is only half the story, as we know from ANH. The Force not only obeys your commands, but it also controls your actions. We seemed to get all of the former and precious little of the latter from 1999 onward.

As for the relationship between light and dark in terms of the “neutral” Force, I also think that this has gotten a bit skewed as well over the past decade or two. Once the concept of “bringing balance to the Force” was brought up in TPM, I noticed that a lot of folks appeared to assume that this would mean that ultimately there would be an equal number of light- and dark-side users, this “balancing” the Force between light and dark.

But that would be balancing Force users – not bringing balance to the Force itself.

The thing I’ve always seen about the light side is, its practitioners strive to exist in harmony with the Force. Dark siders, on the other hand, are a discordant note, in that they attempt to harness the Force for their own purposes, regardless of the natural order of things. In that regard, the dark side is like a tumor that throws the Force out of balance. To bring balance to the Force is, therefore, to triumph once and for all over the dark side, whether it be the Sith, or whatever Snoke is, or what have you.

(Ramble, ramble, ramble… sorry for the verbosity, folks!)

Rebo:

I most definitely agree that many people oversimplify that prophecy to mean there needs to be a balance of good and evil. But I also still believe the force is a neutral energy and not a good or light force. Light and dark are concepts of the living world ascribed to certain actions or motives. In the end, it the dark side trying to control and manipulate the force, which causes imbalance. Not any actions they take with it that we would deem morally dark or that we judge to have evil motives.

It’s like damming a river to maximize its energy. A Jedi will just let the water flow as it would. A Sith will create a construct to bend it to their intended uses. But in the end the water is just water. It’s what the people do with it that make it a passive or aggressive force.

DarthZloi:

Another thing Rebo and Dekka129 to consider on what we all seem to agree is a misinterpretation of the Balance of the Force thing is that the Jedi and Sith aren’t the only Force-users in the galaxy. There have been many examples in both The Clone Wars and Rebels. Filoni has worked very closely with Lucas and he has more of a grasp of George’s vision than anybody in all likelihood.

Not to mention the fact that GL has pretty much said in the past that destroying the Sith is what brought balance.

DEKKA129:

Rebo, Egg-zackly!

And this connects to Darth Zloi’s point about there being far more Force users in the galaxy than just the Jedi and the Sith. The Force’s relative state of balance/harmony or imbalance/discord goes way beyond the Jedi/Sith feud. There would certainly be other Force users across the galaxy in remote areas, wild space, etc., who would have their own ways, rituals and rules for how they learn, teach and use the Force.

I think the difference, though, is how much of an ability they have to affect the galaxy as a whole. Because it seems to me that the measure of how in tune or out of tune the Force is at any given time isn’t just based on the individual actions of Force users, but also on how widespread an effect those actions have on the “luminous beings” throughout the galaxy who aren’t Force users, but who live with the benefits or consequences of what the Force users do.

Let’s say we’ve got a small planet way out there in wild space that hasn’t yet evolved to the point of developing hyperdrive-capable starships, and hasn’t yet been visited by any beings who do have hyperdrive-equipped ships. This same planet also happens to have spawned a race of beings who have a natural affinity with the Force, and there is a constant power struggle happening there between various factions, some of whom value the true nature of things and use the Force accordingly, and others of whom use the Force in pursuit of their own personal power.

But due to the isolated nature of their planetary culture, the effects of their actions are limited to that one small planet.

Contrast this to Palpatine. One man, with his apprentice du jour, whose actions affect TRILLIONS of sentient beings across thousands of worlds.

Of course he ends up being the one to send the Force out of balance. Because by affecting all of those trillions of beings, he creates a far broader and deeper effect on the Force itself than the tens of thousands or more of dark side users on that tiny, isolated planet.

Rebo, your analogy is excellent. Water, ultimately, wants to be water, wants to flow as water is meant to. Because it, like the Force, flows through all living beings, and when it isn’t allowed to do so, then everything goes out of balance. Rivers dry up, vegetation dies, creatures die, and eventually if the flow of water is restricted enough, the entire planet can die.

The Force, having (as we’re told) some degree of volition of its own, is going to try to break through that dam, enlisting the help of those who perceive and use it in accordance with its true nature. It doesn’t care about the rules or traditions of the Jedi or the Sith, or of any other Force user. It only cares about doing what it naturally does, without the interference or restriction of those who would use it for discordant purposes.

Rebo:

That brings up an excellent question and one I don’t think has adequately been discussed in the films. Is the force localized? I like the idea or the living beings being affected impacting the extent of the disruption to the force. Since the force lives within us, that would make sense. But how does that fall in line with concepts like a Jedi that can sense or view events across the galaxy that are happening in isolation? Like Yoda sensing Anakin’s slaughter of the Tusken Raiders, or Obi-Wan sensing the destruction of Alderan.

You can easily dismiss that as a powerful Jedi being able to sense it due to the connection of all living things through the force. But if that is the case, then couldn’t a single isolated and ultra-powerful Jedi like Luke in TFA be theoretically just as powerful and disruptive as someone like Palpatine (assuming Luke went dark and starting manipulating the force while bored on Ahch-to)? Basically, if there is no end to the connection of living things and no limit to power, could a Super-Dark force user rise that could just control the galaxy from the comfort of his bed? Something like Sauron from LOTR. So powerful, that he is able to control minds, manipulate empires, bring down battleships, while sipping tea and watching the sunrise on his porch?

DarthZloi:

In the Tarkin novel it was revealed that is pretty much exactly what Palpatine wanted. There was a very interesting scene told from his point of view that mentioned his desire to use the Darkside to actually recreate the galaxy according to his vision.

I liked your water analogy. However, I think it’s a little more complicated than that. Canon has been peppered with references to the Force having a will. Not sure exactly how they’ll go storywise with that, but is intriguing.

Palpatine was also apparently looking for what he believed to be the source of the dark side. Very cryptic considering the Force is everywhere. Supports your statements on the darkness coming not from the Force, but from a desire to bend the Force to your will, instead of following its natural flow.

On a side note : Filoni has mentioned that non Force-users can still occasionally unknowingly tap into it.

Rebo:

Well sticking with the water analogy. Water has a will. It wants to keep flowing. If the river stops flowing, it stagnates, becomes polluted, and eventually evaporates.

So you could say the will of the force is to simply continue to be. It’s will is following the path that allows it to stay in balance so it does not stagnate. The path that continues to create and not destroy life as it is life that generates it. When Jedi or whoever interpret that will of the force it gets transcribed into acts of good or evil that seem to have some materialistic or moral value, but in the end the force may just want balance so that it doesn’t die out (and seemingly take life and existence itself along with it). It’s a god entity whose main motivation is self preservation. It is just that it’s selfish act of continuing it’s own existence is by effect accidentally benevolent to the living things of it’s universe. A god ignorant of the universe it sustains or the religion that worships it.

Hard Case:

I love that we are now essentially debating the “sentience” of the Force. Yes – it has a “will”, but is it actually achieving its own will through action or just by its existent nature. Is it more like a “Force” of nature like water? Or is it a sort of diety that brings its will to fruition with sentient purpose? In other words, does the Force balance itself automatically by nature through a cause and effect relationship with all living things or does it actively work to bring balance out of it’s own volition to achieve its own purpose?

DEKKA129:

My instinct is that Episodes VIII and IX will delve into this precise question of sentience.

Next time you watch TFA, hold this question in your mind throughout the film and see what you notice. Because I think there’s a very good possibility that what’s being set up in TFA is the Force exhibiting some degree of actual volition, rather than simply relying on the actions of Force users alone to determine the course of events.

I don’t think it’ll turn out to be a personalized deity. That would be too easy, and IMHO a straight-up personalized deity is part of somebody else’s fairy tale, and not that of the GFFA.

But things like the way Luke’s old lightsaber “called” to Rey from the cellar, how the Force actually opened the storage room door when Rey approached it, and the “Force-back” itself… this all seems very much like the Force was deliberately reaching out to her. This is something we haven’t seen before, but that’s been hinted at.

Again, though I highly doubt that this was Lucas’ intention, the exchange between Luke and Obi Wan in ANH seems like it could be very telling.

Luke: “You mean it controls your actions?”

Obi Wan: “Partially. But it also obeys your commands.”

Most of what we’ve seen since then, both in the OT and in the PT, as well as in spin-offs like TCW and Rebels, has been what Obi Wan mentioned – the Force as a tool that obeys the commands of those who can tap into and harness it.

What we haven’t seen much of (at least from my recollection) is the Force “taking the wheel”, so to speak, and directly influencing Force sensitives and their environment.

Now, I could be completely wrong about this. Perhaps “The Force Awakens” as a title was simply a marketing-driven decision referring to the “reawakening” of the SW franchise.

But what if the Force actually is “waking” for the first time in generations and is taking a more sentient, active role in events in the physical world?

I do know that, according to “The Art of TFA” much of the pre-production discussion revolved around the question of what the Force is, and what new ways might it be portrayed onscreen.

So… who knows?

Rieekan:

Yep exactly, we see it the most in the snow fight. Rey is running way all the time till she communes with the force, suddenly she can fight Kylo off. It is not only about using the force but to let it in. Luke had a similar moment when he threw away his lightsaber and let the force do the rest, this could explain Vaders turn, the force.

DEKKA129:

In terms of how the Force is in the films, though, I think that it tends to be non-sentient, but with the potential to influence the physical world under certain conditions. But not in terms of a deity – more like a collective unconscious or even perhaps a bit like a hive mind. What sentience there may be there seems to me to be completely decentralized, if that makes a lick of sense.

Rieekan:

There’s that, of course – the fact that opening yourself to the Force allows it to flow through you. To me, this is sort of a middle ground, where it’s using you as much as you are using it.

But what we haven’t really seen is the Force itself being in control. I think we caught a glimpse of that when the lightsaber called to Rey from the cellar of Maz’s castle. I also think the title The Force Awakens” may foreshadow something like this as well.

Rebo:

My interpretation of the “awakening” of late still leans towards a non-sentient force. I feel like the force is becoming more powerful and acting through Rey in a way it hasn’t before, but I see it as an almost instinctual balancing of the equation.

Plagueis manipulated dark powers when he created Anakin. To play god and create life like that was a huge attack on the flow of the force. To continue the previous analogy, he dammed the river. To me the awakening is the force reacting to rectify that. What happens when you block a part of a river? The water on the other side flows through with much greater force. I see Rey, and the awakening, as the force finally balancing out the Skywalker equation. Vader and therefore Kylo were created outside of the normal means, and therefore put the force out of alignment as long as they exist. Rey is the solution that will finally balance that.

DEKKA129:



This whole thread has gotten really fascinating, and what I really dig is the fact that the SW production team does seem to be delving into the possibilities of what the Force may be, beyond what we’ve seen in previous films and TV programs.

Did the Force actually “awaken” in terms of having some degree of volition and an ability to directly affect the physical world? The way Luke’s old lightsaber “called out” to Rey would seem to suggest this possibility.

Is the “awakening” metaphorical, with the Force emerging from years of dormancy through Rey and others, like a plant sprouting its way through a minute crack in the sidewalk? Perhaps the idea here is that the Force will always find a way to be what it is.

Is the Force, whether sentient or not, attempting to right some wrong other than the rise of Snoke? Is the Skywalker line itself the anomaly that the Force is trying to purge from existence once and for all? Or is what’s happening something else entirely?

Will we begin see the Force manifesting itself through people who aren’t conscious Force users? That was a mighty slick behind-the-back shot at that stormtrooper there on Takodana, Captain Solo…

The thing that I keep coming back to is this bit from the foreword of “The Art of The Force Awakens” in which production designer Rick Carter writes:

“Before Obi Wan Kenobi sacrifices himself to Darth Vader, he even predicts, ‘If you strike me down, I’ll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.’ Those are very potent words, and that’s quite a high level of spirituality to understand, especially for any artist coming in to make a new Star Wars movie. The first question that I therefore felt needed to be asked of the new artists we assembled was, ‘How strong is the Force?’ Not just as we might think we have seen it demonstrated in previous Star Wars movies, but in the present day. What is the Force for us now? What does it mean? Not just what you say it means, but what does it truly mean to you?”

Not that this gives us any concrete idea of what plans they may have for the way the Force is portrayed in Episodes VIII and IX, of course. But it does show that one of the first fundamentals explored during pre-production was essentially “What is the Force?” This suggests to me that we may very well see the Force portrayed as something more than just a source of amped-up, videogame-style powers as the sequel trilogy goes on. And that could make the ongoing saga tale turn into something very interesting indeed.

And, then again, I could just be jumping the gun and overthinking this whole thing. It would hardly be the first time, would it?

End of Conversation

Interestingly enough, just a week after we had this conversation, none other than Pablo Hidalgo took to twitter for a similar trip down the force’s rabbit hole. Just goes to show you that all Star Wars fans, even those designing the path of the saga itself, still have these debates. Following are the tweets with his thoughts on midichlorians, where he touches on a number of the topics we discussed here.

1/ Head’s up. Incoming tweetflood full of unsolicited views about the Force. About 14 or 15 tweets. Bear with me. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

2/ A colleague of mine recently stated that everyone has and uses the Force. Which raised questions in some, but it’s nonetheless true. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

3/ The Force is life. If you’ve ever felt a moment of connection with another or your world, you’re using it. That’s the idea. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

4/ You can disbelieve in it, but still have it. I’m sure Ol Ben would attribute Han’s amazing piloting & “luck” to the Force. Han wouldn’t. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

5/ For gamers, note that I think every incarnation of the RPG gave Force Points to everyone, regardless of “Force-sensitivity” — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

6/ Eg. we would cite is Bruce Lee. In our world, he would be someone more attuned to the Force than most, hence his remarkable abilities. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

7/ It’s not just physical abilities. Those who can sway large numbers of people for good or for bad are tapping into a connectivity. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

8/ I can see the case made that exceptional minds of all kinds – Einstein, Hawking, Newton – are tapping into a world most can’t see. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

9/ I think people understandably got caught up in the whole midi-chlorian thing. They thought you must have X no. of midis to use the Force. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

10/ No, the midi-prereq was to enter the prequel-era Jedi Order. It’s a rather soulless way to look at potential, by narrative design. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

11/ The prequel Jedi have systemized their methods at the expense of spirituality and intuition. They are more ‘Order’ than ‘Jedi.’ — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

12/ Characters like Jocasta Nu and Ki-Adi-Mundi embody that. Others like Dooku, Qui-Gon and Anakin don’t. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

13/ But there’s more to the Force than just Jedi/Sith. There’s more to potential than midis. Just like there’s more to genius than grades. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

14/ All right that’s enough Force food for thought. I’ll return to maddening non-observations about Snoke as requested. — Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) September 11, 2016

If you made it through all that without throwing something at your monitor, please continue the conversation in the comments. And know that the whole conversation was actually much, much longer. 🙂