Hey, welcome back. Glad to see that some of you still deign to come back every now and then. As I promised last night I am here to speak about the Force, and what exactly it is to the Star Wars saga.

I have mentioned the idea of this topic many times throughout my blog entries (most notably in my latest two-part series right here: Part One, Part Two), but I have never truly laid out my complete ideas--and proof--for it, as I have with all of my other ideas. After completing that two-part series a very good friend of mine (Darth Jeks), told me that I had to write an entry detailing my thoughts on the Force, for he wished to hear it fully. So, here I am, at the behest both him, and others who had sent me several emails requesting the topic as well.

Without further ado, I suppose we should begin. For the handful of you who read my blogs (I jest, for it has come to my attention that I have garnered quite a few frequent readers in my time), my feelings on the Force are fairly clear. I have always believed that the Force was--I suppose is could work--a symbol for the Divine presence, or power, within the Star Wars galaxy. There are many reasons I have felt this way, but my simplest answer, and proof, comes from the teachings of Yoda and Ben in the Original Trilogy. Notice the way they speak of the Force during those films, they way they revere it, and speak of it with awe. Even in the way Han refers to it in ANH, "I haven't seen anything to make me believe there's some all powerful Force controlling everything." (So sorry if I didn't get it completely correct, it's been a while since I have seen that one).

This is how it's perceived, as being this all-powerful Force, because that's what it is. "It surrounds us, binds us..." as Yoda says to Luke on Dagobah, when trying to explain what the Force is. It is that divine presence, which gives the Jedi their gifts, their abilities, it is something to be revered, as Yoda has done. The manner in which he speaks of the Force in the OT is vastly different than how he speaks of it in the PT. He has learned from his mistakes.

For in the Prequels, Yoda, as did most of the Jedi, seemed to think of the Force in terms of science. It wasn't mystical anymore, it was something that they could dissect, something that they began to believe that they could control (I won't go into this too much more for I have in several blog entries: ...In Your Blood Stream. Then in a different two-part series here: Part One, Part Two). However, it is important to note that it was this attitude of the Force that caused them to be thrown over. It was their own hubris, and notions that they could control the Force, that caused their downfall. Think of it in Biblical terms (which with the Force being our divine presence, is an apt enough allusion to make here). When the people grew to the point when they forgot their God, or began to believe that he was no longer needed, that they had surpassed their need for him, God grew angry. He cast down several nations, destroying them in their arrogance, leaving only a handful left alive, those who could learn from their mistakes and teach others the proper way.

In the movies this is essentially what happened to the Jedi. They were struck down, humbled by the Force because of their arrogance (In the first two-part series, I go into how, and why, and the imbalance of the Force to explain this thought. So, I will not go into the explanation of this thought too much). Now, I received an interesting comment regarding this line of thought, in that the creator should be happy that His creations are surpassing him, much in the way a parent wishes their children to become more successful than they. This is true, but that is not the point I am making. What I am saying is that the Jedi have come to think that the Force is their tool, not their gift. They have come to a point where they no longer recognize the Force for what it is, or what it did for them, or gave to them originally. This isn't succeeding beyond the creator's expectations, this is the arrogant belief that they did everything they did without the creator's help. They don't acknowledge how they got there in the first place.

This belief, however, is not shared by all of the Jedi. One that comes to mind is Master Qui-Gon Jinn. He always spoke of the living Force, always seemed to revere it and follow it's will. Qui-Gon was a servant to the Force, as he was supposed to be, and that's one of the reasons I feel that he was able to learn how to become one with the Force, and learn the secret to immortality, and then pass on that knowledge to Yoda and Obi-Wan. Even though he too spoke of the midichlorians, notice the way he explains them to young Anakin Skywalker. How he explains that they are everywhere, always present. While the other Jedi speak of it as a science, he still seems to hold a certain mysticism about them, still holds a reverence for them.

I suppose another idea that I can use as further proof, is that the Jedi became essentially monks. In the OT, and the EU that followed, the Jedi once again became servants to the will of the Force, allowing it to guide them. They meditated on the Force, as a monk would spend his time in prayers, and the Jedi used their talents to help others who could not help themselves. Monks do the same; they assist those who are in need of it, to the point to where said people no longer require the assistance. Then there are some monks who practice and develop martial arts, as another way to spiritual guidance, much like the Jedi developed their fighting techniques, and mental abilities. The similarities are so much that it is hard not to look at it as an intentional allusion.

This is how I feel the Force was presented in the movies, and really how they were intended. It is the Divine power within the Star Wars universe, that surrounds everything, gives the Jedi their power, and the Jedi did not recognize it as such until it was too late. But they did learn from their ways, and taught Luke proper reverence for the Force, they taught him about the living Force, as Qui-Gon did. They finally learned to have faith in the Force itself, as illustrated by Obi-Wan when he made Luke where the helmet on the Falcon, so that he couldn't see the remote. He taught Luke that he had to have faith in the Force, that it would guide him properly.

I suppose that's quite enough of my babbling, but I do hope you enjoyed today's entry, as well as I hope this will help explain some of my other ideas in those entries that I linked to above. Try and keep in mind that all I am doing is providing an educated guess based on the studies I have done. By no means I am saying that my ideas are absolutely correct, or that everyone else's' ideas and explanations are wrong.

As always I am open to comments, and welcome them heartily, so if you had any thought at all while reading this I would love to hear from you. Any suggestions, questions, or ideas for me you may have, are also greatly welcomed. For those of you who enjoy my entries, and look forward to them every night, I have a bit of bad news. Tomorrow I will be gone to be a judge on a black belt test for 3 of my former students (I am incredibly proud of them!), so I will not be able to write my daily entry. I will however be back on top of things Monday, so have no fear. Then I will be discussing another topic that I have been avoiding: Mace Windu. Hope you guys will come back when I do.

--DLZ