OK, so this is not a new topic (e.g. http://forums.starwars.com/thread.jspa?threadID=8328 ), and I have posted on it myself multiple times (darned if I can't locate my earlier posts to cut-and-paste. But I would like to put all my thoughts together in one succinct paragraph or two.

Of course, this topic seems, from the vitriolic replies I have received to posts with this theme in the past, to be one of those subjects in which people have entrenched positions, refusing to allow the possibility that the other side may have some valid arguments. Sort of like abortion, or trickle-down economics.

But come on people - those are REAL issues that make a big difference in people's lives; this is Star Wars. Nothing is at stake, so relax. And please don't waste comment space with ad hominem replies. These are my opinions only. I'm as big an idiot as anyone else. My wife would probably tell you bigger...

The way I see it is this: Luke (or possibly the combination of Luke and Vader) is the Chosen One. And before the 'combination' thing gets anyone in a tizzy, there are numerous examples in history, myth and legend where the actions of several people are merged together into a mythical single character, so I see no reason why a vague prophecy might not be so fulfilled. Sci-fi/fantasy is also replete with heroes who would never have accomplished their deeds without the aid of one or several companions. Frodo and Sam (LOTR), Covenant and Foamfollower (Donaldson), Jen & Kira (Dark Crystal), and so on. Even more relevant is the Sinclair/Sheridan/Delenn triumvirate that is The One in Babylon 5.

Anakin's dream about Padme's death is a perfect example of how a prophecy can get some of the generalities right (Padme will indeed die at the same time as she gives birth) while being wrong in the details or in the assumptions interpreters of the prophecy make in reading it. Anakin ends up being responsible for her death because of his actions in trying to prevent it. [For any readers of good SF, of course, this is a bit of a problem with the screenplay because it represents a closed loop of causality, (unless Padme would have somehow died regardless). But I digress...]

OK, so to the beginning of the saga we go. In TPM, only Qui-gon believes Anakin is the Chosen one, and only for 2 reasons: 1.) he has a high midichlorian count; 2.) Shmi tells him (a total stranger) that there was no father.

1.) In the same way that "wars not make one great," there is nothing (as far as we know) that says that the strongest Force user will be the Chosen One. That belief of Qui-gon's is based on his interpretation that to effect 'bringing balance to the Force' will require an act of strength. This is a very male, traditional, and simplistic point of view. Fulfillment of prophecy in literature is rarely that straightforward, and is usually quite to the contrary. Think of the death of the Witch King of Angmar in LOTR - he might have feared facing Aragorn, but he certainly was not leery of a woman and a half-ling.

2.) The fact that no woman is likely to admit to a handsome, heroic stranger that she used to be a #### notwithstanding, there is no reason to believe Shmi's story even if she believes it to be true. I have also posted in the past on the topic that Palpatine might have been involved in Anakin's conception. Think about it - for a powerful Sith lord to find an unsuspecting slave in the Outer Rim whose family line was strong with the Force (a Sith lord whose Master was apparently able to influence the midichlorians to "create life" no less) and use technology to combine 2 lines of Force-strong genes, possibly even using some of his Master's knowledge to enhance the Force ability in the offspring, is easily possbile, and to me quite likely.

To me there are only 2 possibilities for Palpatine anyway: a.) he killed Plagueis before learning the secret (unlikely - he isn't a fool), and has been experimenting for decades in this very way to make himself a strong but controllable apprentice; b.) he didn't kill Plagueis until after he had learned the secret (much more likely), then does everything exactly as in a.), and he simply lies (shocking!!!) to Anakin about the details of how much he knows at first (at the opera) to lure him in without alarming him too much too soon, and then afterwards (after killing Mace) to keep him on the path to the Dark Side once he agrees to turn. If he had given away the secret before Anakin was more fully committed to the Dark Side by slaughtering a whole bunch of people, Anakin may have turned on him then and there and his plan would have been ruined. Just like at the dog track: they don't give the fake rabbit to the dogs, they keep it just out of reach to keep them running.

OK, so IMO Palpatine is quite likely to have been experimenting with trying to create the perfect apprentice (hence all the Frankenstein references in ROS). There were probably many women on the Rim with unexplained pregnancies. And he could easily have been holding the "Anakin. I am your father!" card as a last resort in case Anakin ever did turn on him, and just never got a chance to use it at the end because he thought Vader had sided with him until it was too late. Why would he kill his "grandson" you might ask? Well, he certainly was not one to form deep emotional attachments, and certainly the two of them together were a threat to his power. And of course, Luke had chosen to resist his will, and since he then had to choose between the son he knew well and the grandson he had never met before who wanted to kill him, easy choice.

OK, you now tell me: so maybe I buy your house of cards and accept that Palpatine was somehow involved in Anakin's conception - what does that have to do with Anakin being the Chosen One? Well, if you remember back to Page 1 of this novella, that invalidates Qui-gon's 2nd reason to believe Anakin is the Chosen One. So he is the only one in TPM that even believes this to be the case, and there are serious flaws with both of his 2 reasons for believing it. Not to mention the fact that Yoda's Force reading at the very end when Obi-Wan asks the Council to take Anakin as his Padawan results in "Skywalker your apprentice will be." Yeah...what was Luke's last name again? Deliberately vague.

Moving beyond TPM, Obi-Wan has of course come to believe Anakin to be the Chosen One as well. But this is based on his increasing awareness of Anakin's strength, his entirely human subconscious need to believe he has not been wasting the last decade and a half of his life, and, most of all, on his faith in Qui-gon having been right about Anakin in the first place. The Council, on the other hand, is still split on the issue according to the novelization, and right up to the end there is a lot of skepticism (Yoda & Mace in the transport).

So there is a lot of doubt whether Anakin is the Chosen One of the Prophesy. GL himself has been vague and never explicitly confirmed it. And honestly, I think all of us nerds have thought about it far more than GL ever has. Intentional vagueness that leaves a lot of interpretation up to the viewer/reader has always been a characteristinc of popular stories. One dogmatic, explicitly laid out answer will get you some fans, but if you make it 'mysterious' so that everyone thinks their interpretation could still be right, you get a lot more fans. Back to Donaldson again, one of the fundamental mysteries of the first Chronicles is whether the Land is real or not, and Donaldson goes to great lengths to preserve that mystery throughout (see his explanation on why Gilden-Fire was omitted from The Illearth War in the foreword to Daughter of Regals).

So what about what the prophecy supposedly says the Chosen One (whoever it is) is will DO. He/she/it will "bring balance to the Force". Also conveniently vague, and easy to "misread" as Yoda says in ROS. There has been a lot of debate on this in the forums, and the best argument against my position is the 2:2 argument - by killing all the Jedi but Obi-wan and Yoda, and by turning to the Dark Side himself, Anakin 'brings balance' to the Force by equaling the numbers. This is a good argument, and it is certainly very neat and straightforward.

My problems with it are that i.) the odds of there being NO other Jedi that survived in the entire galaxy seem pretty slim to me, and that ii.) from the point of view of the Force, which is presumably working on a galactic time scale, isn't this going to a whole lot of trouble to get this 'balance' for 20 human years, which is like a millisecond from the galaxy's point of view??? Seems like a lot of work for nothing. Or like part of the larger plan to REALLY bring balance to the Force. Like getting rid of the Sith, the power and control hungry abusers of the Force, for all time. So IMHO, the prophecy does indeed refer to the ending of the Sith, not simply the balancing of 2 and 2. Just not that Anakin is the Chosen One spoken of.

But Anakin is the one that kills the Emperor - you have just proved my point, you say. Not quite. Anakin kills the Emperor, yes. But imagine for a moment what would have happened if Luke had not been there. Business as usual. I believe Luke is the Chosen One because he brings about all the events that result in the elimination of the Sith. He declines to turn in ESB and rule the galaxy as a Sith. He slowly chips away at Vader's committment to the Emperor and the Dark Side by tapping into Vader's internal conflict. Luke causes Vader to choose to turn back to the light. To say that "yeah, but Vader actually was the one that did it" is like saying that the street drug dealer is the problem, and not the kingpin/importer/distributer. And while Vader certainly made the choice both ways, he was certainly seduced by Palpatine (which everyone will agree to) to the Dark Side, but also defeated and induced to turn back by Luke, without whom none of it would have happened.

In any event, that is my rationale for my belief that Luke, or a combination of Anakin & Luke together, is/are the Chosen One of the Prophecy of the Journal of the Whills.