Anakin Skywalker's destiny, the rise, fall, and redemption of the Chosen One to restore Balance to the Force, would seem to put a period on the end of a winding sentence some 25 millennia long. George Lucas explains some of his intent for the role of the Prophecy and the Chosen One in this quote, which I'll borrow from my entry from last year: Balance - The Force, Fact, Fiction and Fate...

And then we will get to the 3rd film where he is seduced to the Dark Side..

Which brings us up to the films 4, 5, and 6, in which Anakin's offspring redeem him and allow him to fulfill the prophecy where he brings Balance to the Force by doing away with the Sith and getting rid of evil in the universe..."

Whoah. I'm not one to question the George often, it's his shebang. But the last part of that very wonderful synopsis of the arc of the Chosen One has always made be cringe a little bit: "Getting Rid of Evil in the Universe."

Frankly, I think it's a bit of hyperbole employed by our dear Papanoida. With the same wide-eyed innocence we approach the world as children, he tacks on that campy sort of sitcom logic that "once the story is resolved in 90 minutes, its all taken care of. It's perfect from there on out." I don't think for a second he actually believes that. But the point is, we believe it - or have been capable of believing it in our younger years. We believed that when the bad guys are done away with, people really do live happily ever after. And there's nothing wrong with maintaining that sort of dual understanding as we get older - there's the part of us that knows how things should be, there's the part of us that know how things really are. What Star Wars has always been able to accomplish, in fact part of what makes it such a lasting attraction, is that it allows us to reach back into that idealism that says "Yes, this is how things really ought to be. Good triumphs, Evil is Destroyed. Happily ever after."

So when you read that "Getting Rid of Evil in the Universe", it's ok to picture Buck Rogers or Superman or Davy Crocket standing on that windy hilltop, panning the distant horizon, hand pressed to brow to shield their ever watchful eyes, chest puffed out in that classic heroic living statue pose. We're supposed to believe, for a second, that it's possible to vanquish evil.

Why? It's like that mathematic conundrum about the pursuit of a whole number, the pursuit of perfection. They say that between One and Zero, there are an infinite number of fractional expressions, an infinite number of points. Theoretically, therefore, you should be able to start on a journey from Zero to One, or vice versa, and never ever arrive. If you have to pass through an infinite number of points, that is.

Thankfully we don't live in that theoretical landscape, and we zip back and forth instantaneously between One and Zero all the time. It's one of those things that allows you to read what I'm saying right now, on your computer screen. But for all our power, all our ability to transcend the theoretical world in favor of practical application, we're still hampered by our reality. We still can't get to Zero in the real world. We still can't reach perfection, not in our own lives or our relationships with our world or the people around us. And without that level of ability and achievement, phrases like "Getting Rid of Evil in the Universe" have no practical meaning.

But that doesn't mean we stop trying. Contrary to Yoda's advice, I'll say this: it's not the doing, it's the trying, that's the important part of that journey. Try or Try not. There is no Do. But what if there was?

This brings me to the question that keeps cropping up about the EU - "Why, if the Chosen One restored Balance to the Force, does Evil keep returning? When are they ever going to live happily ever after? Doesn't that make Anakin's story a waste of time?"

I'll be the first to say I have purist leanings when it comes to this. Armed with the central arc of the movies, with the clear intent of the architect, I believe Anakin restored Balance to the Force, and evil no longer held sway. However...that doesn't mean Darkness had been abolished. It means Evil was subjugated in favor of Good.

What does that mean? To understand that, you have to look at the nature of Evil in the first place. Evil is a willful decision to be malevolent. It's not an instinct. It's not the product of synapses or hormonal flux. It's the product of a decision. Certainly history is full of examples of people willing to delude themselves that they were not truly being Evil. But their intentions, and their actions, were oozing with the stuff of Evil, and their decisions are what made the Evil a reality.

I've often said no one we regard universally as Evil woke up every morning and said "I'm going to do more Evil today. I'm going to be more Evil than ever before. That's what I am, that's what I do - I'm Evil." No, those people, reviled as they are, woke up and perpetrated horrible acts every day because they had made a decision to give themselves over to a New Morality. And in that New Morality, some things just had to be done for the greater good. Some things had to be sacrificed, and some decisions had to be made that would hurt, or kill, the World around them. Stalin, Hitler, Milosevic, Hussein, Hirohito....they all had a faced a moment of decision to do harm, even if they did not believe it was Evil. History judges them as Evil, because what they thought of themselves is largely irrelevant. It's what they intended, and what they achieved, that was Evil. The series of rationalizations and decisions that brought a one-time honorable senator to hear the words "Et Tu, Brute" from his victim, to be able to justify the blood on his hands, to be able to give reasons to use Darkness - that's Evil.

Darkness, however, is different. The Dark Side, though named aptly by George Lucas, is not a Lucas concept. It's as old as Air. We all have a "Dark Side". Every living thing that strives to live in harmony with its environment, but likewise can defend itself and its kind from its environment, possesses the Dark Side. Darkness is part of the molecular make-up of a living existence, self-aware or not. Aggression, Fear, Anger, Hatred, Deceit, Mistrust, Domination...these things are as natural as the simplest synaptic urges in a frog's mind.

Take for instance...oh...I dunno...A Moose. A moose in the wild is a beautiful thing. It lives a peaceful life in harmony with the nature around it. It cares for its young, it never takes more than it needs, it has no greed, no bloodlust, no deviant or sadistic desires. And yet, a moose is a terribly dangerous and unpredictable animal. It is ruled by its passions, its Fight or Flight notions, and does not respond to reason very well. A mother moose will protect its young if you should so much as stray into a wide perimeter of its territory. A bull moose will chase you down and trample you with an intent to kill if you look at it sideways. Are these creatures evil? No, they are subject, however, to the dual nature of all impulses - Fear for your loved ones can be born of loving care, but can result in murderous rage. Aggression can used to defend your territory, but it can be used to attack far outside of it. Anger can be Righteous, but when does it become Consuming? Hatred and Mistrust of your enemies is often prudent, but it can be twisted into a weapon. Deceit can hide and protect the things you hold dear, but it can likewise be used to sow paranoia and chaos. Domination is needed in Nature to establish your Domain, but what happens when your Domain is no longer big enough for your desires?

Aggression, Fear, Anger, Hatred, Deceit, Mistrust, Domination...these are all the tenets of the Dark Side, the very same things Yoda warned Luke to avoid as the path to irrevocable decisions. Forever will they dominate our desinty if we give ourselves fully to them. They are part of the true nature of every living thing, perhaps more so for the vast majority, and as much part of Humanity as Love, Compassion, Altruism, Reason, Peacefulness, Humility, Honesty and all the tenets of Harmony we embrace. What are these, then? The Dark Side and the Light Side? Evil, and Good?

No, these are just "The Way Things Are". There is Dark and Light in each of us, just as they are in the Star Wars universe. And what those components represent are not Good and Evil themselves, but the tools of Good and Evil. And you will find that some of them are even interchangeable. You can use Deceit for Good. You can use Reason for Evil.

We understand that the Force is comprised of seemingly equal portions of Dark and Light - that the Force is, in fact, a merged amalgam of all those ideas. The Jedi chose to focus on those aspects that promote harmony, both with the Force, and all things living within the Force. They ignored the full range of the Force, specifically the Dark Side, becaue they believed that human nature could not be trusted to be responsible with the Dark Side - the overwhelming preponderance of evidence can't be ignored. For those reasons they chose Harmony over Utility, Passivity over Power - the Jedi flowed with the Force. That may have been their undoing, however, as the Force turned to Darkness under the manipulations of the Sith. The Sith, on the other hand, used the Dark Side of the Force, the natural manifestations of Aggression, Fear, Anger, Hatred, Deceit, Mistrust, Domination, etc, to control others, to control their destiny, as a weapon against enemies, as a tool to obtain Power. They bent the Force to flow as they willed it. Their trust in their ability to maintain that control proved likewise to have been their undoing. Point is, no one gets over on the Force. There is no getting on the Force's "good side", and control, or even coming to an understanding, is an illusion.

The Force continues as it pleases, owing nothing to the Jedi who serve it, and fearing nothing from the Sith who channel it. Like so many vast and incomprehensible entities in our own religions and mythologies, it just Is. Always Was. And Continues to Be. It cares nothing for the ideas of Evil or Good, of the human notions of morality. It cares enough to maintain its own Balance, its own endless volition to be in harmony with all of creation.

Which is why I maintain, when people theorize that "Balance of the Force" had to do with how many Jedi or Sith were around at any one time, that they are missing the meaning of the word "Balance" here. Balance does not mean an adversarial equalization of opposing forces. Balance here means "Harmony", "Equilibrium", as in "a Balanced Natural Ecosystem". It could be in total natural chaos, as nature often appears to be, but its harmonious, it's natural, it's independent of human inventions like "Fairness" and "Justice". Again, it just Is.

So back to the EU and its apparent heretical intentions to Undo Balance. I see nothing of the sort. I do occasionally lament the idea that this poor, worn-out galactic civilization appears to have the very worst Cosmic Luck in the space-time continuum. But is that so foreign to us? Did the rain stop falling on picnics after World War II was over? Was disease conquered with the rise of modern medicine? Life goes on, good and bad, and Evil alike. It does not mean the Dark Side will ever leave us. This living existence, for all living things, will always have a full menu of experiences. Fear, Contentment, Anger, Solace, Hatred, Love...it's all mixed together. How those are used, however, that's the important decision. That's the difference between Evil and Good.

We see of late, for instance, Jacen Solo, one-time Jedi inexorably doomed to make many of his grandfather's mistakes. He constantly rationalizes; he questions himself, but has all the answers. He fears his ambitions, so he tells himself he has none. He fears looking arrogant, so he does all he can to hide it from himself and others. And he makes conscious decisions to forgo the common framework for a New Morality, one that will restore Order and Peace to the galaxy, even if this New Morality allows for harming or killing others. The vernacular we have for this has a built-in reference: "Necessary Evils". The Necessary Evils have been perpetrated on humanity for the Common Good are exactly the Evils we question now as "necessary." Intentions are never valued in history, only the results. Intentions can only serve to show how far someone was willing to go to delude themselves to make the decision to be Evil, and to use those same tenets that Yoda warns of - Anger, Hatred, Fear...they coat the slippery slope of our own rationalizing minds.

Now, does this return of Evil mean his own Grandfather's redemption was meaningless? And what of the evil of the Vong? What did Anakin's story mean, then? What was the end result of Balance, if it did not, in fact, "Get Rid of Evil in the Universe"? And if Evil returns, then, for every generation, does every generation need a Chosen One?

Here's my thoughts. It would be easy to take the George's statement at face value - that restoring Balance destroyed Evil, and every day thereafter was sunny and bright, there was no malice, no disease, no war.... And I don't think for a second even George Lucas thinks that's possible. I think he wants to make a place where we believe it could be possible. But even that place, that fictional universe with impossible traits, full of people with amazing and fantastic powers and abilities, mimics our reality. And what that means is, somewhere, in the wood, even Space Meese get angry. Even Space Meese fear, and hate, and use aggression. The Dark Side continues -it can not be extracted from the fabric of existence. The universe is full of beings that must destroy others to survive. Evil, however....Evil is a decision to use those Dark Side powers for our own twisted ideas of advancement - the New Morality that employs "necessary evils" to achieve goals that are far from harmonious. And awareness of that Evil is a deterrent.

Just like we are now more aware of Evil than ever before, in the wake of our Hitlers, Stalins, Milosevic's, Husseins... we may also be just as inclined to make the same tired mistakes again, for the "common good." That does not mean Evil has the ear of open minds as it once did. And I believe it's the same for the GFFA. They've had their powerful reminders of the Evil that lurks in the hearts of ambitious beings. They remember all too well the Darkness of Vader, of Palpatine, of the New Order, of the Vong.

Notice, then, that since the Chosen One restored Balance to the Force, Evil does not hold sway as it once did. Once, Darth Sidious built an Empire on Evil. But it didn't stand. The Force fell no further into Darkness than its brief journey, and when Anakin's time came, it was righted again. Notice, also, that even since then, even as the Galaxy faced some of its most desperate hours long after the demise of Palpatine, Evil does not triumph. It might dominate for a time, but it's always beaten back.

Such is the nature of the GFFA, and hopefully our own real world - knowing Evil, we are able to defeat it. Not for all time, but every time. The heroes of our past have restored our own sense of Balance, our own harmonies. It is in this way, I think, that George Lucas was right, and his vision stands. The Chosen One did defeat the Power of Evil. Though Darkness will always lurk in everyone's heart, Evil will never again stand, it will no longer become the way of life for trillions as it did under the influence of the Sith. And that's the difference. What made it incumbent upon the Chosen One, and the Force itself, to restore Balance was the idea that the very fabric of living existence was being turned to Evil. Evil was no longer an external force, it was becoming the stuff of life itself. But not so after the Force itself was returned to its natural, harmonious state in which Darkness and Light coexist without the Sith's artificial leveraging of one over the other to achieve their goals. Because again, that's what Evil is - the decision to leverage the Darkness against the world. Anakin not only removed that influence, he brought it into the open, he revealed what powers defeat Evil from within- Compassion, Love, Honesty...these too exist in equal portions to the Darkness. These too will always be there to right the deepest wrongs.

In that way, I still believe The Chosen One achieved Balance for every generation. And every generation thereafter needs no other Chosen One. They only need to recognize Darkness for the threat that it is, and turn back the tide. The Force remains balanced, and Evil remains vanquished, though the Dark Side lives on. Where Evil once reigned, it languishes in termporary bids for domination, forever doomed to its own ephemeral nature, always presided upon to return to the ranks of the Balanced aspects of the Force.

And though the beings within the Force may not live happily ever after, who does? The point is, they live on, with an eye toward a more perfect harmony, and disdain for past evils. It's the Trying that maintains that Balance, if not always the Doing.

DM out