Midichlorians

[Prince Atom]

Just what the heck are midichlorians, anyway?

There are two possibilities:
1) They make their host Force-Sensitive.
2) They are attracted to Force-Sensitives.

In either case, the more midichlorians there are, the more powerful in the Force the person is.

If the first is true, then all you have to do to become a more powerful Jedi is to attract or grow more midichlorians. There's nothing special about Anakin's having tons of them unless no one knows how to increase the amount of midichlorians in the body.

So, either they're separate beings living in the host body, or they are a part of you, like a liver or a kidney, and their growth is controlled by your DNA. Either way they attune the host to the Force. The Force might connect all things, trees, rocks, sinking starfighters, but only those with midichlorians in them can control it.

If the second is true, then the midichlorians are no better than parasites, except that they are an indicator of Force power. IF they do not generate the Force, and IF they do not allow the host to use the Force, then why are they attracted to the Force? It can only be that they somehow need the Force. If they don't live off the Force, then what? They can only be parasites on the Jedi.

If they are parasites, do they reproduce? Does a Jedi eventually need to purge her body of the things? Or are they immortal, or somesuch, and do not reproduce? If they don't, there is only a finite number of them in existence, and so there can only be so many Force users. Fewer if they concentrate on people like Anakin and Luke.

Speculation?

TWK
"The Force may be my ally, but these stupid midichlorians sure do itch!"

 

[Neo]

Well in the Phantom Menace, they are described as being Micrscopic lifeforms, symbiotes living in unison with a host. they do indeed seem to affect how more powerful a force user is based on thier quantity. It is also shown that they are not organ based, but instead an organsim that dweels in the blood stream, as is shown by the fact Qui Gonn takes a blood sample from Anakin to determine his midichlorean count.

I rather imagine they work like biological capacitors which are capable of absorbing more of the living force which is energy after all and thus by thier being a great amount of energy available to use by the Jedi in question and allow there to be a greater variance in what can be achieved by the force by that person.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Speculation?

When I first saw these introduced, it shocked me. It seems that GL is trying to put science to his "Sci-Fi" movie.

It doesn't make much sense though... *shrug*

. There's nothing special about Anakin's having tons of them unless no one knows how to increase the amount of midichlorians in the body.

It certainly seems the Jedi council has no way to do so- they don't even seem to have a clear understanding why there are in some people, but not in others.

It would make a cool adventure for someone to be hunting Jedi to bleed them for their midi's.

FD

 

[Ranger REG]

The idea of having midichlorian as an indicator and level of the Force that embodies the host makes this mysterious power lose its mystique appeal of the audience who prefers GL's movies to be categorized (separate from science fiction) as space fantasy genre.

So far, we know that the micro-organism (energy-based?) is attracted to the Force-sensitive host, but it does not empower the host. If that is the case, anyone could just shoot some of them into our blood and become Force-sensitive.

 

[Neo]

The idea of having midichlorian as an indicator and level of the Force that embodies the host makes this mysterious power lose its mystique appeal of the audience who prefers GL's movies to be categorized (separate from science fiction) as space fantasy genre.

So far, we know that the micro-organism (energy-based?) is attracted to the Force-sensitive host, but it does not empower the host. If that is the case, anyone could just shoot some of them into our blood and become Force-sensitive.

shouldn;t be too big an issue as it's quite obvious the knowledge of what a midichlorean thier detection and how they work etc. is lost when the jedi are all but wiped out... as via the books and episodes 4,5 and 6 they are never mentioned or even hinted at. And i seem to recall in one of the books luke discovers the means of guaging whether an individual can use the force, and later a device which can detect force users... which is no doubt sensing and detecting midichloreans and that to luke is a new ability and new tech.

 

[Siridar]

It really doesn't seem like it's all that big a deal really. I think GL may have just "forgotten" about it completely as it wasn't mentioned or referenced once in Ep II.

I'm of two minds when it comes to MidiC's. On one hand I hate the idea of a scientific explanation given to a mystical concept. But on the other it's kinda neat to have an explanation as to how a Jedi can be gauged and tracked down.

Overall though, I'd rather GL would've left them out completely. But that's just me.

 

[Morgenstern]

My sense is that midichlorians -have- to be harmless symbionts attracted to or more easily reporducing inside those who are sensitive to the Force. I suggest they can't be the source of the Force, as the Force exists and can be influenced in areas far, far away from a planetary biosphere. No one has ever sugested there is "less Force" in space to my knowledge. Further, I don't think the can instill forces sensitivity, because they (like the suspiciouly similarly named mitocondrea) appear to be present in at least some quantity in every one, so if I were an evil planatary governor, what's to stop me from pulping a sizable portion of the populace and throwing the mess into a centerfuge to skim off pure power?

Likely they a a small 'sign' of ability or potential and a relatively unimportant marker at that, which was lost when the Jedi went into decline.

Far more amusing is why would the Jedi Council look forward to "one who shall bring balance to the Force" when there are 10,000 odd Jedi and only 2 Sith. 10,000. 2. Uh such a being would either have to revive the Sith order to a tremendous degree or kill an awful lot of Jedi...

Which Darth Vader does.

So successfully that there are only 2 Jedi (Obi-wan and Yoda) during the seconnd trilogy. Indeed, I'm now convince Obi-wan allows himself to be struck down by Vader for no other reason than to create a job opening for Luke as a Jedi...

My 2 (sith) cents.

 

[CWD]

I seem to remember reading an interview with Lucas (sorry, no citation) where he says he put the midichlorians in the movie because he didn't want people to think he was trying to create some kind of religion, so he offered a pseudo-scientific explanation for the Force. He implied that the midichlorians were responsible for force powers and not a mere side effect.

Not a well thought-out idea on his part. It makes about as much sense as Greedo shooting first and missing Han from 3 feet away or Luke screaming while falling down the shaft in Cloud City!

 

[Ranger REG]

I seem to remember reading an interview with Lucas (sorry, no citation) where he says he put the midichlorians in the movie because he didn't want people to think he was trying to create some kind of religion, so he offered a pseudo-scientific explanation for the Force.

Too late. Somebody have already tried to establish such an institution in England(?).

I sincerely hope that GL have already trademarked "Jedi."

 

[CWD]

Too late. Somebody have already tried to establish such an institution in England(?).

I sincerely hope that GL have already trademarked "Jedi."

I heard that some people in England wrote in "Jedi" on their census forms when asked for their religion, so the government decided to create a checkbox for it on the next census, but that's not the same as a "Church of the living Force". Did somone really try to create an institution? Anyone on the other side of the pond care to enlighten me?

Did this happen before "Phantom Menace" came out or after? If before, maybe GL was afraid he was turning into another L. Ron Hubbard!