George Lucas Already Explained True Balance In The Force 14 Years Ago

Balancing the Force is a big theme in Star Wars, and George Lucas has already explained what it means in a 14-year-old clip. The Force is the heart of the Star Wars movies and TV shows, as every person in the galaxy is connected to it, whether they realize it or not. It is both the result of life and what sustains life. This is why maintaining balance in the Force is so important to the Jedi Order, and why Jedi such as Qui-Gon Jinn placed so much hope and faith in the Chosen One prophecy.

Despite being central to the entire Skywalker saga, what exactly it means to balance the Force has been widely misunderstood. Many have gotten the impression – particularly from the Mortis gods arc in Star Wars: The Clone Wars – that the Force is balanced when the light and dark sides are equally controlled. In this view, the Force works similarly to the concept of yin and yang, with both light and dark simply being different, necessary aspects of its nature. However, George Lucas disagrees.

George Lucas Explained The Dark And Light Side Of The Force In 2010

The Dark Side Is A Perversion While The Light Side Is The True Force

In a clip from Star Wars: The Complete Saga that features a 2010 Star Wars: The Clone Wars writers’ room meeting, George Lucas explains the Force and what it means to balance it. According to Lucas, the dark side is necessarily a perversion. It is not a natural, necessary form of the Force but a warped imposition on it. Lucas goes in depth on why this is, and how it happens.

What happens when you go to the dark side is it goes out of balance, and then you get really selfish… when you get selfish, you get stuff. Or you want stuff and when you want stuff, and you get stuff, then you get afraid somebody’s going to take it away from you… Once you become afraid that somebody’s going to take it away from you, or you’re going to lose it, then you start to become angry… And that anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering…

What this means is that, according to Lucas, the light side is the true Force. The dark side is just what happens when broken people lose balance within the Force and give into selfishness and hate. Lucas further expanded on the thought, defining what the core of the Force truly is.

But the pleasure factor of greed and of selfishness is a short-lived experience. Therefore, you’re constantly trying to replenish it. But of course, the more you replenish it, the harder it is to, so you have to keep upping the ante…. So that is ultimately the core of the whole light side-dark side of the Force.

The Original & Prequel Trilogies Followed Lucas’ Vision Of The Force

The Dark Side Was Seen As Utter Imbalance In The Force

Both the original and prequel trilogies portrayed the dark side as imbalance and perversion. In the original trilogy, Luke was taught to reject the dark side by centering himself in the Force. Whenever Luke fights out of anger, he becomes aggressive and sloppy. In his final confrontation with Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi, Luke gets angry and attacks Vader viciously when he says that he will turn his sister, Princess Leia Organa, to the dark side. When Luke centers himself in the Force – when he restores balance within himself – he stops fighting and his anger and fear abate.

This principle is best demonstrated in the prequels through the character of Anakin Skywalker. Anakin gave himself over to fear and selfishness. He didn’t just want to love his wife, Senator Padmé Amidala; he wanted to possess her. This is why Anakin Force-choked her on Mustafar when he believed she had turned against him, even though he said that he turned to the dark side for her. Anakin’s fear of losing her and selfishness led to hatred and anger. He wanted to punish her for taking away what he wanted: her.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars also reflects this view of the dark side inherently coming from imbalance. When Obi-Wan gets angry while fighting Darth Maul, the former Sith taunts him by saying that his rage has unbalanced him. Whenever Anakin or any other character shows signs of the dark side, it is always depicted as a loss of control, even if the characters themselves don’t believe it to be. For example, Darth Maul’s single-minded hatred of Obi-Wan drives him to insanity.

This Explains Why Obi-Wan Believed Destroying The Sith Would Bring Balance

The Destruction Of The Sith Would Remove The Dark Side Influence

This explains Obi-Wan Kenobi’s final words to Anakin Skywalker before he left him to die on Mustafar. When Anakin lay burning on the lava bank, Obi-Wan shouts at him that, as the Chosen One, he was meant to destroy the Sith, not join them. “Destroy” is the key word here. Obi-Wan clearly thought that bringing true balance to the Force meant the destruction of the Sith Order and everything it stood for. This makes perfect sense given Lucas’ views on the nature of the dark side and the light side.

The Chosen One Prophecy Was Always About The Destruction Of The Sith

In Lucas’ eyes, the dark side is the imbalance in the Force that the Jedi hoped the Chosen One prophecy would end. The Chosen One prophecy was never about keeping the dark side and the light side in perfectly equal measures. It was always about eliminating the dark side and, therefore, the Sith. The balance Anakin was prophesied to bring was an end to selfishness, fear, and hatred.

This also explains why Star Wars frequently portrays the dark side as clouding Force-users’ senses, but never the light side. The light side is merely the natural flow of the Force. As such, it doesn’t conceal or obscure. However, the dark side is what happens when that natural flow is perverted by a person’s fear, hatred, selfishness, and anger. It makes complete sense that this kind of twisting of the natural balance and flow of the Force would cloud someone’s senses, like trying to see through fogged-up glass. The true Force balance in Star Wars, then, is solely the light – according to Lucas.

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Source: mranderson00001